Evolving surface finite element method for the Cahn-Hilliard equation

Abstract

We use the evolving surface finite element method to solve a Cahn- Hilliard equation on an evolving surface with prescribed velocity. We start by deriving the equation using a conservation law and appropriate transport for- mulae and provide the necessary functional analytic setting. The finite element method relies on evolving an initial triangulation by moving the nodes accord- ing to the prescribed velocity. We go on to show a rigorous well-posedness result for the continuous equations by showing convergence, along a subse- quence, of the finite element scheme. We conclude the paper by deriving error estimates and present various numerical examples.