eXtended Hybridizable Discontinuous Galerkin with Heaviside Enrichment for Heat Bimaterial Problems

A novel strategy for the Hybridizable Discontinuous Galerkin (HDG) solution of heat bimaterial problems is proposed. It is based on eXtended Finite Element philosophy, together with a level set description of interfaces. Heaviside enrichment on cut elements and cut faces is used to represent discontinuities across the interface. A suitable weak form for the HDG local problem on cut elements is derived, accounting for the discontinuous enriched approximation, and weakly imposing continuity or jump conditions over the material interface. The computational mesh is not required to fit the interface, simplifying and reducing the cost of mesh generation and, in particular, avoiding continuous remeshing for evolving interfaces. Numerical experiments demonstrate that X-HDG keeps the accuracy of standard HDG methods in terms of optimal convergence and superconvergence.