Error Estimates for First- and Second-Order Lagrange–Galerkin Moving Mesh Schemes for the One-Dimensional Convection–Diffusion Equation

Abstract A new moving mesh scheme based on the Lagrange–Galerkin method for the approximation of the one-dimensional convection–diffusion equation is studied. The mesh movement is prescribed by a discretized dynamical system for the nodal points. This system is related to the velocity and diffusion coefficient in the convection–diffusion equation such that the nodal points follow the convective flow of the model. It is shown that under a restriction of the time step size the mesh movement cannot lead to an overlap of the elements and therefore an invalid mesh. Using a piecewise linear approximation, optimal error estimates in the $$\ell ^\infty (L^2) \cap \ell ^2(H_0^1)$$ <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:mrow> <mml:msup> <mml:mi>ℓ</mml:mi> <mml:mi>∞</mml:mi> </mml:msup> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>(</mml:mo> <mml:msup> <mml:mi>L</mml:mi> <mml:mn>2</mml:mn> </mml:msup> <mml:mo>)</mml:mo> </mml:mrow> <mml:mo>∩</mml:mo> <mml:msup> <mml:mi>ℓ</mml:mi> <mml:mn>2</mml:mn> </mml:msup> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>(</mml:mo> <mml:msubsup> <mml:mi>H</mml:mi> <mml:mn>0</mml:mn> <mml:mn>1</mml:mn> </mml:msubsup> <mml:mo>)</mml:mo> </mml:mrow> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> norm are proved in case of both, a first-order backward Euler method and a second-order two-step method in time. These results are based on new estimates of the time dependent interpolation operator derived in this work. Preservation of the total mass is verified for both choices of the time discretization. Numerical experiments are presented that confirm the error estimates and demonstrate that the proposed moving mesh scheme can circumvent limitations that the Lagrange–Galerkin method on a fixed mesh exhibits.