Interpolated Galerkin Finite Elements on Rectangular and Cuboid Meshes for the Biharmonic Equation

doi:10.1007/s42967-024-00473-z

Abstract

Abstract: A new Galerkin finite element for the biharmonic equation is constructed on 2D rectangular and 3D cuboid meshes. In this \begin{document}$ C^1 $\end{document}-\begin{document}$ Q_k $\end{document} (\begin{document}$ k\geqslant 4 $\end{document}) interpolated Galerkin finite element construction, all unknowns associated with the interior of each element are determined by the direct interpolation of the right-hand-side function, and the rest of the unknowns, associated with the boundary of each element, are determined by solving the remaining linear equations of the Galerkin projection. In comparison with the traditional finite element method in two dimensions, our method reduces the number of unknowns from \begin{document}$ O(k^2) $\end{document} to O(k). Additionally, the method reduces the condition number drastically as it requires only 1% of the computer time, compared with the standard finite elements, in several numerical tests. We prove the existence and uniqueness of the solution and the optimal order of convergence. We confirm the theory by numerical tests in two dimensions and three dimensions.

Key words: Finite element, Interpolated finite element, Rectangular grid, Biharmonic equation, Tensor product

CLC Number:

Mengjiao Pan, Tatyana Sorokina, Shangyou Zhang. Interpolated Galerkin Finite Elements on Rectangular and Cuboid Meshes for the Biharmonic Equation[J]. Communications on Applied Mathematics and Computation, 2026, 8(2): 765-777.

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References

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