Two-grid methods for characteristic finite volume element solution of semilinear convection–diffusion equations

Two-grid methods for characteristic finite volume element solutions are presented for a kind of semilinear convection-dominated diffusion equations. The methods are based on the method of characteristics, two-grid method and the finite volume element method. The nonsymmetric and nonlinear iterations are only executed on the coarse grid (with grid size H). And the fine-grid solution (with grid size h) can be obtained by a single symmetric and linear step. It is proved that the coarse grid can be much coarser than the fine grid. The two-grid methods achieve asymptotically optimal approximation as long as the mesh sizes satisfy H = O(h1/3).