Search

An improved method for calculating smooth derivatives of multilinear finite element fields is presented. The method is also applicable to finite difference schemes. A simple one-dimensional model problem is discussed analytically, and the new method shows superior behaviour compared to existing popular smoothing techniques. Two- and three-dimensional problems involving isoparametric elements are tested, and the results show improvements over tile widely used global least-squares method, with lumped mass matrix, especially at the boundaries and for non-uniform meshes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]