Finite Element Analysis. Barna Szabó
S Superscript p Super Subscript k Baseline left-parenthesis upper I Subscript st Baseline right-parenthesis"/> indicates that on element Ik the function
The finite element test space, denoted by
The process by which the number of degrees of freedom is progressively increased by mesh refinement, with the polynomial degree fixed, is called h‐extension and its implementation the h‐version of the finite element method. The process by which the number of degrees of freedom is progressively increased by increasing the polynomial degree of elements, while keeping the mesh fixed, is called p‐extension and its implementation the p‐version of the finite element method. The process by which the number of degrees of freedom is progressively increased by concurrently refining the mesh and increasing the polynomial degrees of elements is called hp‐extension and its implementation the hp‐version of the finite element method.
Remark 1.4 It will be explained in Chapter 5 that the separate naming of the h, p and hp versions is related to the evolution of the finite element method rather than its theoretical foundations.
1.3.3 Computation of the coefficient matrices
The coefficient matrices are computed element by element. The numbering of the coefficients is based on the numbering of the standard shape functions, the indices range from 1 through
Computation of the stiffness matrix
The first term of the bilinear form in eq. (1.43) is computed as a sum of integrals over the elements
We will be concerned with the evaluation of the integral on the kth element:
The shape functions Ni are defined on the standard domain
(1.63)
where
Therefore
We define
(1.64)
and write
(1.65)