Computer Implementation of the Finite Element Method

Abstract

A detailed study of the implementation of finite element methods for solving two-dimensional elliptic partial differential equations is presented. Generation and storage schemes for triangular meshes are considered, and the use of irregular meshes for finite element methods is shown to be relatively inexpensive in terms of storage. The report demonstrates that much of the manipulation of the basis functions necessary in the derivation of the approximation equations can be done semi-symbolically rather than numerically as is usually done. Ordering algorithms, compact storage schemes, and efficient implementation of elimination methods are studied in connection with sparse systems of finite element equations. A Fortran code is included for the finite element solution of a class of elliptic boundary value problems, and numerical solutions of several problems are presented. Comparisons among different finite element methods, and between finite element methods and their competitors are included.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Feb 01, 1971
Accession Number
AD0726171

Entities

People

  • J. A. George

Organizations

  • Stanford University

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • C4I
  • Energy and Power Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Band Structures
  • Boundary Value Problems
  • Computational Fluid Dynamics
  • Computational Science
  • Computer Programming
  • Computer Programs
  • Computer Science
  • Computers
  • Data Management
  • Difference Equations
  • Differential Equations
  • Engineering
  • Finite Element Analysis
  • Linear Accelerators
  • Partial Differential Equations
  • Plastic Explosives
  • Two Dimensional

Fields of Study

  • Mathematics

Readers

  • Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD)
  • Linear Algebra