Second order Overhauser elements for boundary element analysis (Q1921067)

The author reports on the use of Overhauser splines as trial functions for boundary element collocation solving plane elliptic boundary value problems. Overhauser elements of first and second order are constructed by linear and quadratic blending of second and fourth order interpolating polynomials, respectively, resulting in \(C^1\) piecewise polynomials. It is shown for a simple numerical example that boundary element collocation with Overhauser elements provide more accurate numerical results than usual quadratic elements and approximate the tangential derivative on the boundary, too.