Numerical approximation by discrete interpolating variational splines (Q435995)

The authors propose a new kind of variational spline called discrete interpolating variational spline, in the framework of the approximation problem of parametric curves and surfaces, based on some Lagrange or Hermite data set, by discretisation on a space of finite elements. Methods to characterize and to compute the new proposed spline, based on the minimizing of a functional on a parametric finite element space and also results related to convergence and error estimation are presented. The work is completed by some particular cases and also by some numerical and graphical examples which sustain the validity of the theory.