### 1. Boundary layer example

By default, Chebfun solves BVPs with global grids -- Chebyshev collocation spectral methods -- and this generally works well even for problems with rapidly varying solutions. Trouble appears, however, when the variations are very rapid. For example, following the example ode-linear/BoundaryLayer, here are solutions to the linear advection-diffusion equation $$-\varepsilon u'' - u' = 1,\qquad u(0) = u(1) = 0 ,$$ with $\varepsilon = 10^{-1}, 10^{-2},\dots, 10^{-5}$.

dom = [0,1];
L = @(ep) chebop(@(x,u) -ep*diff(u,2) - diff(u),dom,'dirichlet');
LW = 'linewidth'; lw = 1.6; FS = 'fontsize'; MS = 'markersize';
headings = '        ep      pos(max(u))    length(u)    time (secs.) ';
fs = '%12.1e %14.9f %9d %14.2f\n';
for ep = 10.^(-1:-1:-5)
tic, u = L(ep)\1; t = toc;
[val,pos] = max(u);
fprintf(fs, ep, pos, length(u), t)
plot(u,'b',LW,lw), hold on
end
grid on, axis([-0.03 1 0 1.03]), hold off
title('Boundary layers for \epsilon = 1e-1, 1e-2,..., 1e-5',FS,12)
        ep      pos(max(u))    length(u)    time (secs.)
1.0e-01    0.230263049        23           2.21
1.0e-02    0.046051702        59           0.17
1.0e-03    0.006907755       170           0.22
1.0e-04    0.000921034       488           0.73
1.0e-05    0.000115129      1495           7.81


The lengths and timings are excellent for the first three values of $\varepsilon$ and not so bad for $\varepsilon = 10^{-4}$, but for $\varepsilon = 10^{-5}$, we need a grid with thousands of points and the method cannot be regarded as satisfactory. (This boundary layer is of width $O(\varepsilon)$, but because of the quadratic clustering of Chebyshev grids at boundaries, the length of the chebfuns only grows like $O(\varepsilon^{-1/2})$.)

There is a standard method used in scientific computing for such problems, adaptive grid refinement, but Chebfun does not have such a capability at present. For many problems, however, it is remarkable what one can achieve by a method we might regard as "poor man's grid refinement": simply add a Chebfun breakpoint or two near the region of rapid change. To make this happen, it is enough to define the domain of the chebop by a vector of three or more points in order, i.e., the endpoints of an interval plus one or more points in the interior. For example, one might pass to the chebop constructor the domain vector dom = [0 0.01 1] rather than simply dom = [0 1].

If an ODE BVP is solved on a domain with breakpoints, separate Chebyshev grids are used on subintervals, and that may provide a more efficient representation of the solution, which will then be a chebfun with several pieces, i.e., several "funs". For a discussion of some of the mathematics, see [1].

This is a non-adaptive, a priori approach. It cannot cope with a full range of problems, but it can do very well with many of them. For example, here is the same problem as before with a single breakpoint introduced at $x_b = 40\varepsilon$. Just one curve is plotted, the one with $\varepsilon = 10^{-3}$.

dom = @(ep) [0 min(0.5,40*ep) 1];
L = @(ep) chebop(@(x,u) -ep*diff(u,2) - diff(u),dom(ep),'dirichlet');
for ep = 10.^(-1:-1:-8)
tic, u = L(ep)\1; t = toc;
fprintf(fs, ep, pos, length(u), t)
[val,pos] = max(u);
if ep == 1e-3
plot(u,'b',LW,lw), hold on
breakpoint = u.ends(2);
plot(breakpoint,u(breakpoint),'.r',MS,24)
end
end
grid on, axis([-0.03 1 0 1.03]), hold off
title('The same computed with a breakpoint, \epsilon = 1e-3',FS,12)
        ep      pos(max(u))    length(u)    time (secs.)
1.0e-01    0.000115129        34           0.24
1.0e-02    0.230263049        41           0.21
1.0e-03    0.046051702        41           0.21
1.0e-04    0.006907755        41           0.30
1.0e-05    0.000921034        41           0.26
1.0e-06    0.000115129        41           0.22
1.0e-07    0.000013816        41           0.27
1.0e-08    0.000001612        41           1.93


Quite an amazing improvement! Notice that the breakpoint at $x_b = 40 \varepsilon$ is well out of the boundary layer. The reason for this choice is that the purpose of the breakpoint is not to optimize the representation of $u$ within the small region $[0, x_b]$, where a reasonable number of gridpoints will be required in any case, but rather to ensure that $u$ has no significant structure on a small length scale in the big interval $[x_b,1]$. In fact, the second piece of each chebfun constructed above, the representation of $u$ on $[x_b ,1]$, is just of length 2, i.e., a linear polynomial:

u
u =
chebfun column (2 smooth pieces)
interval       length     endpoint values
[       0,   4e-07]       39     3e-15        1
[   4e-07,       1]        2         1  1.8e-12
vertical scale =   1    Total length = 41


