The Virtual Element Method for solving elliptic problems in two dimensions using python

The Virtual Element Method for solving elliptic problems in two dimensions by python

The Virtual Element Method (VEM) is a numerical technique used to solve partial differential equations (PDEs) on general polygonal or polyhedral meshes. In this tutorial, we will focus on using the VEM to solve elliptic problems in two dimensions using Python.

Before we get started, let’s make sure that you have the necessary software and libraries installed on your computer. You will need to have Python 3.x installed, as well as the following libraries:

NumPy: a library for numerical computing in Python
Matplotlib: a library for creating visualizations in Python
SciPy: a library for scientific computing in Python
Vem: a library for implementing the Virtual Element Method in Python

To install these libraries, you can use the following commands in your command prompt or terminal:

pip install numpy
pip install matplotlib
pip install scipy
pip install vem

Now that you have the necessary software and libraries installed, let’s begin by importing them into our Python script:

import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
from scipy.sparse import coo_matrix
from scipy.sparse.linalg import spsolve
import vem

We will use the following elliptic problem as an example:

$$-\Delta u=f$$
$$u{|}_{\partial \Omega }=g$$
where f and g are given functions, and $\Omega$ is a polygonal domain in two dimensions. We will assume that the domain is given as a list of vertices, where each vertex is a pair of coordinates.

vertices = np.array([[0, 0], [1, 0], [1, 1], [0, 1]])

Next, we will create a mesh of the domain using the vem.mesh function from the vem library. This function takes in the list of vertices and an integer N which determines the number of subdivisions to make along each edge of the polygon.

N = 10
mesh = vem.mesh(vertices, N)

We can visualize the mesh using the vem.plot_mesh function from the vem library.

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vem.plot_mesh(mesh)
plt.show()

This will create a plot of the mesh.

Next, we will define the right-hand side function f and the boundary condition function g. For this example, we will use the following functions:

def f(x, y):
    return 2 * np.pi**2 * np.sin(np.pi * x) * np.sin(np.pi * y)

def g(x, y):
    return np.sin(np.pi * x) * np.sin(np.pi * y)

Now, we will assemble the stiffness matrix A and the load vector b using the vem.assemble function from the vem library. This function takes in the mesh, the degree of the VEM basis functions §, the right-hand side function f, and the boundary condition function g.

p = 1
A, b = vem.assemble(mesh, p, f, g)

We can solve the linear system $Au=b$ using the spsolve function from the scipy.sparse.linalg library.

u = spsolve(A, b)

Finally, we can visualize the solution using the vem.plot_solution function from the vem library.

vem.plot_solution(mesh, u)
plt.show()

This will create a plot of the solution.

Putting it all together, the complete Python script for solving the ellipt