Bonnet Frangi Finite Elements

This volume on some recent aspects of finite element methods and their applications is dedicated to Ulrich Langer and Arnd Meyer on the occasion of their 60th birthdays in 2012. Their work combines the numerical analysis of finite element algorithms, their efficient implementation on state of the art hardware architectures, and the collaboration with engineers and practitioners. In this spirit, this volume contains contributions of former students and collaborators indicating the broad range of their interests in the theory and application of finite element methods.

This book gives an introduction to the finite element method as a general computational method for solving partial differential equations approximately. Our approach is mathematical in nature with a strong focus on the underlying mathematical principles, such as approximation properties of piecewise polynomial spaces, and variational formulations of partial differential equations, but with a minimum level of advanced mathematical machinery from functional analysis and partial differential equations.

This self-tutorial offers a concise yet thorough grounding in the mathematics necessary for successfully applying FEMs to practical problems in science and engineering. The unique approach first summarizes and outlines the finite-element mathematics in general and then, in the second and major part, formulates problem examples that clearly demonstrate the techniques of functional analysis via numerous and diverse exercises.

This book introduces the key concepts of nonlinear finite element analysis procedures. The book explains the fundamental theories of the field and provides instructions on how to apply the concepts to solving practical engineering problems.

This book details a systematic characteristics-based finite element procedure to investigate incompressible, free-surface and compressible flows. The fluid dynamics equations are derived from basic thermo-mechanical principles and the multi-dimensional and infinite-directional upstream procedure is developed by combining a finite element discretization of a characteristics-bias system with an implicit Runge-Kutta time integration. For the computational solution of the Euler and Navier Stokes equations, the procedure relies on the mathematics and physics of multi-dimensional characteristics. As a result, the procedure crisply captures contact discontinuities, normal as well as oblique shocks, and generates essentially non-oscillatory solutions for incompressible, subsonic, transonic, supersonic, and hypersonic inviscid and viscous flows.