Recursive calculation of curved finite element stiffness matrices (Q1063379)

A method is proposed for the evaluation of integrals that occur in the calculation of stiffness matrices when isoparametric or high order transformation bases are used on finite elements with curved sides. The propagation of errors in the initial values and the factors involved in the selection of a suitable recursion technique are discussed. The method yields accurate results on high precision computers even for those values of parameters for which numerical instability in the evaluation of analytic forms of integrals would normally necessitate the use of cubature techniques.