We consider elliptic diffusion problems with a random anisotropic diffusion coefficient, where, in a notable direction given by a random vector field, the diffusion strength differs from the diffusion strength perpendicular to this notable direction. The Karhunen-Loève expansion then yields a parametrisation of the random vector field and, therefore, also of the solution of the elliptic diffusion problem. We show that, given regularity of the elliptic diffusion problem, the decay of the Karhunen-Loève expansion entirely determines the regularity of the solution's dependence on the random parameter, also when considering this higher spatial regularity. This result then implies that multilevel collocation and multilevel quadrature methods may be used to lessen the computation complexity when approximating quantities of interest, like the solution's mean or its second moment, while still yielding the expected rates of convergence. Numerical examples in three spatial dimensions are provided to validate the presented theory.2010 Mathematics Subject Classification. Primary 35R60, 65N30, 60H35.

Abstract. In this article, we consider elliptic diffusion problems with an anisotropic random diffusion coefficient. We model the notable direction in terms of a random vector field and derive regularity results for the solution's dependence on the random parameter. It turns out that the decay of the vector field's Karhunen-Loève expansion entirely determines this regularity. The obtained results allow for sophisticated quadrature methods, such as the quasi-Monte Carlo method or the anisotropic sparse grid quadrature, in order to approximate quantities of interest, like the solution's mean or the variance. Numerical examples in three spatial dimensions are provided to supplement the presented theory.

Elliptic boundary value problems which are posed on a random domain can be mapped to a fixed, nominal domain. The randomness is thus transferred to the diffusion matrix and the loading. While this domain mapping method is quite efficient for theory and practice, since only a single domain discretisation is needed, it also requires the knowledge of the domain mapping. However, in certain applications, the random domain is only described by its random boundary, while the quantity of interest is defined on a fixed, deterministic subdomain. In this setting, it thus becomes necessary to compute a random domain mapping on the whole domain, such that the domain mapping is the identity on the fixed subdomain and maps the boundary of the chosen fixed, nominal domain on to the random boundary. To overcome the necessity of computing such a mapping, we therefore couple the finite element method on the fixed subdomain with the boundary element method on the random boundary. We verify on one hand the regularity of the solution with respect to the random domain mapping required for many multilevel quadrature methods, such as the multilevel quasi-Monte Carlo quadrature using Halton points, the multilevel sparse anisotropic Gauss–Legendre and Clenshaw–Curtis quadratures and multilevel interlaced polynomial lattice rules. On the other hand, we derive the coupling formulation and show by numerical results that the approach is feasible.

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