High order Morley elements for biharmonic equations on polytopal partitions

Abstract

This paper introduces an extension of the Morley element for approximating solutions to biharmonic equations. Traditionally limited to piecewise quadratic polynomials on triangular elements, the extension leverages weak Galerkin finite element methods to accommodate higher degrees of polynomials and the flexibility of general polytopal elements. By utilizing the Schur complement of the weak Galerkin method, the extension allows for fewest local degrees of freedom while maintaining sufficient accuracy and stability for the numerical solutions. The numerical scheme incorporates locally constructed weak tangential derivatives and weak second order partial derivatives, resulting in an accurate approximation of the biharmonic equation. Optimal order error estimates in both a discrete H2 norm and the usual L2 norm are established to assess the accuracy of the numerical approximation. Additionally, numerical results are presented to validate the developed theory and demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed extension.