An official website of the United States government
Here’s how you know
Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.
Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock (
) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.
How High a Degree is High Enough for High Order Finite Elements?
Published
Author(s)
William F. Mitchell
Abstract
High order finite element methods can solve partial differential equations more efficiently than low order methods. But how large of a polynomial degree is beneficial? This paper addresses that question through a case study of three problems representing problems with smooth solutions, problems with steep gradients, and problems with singularities. It also contrasts h-adaptive, p-adaptive, and hp-adaptive refinement. The results indicate that for low accuracy requirements, like 1% relative error, h-adaptive refinement with relatively low order elements is sufficient, and for high accuracy requirements, p-adaptive refinement is best for smooth problems and hp-adaptive refinement with elements up to about 10th degree is best for other problems.
Mitchell, W.
(2015),
How High a Degree is High Enough for High Order Finite Elements?, International Conference on Computational Science, Reykjavík, -1, [online], https://doi.org/10.1016/j.procs.2015.05.235
(Accessed October 31, 2024)