Energy-Dissipative, High-Order BDF Schemes for Simulating Geometric Flows via Energy Increments

Abstract

We propose energy-dissipative backward differentiation formula (BDF) methods for geometric flows in the Barrett--Garcke--Nürnberg (BGN) parametric finite element framework. Starting from a Lagrange-multiplier formulation, we replace the multistep approximation of the energy derivative by an energy-increment equation while retaining the BDF geometric equations. The Simpson quadrature and two interleaved time grids provide third- and fourth-order constructions. The positive quadrature weights ensure stepwise decay of the original discrete geometric energy for every nondegenerate solution of the nonlinear system. We establish an explicit conditional consistency bound for the scalar energy equation and a regularity criterion for the Newton system of curve-shortening flows. Then, the proposed schemes extend to simulating curve diffusion, mean curvature flow, and surface diffusion. Finally, numerical experiments demonstrate geometric accuracy, energy decay, good mesh distribution, and high performance of the proposed schemes.