Theory and practice of finite elements. (Q1883270)

This book is an expanded version of Lecture Notes published by the authors in French (2002; Zbl 0993.65123). It has been used as a textbook for graduate finite element courses at various French universities and at the University of Texas in Austin. The book can be used in several courses in Mathematics, Computer Science, and Engineering programs. The authors offer suggestions for course titles and syllabi. The book is organized into three parts. The first part (Chapters 1 and 2) reviews the theoretical foundations of the finite element method. The second and third parts are devoted to the practice of finite elements. The second part (Chapters 3 to 6) deals with partial differential equation based applications of finite elements. The third part (Chapters 7 to 10) covers implementation aspects. Two appendices summarize the main mathemaical concepts used in this book: Banach and Hilbert spaces; Banach operators: distributions; and Sobolev spaces. This book is not an exhaustive monograph and always tries to remain at the graduate level. Some aspects of the finite element method are only briefly mentioned or simply alluded to (e.g., the \(p\)- and \(hp\)-versions of the method and the use of hierachical settings). Many bibliographic entries to the extensive literature on finite elements are given throughout the book.