Asymptotic expansions of the error of spline Galerkin boundary element methods (Q1377029)

The paper is devoted to the numerical solution of a first kind boundary integral equation with a logarithmic kernel on a smooth closed curve by the Galerkin method with smoothest splines and a fully discrete version of it, the Galerkin collocation method introduced by \textit{G. C. Hsiao}, \textit{P. Kopp} and \textit{W. L. Wendland} [Computing 25, 89-130 (1980; Zbl 0431.65078)]. It is shown that the error of these methods admits an asymptotic expansion of the form \[ \left \| u_h- Q_hu-\sum^M_{k=f(m)} h^kQ_h f_k\right \|\leq Ch^{M+1}, \] where \(u\) is the exact solution, \(u_h\) the approximate solution, \(Q_h\) denotes a certain interpolation operator, and \(f(m)\) is an integer depending on the degree of the splines. The expansion holds in several Sobolev and uniform norms and allows the application of Richardson extrapolation. Moreover, some improved error bounds are obtained in uniform norms.