Approximation of problems in elasticity and electromagnetics

Monique Dauge

The approximation of solutions of elliptic problems such as Laplace or Lamé problems in non-smooth domains (polygons or polyhedra) is considerably improved by some a priori adaptation to the geometrical singularities of the domain. Such adaptation can be the use of anisotropically refined meshes, in the framework of both the h and the hp version of finite elements.

For the computation of electromagnetic fields solution of Maxwell equation, such a refinement strategy may be ineffective or, even, misleading. In order to work efficiently, one has to combine such a mesh design with a particular strategy:
(1) Either the introduction of special families of elements (the edge elements)
(2) Or the definition of a special regularization procedure by a divergence part adapted to the geometry of the domain (the regularization with weight).

The former method is classical now, but its full interaction with anisotropic elements was recently studied [1]. The later method is newer [2] and applies to polygonal domains as well as to polyhedral domains. It allows the use standard finite elements for the approximation of the solution. When the $hp$ version of finite elements is used, we prove the exponential convergence under quite general assumptions on the design of the finite element spaces [3].

[1] A. BUFFA, M. COSTABEL, M. DAUGE.
Algebraic convergence for anisotropic edge elements in polyhedral domains.
[2] M. COSTABEL, M. DAUGE.
Weighted regularization of Maxwell equations in polyhedral domains. Numer. Math. 93 (2002), pp.~239--277.
[3] M. COSTABEL, M. DAUGE, C. SCHWAB.
Exponential Convergence of the $hp$-FEM for the Weighted Regularization of Maxwell Equations in Polygonal Domains. To appear soon on the web.

Slides of lectures given in Bad Honnef, Germany, (Sept. 2003) and Tbilisi, Georgia (Oct. 2003)

The file is located on the homepage of the 303. WE-Heraeus-Seminar on

Adaptivity in Finite Element Analysis: Models, Meshes and Polynomial Order