Mapped finite elements on hexahedra. Necessary and sufficient conditions for optimal interpolation errors (Q5959258)

This paper extends results of \textit{D. N. Arnold, D. Boffi} and \textit{R. S. Falk} [Math. Comput. 71, No. 239, 909-922 (2002; Zbl 0993.65125)] to three-dimensional trilinearly-mapped finite elements. Suppose a finite element \(K\) is the image of a reference element \(\widehat{K}\) under a trilinear one-to-one mapping \(F\). Denote the set of all polynomials on \(\widehat{K}\) of degree \(k\) in each variable considered separately by \({\mathcal Q}_k(\widehat{K})\) and the set of all polynomials of degree \(k\) on \(K\) by \({\mathcal P}_k(K)\). Finally, denote by \(\widehat{V}\) the finite element trial function space and by \(V\) its image under \(F\). It is easy to see that if \({\mathcal Q}_k(\widehat{K})\) is contained in \(\widehat{V}\) then \({\mathcal P}_k(K)\) is contained in \(V\). The author constructs a particular (parameterized) hexahedron for which if \({\mathcal Q}_k(\widehat{K})\) is not in the finite element space on the reference element, then \({\mathcal P}_k(K)\) cannot be contained in the image space. The construction of the special hexahedra relies on a set of eight hexahedra that fill in a cube but for which the individual hexahedra are not cubes. The central point in two opposing faces is offset slightly and the corner point common to all eight hexahedra is also offset slightly from the center of the outer cube. For these hexahedra, derivatives of the trilinear mapping function \(F\) can be shown to satisfy larger estimates than could be the case if optimal order interpolation were possible. Several numerical examples are presented to show that the estimates proved in the paper are sharp.