Generalized shape operators on polyhedral surfaces (Q554630)

This paper presents the theory about the approximation of the shape operator of smooth surfaces in \(\mathbb{R}^{3}\). The authors give two shape operators, which are defined as (vector-valued) linear functionals on a Sobolev space of (weakly differentiable) vector fields, for smooth surfaces and polyhedral surfaces, respectively. Two types of approximation estimates for polyhedral surfaces to approximate smooth surfaces are introduced: one concerning the approximation of the generalized shape operators in the operator norm and one concerning the pointwise approximation of the (classic) shape operator, including mean and Gaussian curvature, principal curvatures, and principal curvature directions. Computational results that confirm this work are given as well.