### 2. Interior layer example

As our second example, we consider a linear problem with an interior layer: $$\varepsilon u'' + xu' + xu = 0, \quad x \in [-2,2], ~ y(-2) = -4, y(2) = 2 .$$ This has an interior layer of width $O(\sqrt{\varepsilon}\kern 1pt)$ at $x=0$, which we can expect to challenge Chebfun as much as in the previous example, since the layer is thicker but the grid is no longer clustered. An experiment confirms this prediction:

dom = [-2,2];
L = @(ep) chebop(@(x,u) ep*diff(u,2)+x*diff(u)+x*u,dom,-4,2);
for ep = 10.^(-1:-1:-4)
tic, u = L(ep)\0; t = toc;
[val,pos] = max(u);
fprintf(fs, ep, pos, length(u), t)
plot(u,'m',LW,lw), hold on
end
grid on, axis([-2 2 -6 17]), hold off
title('Interior layers for \epsilon = 1e-1, 1e-2,..., 1e-4',FS,12)
        ep      pos(max(u))    length(u)    time (secs.)
1.0e-01    0.456331114        57           0.28
1.0e-02    0.188033044       154           0.29
1.0e-03    0.073657588       460           0.88
1.0e-04    0.027481095      1398           8.73


Inserting breakpoints on either side of $x=0$ improves matters greatly. Again we plot just one of the curves, the one with $\varepsilon = 10^{-4}$.

dom = @(ep) [-2 -min(.5,10*sqrt(ep)) min(.5,10*sqrt(ep)) 2];
L = @(ep) chebop(@(x,u) ep*diff(u,2)+x*diff(u)+x*u,dom(ep),-4,2);
for ep = 10.^(-1:-1:-8)
tic, u = L(ep)\0; t = toc;
[val,pos] = max(u);
fprintf(fs, ep, pos, length(u), t)
if ep == 1e-4
plot(u,'m',LW,lw), hold on
breakpoints = u.ends(2:3);
plot(breakpoints,u(breakpoints),'.k',MS,24)
end
end
grid on, axis([-2 2 -6 17]), hold off
title('The same computed with two breakpoints \epsilon = 1e-4',FS,12)
        ep      pos(max(u))    length(u)    time (secs.)
1.0e-01    0.456331114        76           0.38
1.0e-02    0.188033044       114           0.35
1.0e-03    0.073657588       136           0.45
1.0e-04    0.027481095       164           0.47
1.0e-05    0.009892469       195           0.66
1.0e-06    0.003473237       117           0.61
1.0e-07    0.001198204       188           0.54
1.0e-08    0.000408122       101           0.56


Here we see the sizes of the three pieces:

u
u =
chebfun column (3 smooth pieces)
interval       length     endpoint values
[      -2,  -0.001]       11        -4    -0.54
[  -0.001,   0.001]       80     -0.54       15
[   0.001,       2]       10        15        2
vertical scale =  15    Total length = 101


### 3. A nonlinear example

"Poor man's mesh refinement" is not restricted to linear problems. For a nonlinear problem with an interior layer, one may not know the location of an interior layer a priori, but an approximation may be enough for the method to work. For example, here is a nonlinear problem with an interior layer adapted from one of the chebgui demos: $$0.005u'' + uu' = u, \quad u(0) = -7/6, ~ u(1) = 3/2.$$ A global solution succeeds, but very slowly, for big matrices are involved:

N = chebop(@(u) 0.005*diff(u,2) + u*diff(u) - u, [0 1]);
N.lbc = -7/6; N.rbc = 3/2;
tic, u = N\0, t = toc;
plot(u), grid on
title(['Nonlinear problem: time ' num2str(t) ' secs'],FS,12)
u =
chebfun column (1 smooth piece)
interval       length     endpoint values
[       0,       1]      760      -1.2      1.5
vertical scale = 1.5


The transition occurs at about $x=1/3$, and if we put a single breakpoint there, the computations becomes five times faster.

N = chebop(@(u) 0.005*diff(u,2) + u*diff(u) - u, [0 1/3 1]);
N.lbc = -7/6; N.rbc = 3/2;
tic, u = N\0, t = toc
plot(u), grid on
title(['Same but with one breakpoint: time ' num2str(t) ' secs'],FS,12)
breakpoint = u.ends(2); hold on
plot(breakpoint,u(breakpoint),'.r',MS,24), hold off
u =
chebfun column (2 smooth pieces)
interval       length     endpoint values
[       0,    0.33]       96      -1.2 -3.7e-09
[    0.33,       1]      131  -3.7e-09      1.5
vertical scale = 1.5    Total length = 227
t =
9.008673999999999


Note that the matrix size is now a good smaller, which is the main reason for the speedup.

With two breakpoints, for this particular example, not much changes.

N = chebop(@(u) 0.005*diff(u,2) + u*diff(u) - u, [0 .30 .36 1]);
N.lbc = -7/6; N.rbc = 3/2;
tic, u = N\0, t = toc
plot(u), grid on
title(['Same but with two breakpoints: time ' num2str(t) ' secs'],FS,12)
breakpoints = u.ends(2:3); hold on
plot(breakpoints,u(breakpoints),'.r',MS,24), hold off
u =
chebfun column (3 smooth pieces)
interval       length     endpoint values
[       0,     0.3]       45      -1.2    -0.86
[     0.3,    0.36]       53     -0.86     0.84
[    0.36,       1]       73      0.84      1.5
vertical scale = 1.5    Total length = 171
t =
11.105658000000000


As the illustrations of this Example probably make clear, inserting breakpoints is bit of an art, and some experimentation is generally worthwhile.

### 4. Reference

[1] T. A. Driscoll and J. A. C. Weideman, Optimal domain splitting for interpolation by Chebyshev polynomials, SIAM J. Numer. Anal. 52 (2014), 1913-1927.