The calculation of singular coefficients (Q759545)

We consider in this paper the calculation of the 'singular coefficients' associated with the solution of an elliptic partial differential equation near a singular point; a re-entrant corner, or a crack tip, etc. These are the coefficients in the relevant singular expansion of the solution near the point of singularity; they often have physical relevance, and it is of interest to be able to calculate them accurately. We consider the problem in the context of the global element method; this is a variable- order finite element method designed to be capable of producing highly accurate solutions for singular problems, even in the neighbourhood of the singularity. If the values of the singular coefficients are needed, these must be extracted from the computed solution; we show in this paper that a suitably defined least squares fitting procedure allows the calculation of values for the leading singular coefficients which are as accurate as the underlying solution.