Lower estimates for the error of approximation of derivatives for composite finite elements with smoothness property

Abstract

We consider a natural class of composite finite elements that provide the mth-order smoothness of the resulting piecewise polynomial function on a triangulated domain and do not require any information on neighboring elements. It is known that, to provide a required convergence rate in the finite element method, the “smallest angle condition” must be often imposed on the triangulation of the initial domain; i.e., the smallest possible values of the smallest angles of the triangles must be lower bounded. On the other hand, the negative role of the smallest angle can be weakened (but not eliminated completely) by choosing appropriate interpolation conditions. As shown earlier, for a large number of methods of choosing interpolation conditions in the construction of simple (noncomposite) finite elements, including traditional conditions, the influence of the smallest angle of the triangle on the error of approximation of derivatives of a function by derivatives of the interpolation polynomial is essential for a number of derivatives of order 2 and higher for m ≥ 1. In the present paper, a similar result is proved for some class of composite finite elements.