CSAR Noon Seminar

Jonathan Shewchuk, University of California at Berkeley

DATE: Wednesday, September 24, 2003
TIME: 12:00 Noon
PLACE: 2240 DCL
1304 W. Springfield Ave., Urbana, IL

TITLE: What is a Good Linear Finite Element?
Interpolation, Conditioning, Anisotropy, and Quality Measures

ABSTRACT

I present new bounds on interpolation errors over linear triangular and tetrahedral elements, including bounds for cases where the function being interpolated has anisotropic curvature. I also discuss the relationship between element shape and stiffness matrix conditioning, for isotropic and anisotropic PDEs. From these relationships I develop element quality measures suitable for use in numerical or combinatorial optimization of meshes, to help reduce the interpolation error or condition number. Some surprising conclusions about anisotropy (and the large angle condition) follow from these results.