Finite element variational crimes in the case of semiregular elements (Q1363454)

The paper deals with numerical approximation of partial differential equations of strongly elliptic type on an annulus with mixed boundary conditions. The problem is solved by a nonconforming finite element method. The author investigates the effects of numerical integration and approximation of a curved boundary. The main technical problem here is associated with approximation of the Neumann boundary conditions. An analogue of the Strang lemma is derived. It is applied to estimate the discretization error by the interpolation error and numerical quadrature error. These errors are further bounded by means of a very weak condition on the maximum angle of the considered elements. Data are supposed to be regular only due to the use of numerical integration formulae. The rate of convergence \(\mathcal {O} (h)\) in the norm of the Sobolev space \(H^1\) is proved for triangular and quadrilateral finite elements.