Interpolation error estimates in \(W^{1,p}\) for degenerate \(Q_1\) isoparametric elements (Q2503146)

The authors deal with interpolation error estimates for finite elements. In the case of convex quadrilateral elements and \(1\leq p\), the usual \(W^{1,p}\) error estimate for the \(Q_{1}\) isoparametric Lagrange interpolation (called hereafter \(Q\)), reads as \[ \| u - Q u \| _{L^{p}(K)} + h| u - Qu| _{W^{1,p}(K)} \leq C h^{2}| u| _{W^{2,p}(K)},\tag{1} \] where \(h\) denotes the diameter of \(K\). Concerning (1), two facts are well known: the convexity of \(K\) is a sufficient condition to get the estimate \[ \| u - Q u \| _{L^{p}(K)} \leq C h^{2}| u| _{W^{2,p}(K)}\tag{2} \] with \(C\) bounded independently of the shape of \(K\), however \[ | u - Qu| _{W^{1,p}(K)} \leq C h | u| _{W^{2,p}(K)}\tag{3} \] requires extra assumptions on \(K\) to keep \(C\) uniformly bounded. The main purpose of the paper is to deal with (3) looking at the behaviour of \(C\) on both \(p\) and the shape of \(K\). First, the authors prove that (3) holds for \(p\) in the range \(1\leq p < 3\) provided K verifies the regular decomposition property. Moreover, this result is no longer true for \(3 \leq p\). Second, the authors results also show that (3) holds for elements verifying the double angle condition (\(\psi_{m},\psi_{M}\)) (the interior angles \(\theta\) of \(K\) verify \(0 < \psi_{m}\leq\theta\leq\psi_{M} < \pi\)) and any \(1\leq p\). Moreover, the authors show that even when the condition on the maximum angle is not necessary for \(p = 2\) it can not be relaxed for \(3 \leq p\).