A combination of spectral and finite elements for an exterior problem in the plane (Q1862003)

This paper deals with two numerical methods to solve second order partial differential equations posed on exterior domains. The authors derive the Galerkin discretizations of both the Johnson-Nédélec and the symmetric boundary element and finite element methods and give their convergence analysis. These methods are based on a strategy which consists in using a standard finite element method in a bounded region and a trigonometric spectral method for the integral equation posed on a boundary that delimits the domain of computation. A Poisson problem posed in the exterior of an ellipse centered at the origin with a major semiaxis of length 2 and a minor semiaxis of length 1 is tested.