A novel exponentially fitted triangular finite element method for an advection-diffusion problem with boundary layers (Q1368638)

An exponentially fitted finite element method is developed for a singularly perturbed advection-diffusion problem with a singular perturbation parameter \(\varepsilon\). The problem considered can be regarded as a linear model for the incompressible Navier-Stokes momentum equations. The finite element method is based on piecewise exponential basis functions constructed on unstructured triangular meshes. The basis functions cannot be expressed explicitly, but they are determined by a set of two-point boundary value problems which can be solved exactly. Numerical results presented to validate the method show that the approach is stable for a large range of \(\varepsilon\).