Improving the rate of convergence of `high order finite elements' on polygons and domains with cusps (Q2575156)

The authors develop a new method for the construction of graded finite element meshes on a polygonal domain. This method leads to quasi-optimal rates of convergence for the finite element approximations of the Poisson problem \(-\Delta u=f\) with Dirichlet boundary conditions. The main result can be summarized as follows: if we denote by \(u_{V}\in V\) the finite element approximation of \(u\), then \(\| u-u_{V}\| _{H^{1}}\leq C\text{dim}(V)^{-m/2}(\| f\| _{H^{m-1}})\). The constant \(C\) in this estimate is independent of \(V\) and \(\text{dim}(V)\), as \(\text{dim}(V)\rightarrow \infty \). Here \(m\geq 1\) is an integer, which could be thought of as the degree of piece-wise polynomials used in the finite element approximation. The existence of such a sequence of spaces, was first proved by \textit{I. Babuska} [Computing 6, 264--273 (1970; Zbl 0224.65031)]. The graded meshes considered in this paper generalize the ones constructed by \textit{G. Raugel} [C. R. Acad. Sci., Paris, Sér. A 286, 791--794 (1978; Zbl 0377.65058)] and by \textit{I. Babuska, R. B. Kellogg}, and \textit{J. Pitkäranta} [Numer. Math. 33, 447--471 (1979; Zbl 0423.65057)]. The method of proof is based on a well posedness result for the Poisson equation in weighted Sobolev spaces and on the dilation properties of the weighted Sobolev spaces. The weight considered is the distance to the vertices. Numerical tests are provided.