An algorithm for prescribed mean curvature using isogeometric methods

Abstract

We present a Newton type algorithm to find parametric surfaces of prescribed mean curvature with a fixed given boundary. In particular, it applies to the problem of minimal surfaces. The algorithm relies on some global regularity of the spaces where it is posed, which is naturally fitted for discretization with isogeometric type of spaces. We introduce a discretization of the continuous algorithm and present a simple implementation using the recently released isogeometric software library igatools. Finally, we show several numerical experiments which highlight the convergence properties of the scheme.