Poisson equation (C++)

This demo illustrates how to:

  • Solve a linear partial differential equation
  • Create and apply Dirichlet boundary conditions
  • Define Expressions
  • Define a FunctionSpace
  • Create a SubDomain

The solution for \(u\) in this demo will look as follows:

demos/poisson/cpp/../poisson_u.png

Equation and problem definition

The Poisson equation is the canonical elliptic partial differential equation. For a domain \(\Omega \subset \mathbb{R}^n\) with boundary \(\partial \Omega = \Gamma_{D} \cup \Gamma_{N}\), the Poisson equation with particular boundary conditions reads:

\[\begin{split}- \nabla^{2} u &= f \quad {\rm in} \ \Omega, \\ u &= 0 \quad {\rm on} \ \Gamma_{D}, \\ \nabla u \cdot n &= g \quad {\rm on} \ \Gamma_{N}. \\\end{split}\]

Here, \(f\) and \(g\) are input data and \(n\) denotes the outward directed boundary normal. The most standard variational form of Poisson equation reads: find \(u \in V\) such that

\[a(u, v) = L(v) \quad \forall \ v \in V,\]

where \(V\) is a suitable function space and

\[\begin{split}a(u, v) &= \int_{\Omega} \nabla u \cdot \nabla v \, {\rm d} x, \\ L(v) &= \int_{\Omega} f v \, {\rm d} x + \int_{\Gamma_{N}} g v \, {\rm d} s.\end{split}\]

The expression \(a(u, v)\) is the bilinear form and \(L(v)\) is the linear form. It is assumed that all functions in \(V\) satisfy the Dirichlet boundary conditions (\(u = 0 \ {\rm on} \ \Gamma_{D}\)).

In this demo, we shall consider the following definitions of the input functions, the domain, and the boundaries:

  • \(\Omega = [0,1] \times [0,1]\) (a unit square)
  • \(\Gamma_{D} = \{(0, y) \cup (1, y) \subset \partial \Omega\}\) (Dirichlet boundary)
  • \(\Gamma_{N} = \{(x, 0) \cup (x, 1) \subset \partial \Omega\}\) (Neumann boundary)
  • \(g = \sin(5x)\) (normal derivative)
  • \(f = 10\exp(-((x - 0.5)^2 + (y - 0.5)^2) / 0.02)\) (source term)

Implementation

The implementation is split in two files: a form file containing the definition of the variational forms expressed in UFL and a C++ file containing the actual solver.

Running this demo requires the files: main.cpp, Poisson.ufl and CMakeLists.txt.

UFL form file

The UFL file is implemented in Poisson.ufl, and the explanation of the UFL file can be found at here.

C++ program

The main solver is implemented in the main.cpp file.

At the top we include the DOLFIN header file and the generated header file “Poisson.h” containing the variational forms for the Poisson equation. For convenience we also include the DOLFIN namespace.

#include <dolfin.h>
#include "Poisson.h"

using namespace dolfin;

Then follows the definition of the coefficient functions (for \(f\) and \(g\)), which are derived from the Expression class in DOLFIN

// Source term (right-hand side)
class Source : public Expression
{
  void eval(Array<double>& values, const Array<double>& x) const
  {
    double dx = x[0] - 0.5;
    double dy = x[1] - 0.5;
    values[0] = 10*exp(-(dx*dx + dy*dy) / 0.02);
  }
};

// Normal derivative (Neumann boundary condition)
class dUdN : public Expression
{
  void eval(Array<double>& values, const Array<double>& x) const
  {
    values[0] = sin(5*x[0]);
  }
};

The DirichletBoundary is derived from the SubDomain class and defines the part of the boundary to which the Dirichlet boundary condition should be applied.

// Sub domain for Dirichlet boundary condition
class DirichletBoundary : public SubDomain
{
  bool inside(const Array<double>& x, bool on_boundary) const
  {
    return x[0] < DOLFIN_EPS or x[0] > 1.0 - DOLFIN_EPS;
  }
};

Inside the main function, we begin by defining a mesh of the domain. As the unit square is a very standard domain, we can use a built-in mesh provided by the UnitSquareMesh factory. In order to create a mesh consisting of 32 x 32 squares with each square divided into two triangles, and the finite element space (specified in the form file) defined relative to this mesh, we do as follows

int main()
{
  // Create mesh and function space
  auto mesh = std::make_shared<Mesh>(
    UnitSquareMesh::create({{32, 32}}, CellType::Type::triangle));
  auto V = std::make_shared<Poisson::FunctionSpace>(mesh);

Now, the Dirichlet boundary condition (\(u = 0\)) can be created using the class DirichletBC. A DirichletBC takes three arguments: the function space the boundary condition applies to, the value of the boundary condition, and the part of the boundary on which the condition applies. In our example, the function space is V, the value of the boundary condition (0.0) can represented using a Constant, and the Dirichlet boundary is defined by the class DirichletBoundary listed above. The definition of the Dirichlet boundary condition then looks as follows:

// Define boundary condition
auto u0 = std::make_shared<Constant>(0.0);
auto boundary = std::make_shared<DirichletBoundary>();
DirichletBC bc(V, u0, boundary);

Next, we define the variational formulation by initializing the bilinear and linear forms (\(a\), \(L\)) using the previously defined FunctionSpace V. Then we can create the source and boundary flux term (\(f\), \(g\)) and attach these to the linear form.

// Define variational forms
Poisson::BilinearForm a(V, V);
Poisson::LinearForm L(V);
auto f = std::make_shared<Source>();
auto g = std::make_shared<dUdN>();
L.f = f;
L.g = g;

Now, we have specified the variational forms and can consider the solution of the variational problem. First, we need to define a Function u to store the solution. (Upon initialization, it is simply set to the zero function.) Next, we can call the solve function with the arguments a == L, u and bc as follows:

// Compute solution
Function u(V);
solve(a == L, u, bc);

The function u will be modified during the call to solve. A Function can be saved to a file. Here, we output the solution to a VTK file (specified using the suffix .pvd) for visualisation in an external program such as Paraview.

  // Save solution in VTK format
  File file("poisson.pvd");
  file << u;

  return 0;
}