A uniform finite element method for a conservative singularly perturbed problem (Q1092629)

The authors consider the numerical solution of the problem \(\epsilon (pu')'+(qu)'-ru=f\) on (0,1), \(u(0)=u_ 0\), \(u(1)=u_ 1\), \(\epsilon\in (0,1]\) where p, q, r and f lie in \(C^ 2[0,1]\) and where \(p>0\), \(q>0\) and \(r\geq 0\). It is shown that the problem has a unique solution, with a boundary layer for \(\epsilon\) small. Finite elements are used to obtain a tridiagonal difference scheme on a mesh of constant width. This scheme is uniformly second order accurate on the mesh points and uniformly first order accurate on [0,1].