ERROR ANALYSIS OF FINITE ELEMENT APPROXIMATION OF A STEFAN PROBLEM WITH NONLINEAR FREE BOUNDARY CONDITION

By applying the Landau-type transformation, we transform a Stefan problem with nonlinear free boundary condition into a system consisting of a parabolic equation and the ordinary differential equations. Fully discrete finite element method is developed to approximate the solution of a system of a parabolic equation and the ordinary differential equations. We derive optimal orders of convergence of fully discrete approximations in $L_2,\;H^1$ and $H^2$ normed spaces.