477

APPENDIX C

Mathematical Foundation
of the Finite Element Method

Minimization of Energy Result

Let us assume that

V

(

x

,

y

)



is the

true solution

of Laplaces equation. In
addition, let us assume that

U

(

x

,

y

)



is another function that can be dif-
ferentiated and is equal to

zero

on the boundary

L

1

of the region

s

.
Then, the sum of the two solutions which we will call the variation is
given by

V

(

x

,

y

)

U

(

x

,

y

)



where

is a small real parameter. The varia-
tion will have the same value on the boundary

L

1

as

V

(

x

,

y

)

. The electro-
static energy of the summation of the two terms is obtained from the
expression (2.67)

(C.1)

This functional-energy

W

(

V

U

)

is expanded in powers of the small pa-
rameter

(C.2)

The third term on the right hand side can be identied from (2.67) as being
the energy of the additional functions

U

. The second term on the right hand
side can be transformed using the vector identity (A.6)

(C.3)

where

U

is a scalar and

V

is a vector. The last term in (C.3) can be written
as

U

2

V

. Therefore, we nally write (C.2) as

(C.4)

The term . From Figure 417

a

, we have

U

0

on

L

1

and
on

L

2

. This means that the fourth term in (C.4), which is a line in-
tegral

vanishes

on the entire boundary

L

. The third term in (C.4), which is a
surface integral on

A

, also vanishes since Laplaces equation must
C.1
W V U ( )

2
--- V U ( )
2
s d
A

W V U ( ) W V ( ) V U s

2
2
------ U
2
s d
A

d
A

UV ( ) V U U V
W V U ( ) W V ( )
2
W U ( ) U
2
V s UV u
n

d l d
A

V u
n
V/n
V/n 0

2
V 0
Appendix_C.fm Page 477 Friday, December 1, 2006 2:30 PM
478
Mathematical Foundation of the Finite Element Method
be satised. Therefore, we nally obtain
(C.5)
Since
2
0 and W(V) 0, the term on the left hand side is greater than W(V)
which proves that the energy has a minimum when V is a solution of
Laplaces equation.
Interpolation Conditions
We calculate from (4.82)
(C.6)
because the expression within the brackets is equal to twice the area of the
triangle A
e
.
Let us calculate the same term at a different point, say using (4.82)
(C.7)
These results are summarized in (4.83).
S-Matrix Elements
Using the explicit expression for the -functions (4.82), we nd that the gra-
dient of these functions are
(C.8)
Applying the denition (4.89) after taking the scalar product and performing
the integration over the element, the following elements of the S
(e)
-matrix
W V U ( ) W V ( )
2
W U ( )
C.2

1
x
1
y
1
, ( )

1
x
1
y
1
, ( )
1
2A
e
--------- x
2
y
3
x
3
y
2
( ) y
2
y
3
( )x
1
x
3
x
2
( )y
1
[ ]
1
2A
e
--------- x
2
y
3
x
3
y
2
( ) x
3
y
1
x
1
y
3
( ) x
1
y
2
x
2
y
1
( ) [ ] 1

1
x
2
y
2
, ( )

1
x
2
y
2
, ( )
1
2A
e
--------- x
2
y
3
x
3
y
2
( ) y
2
y
3
( )x
2
x
3
x
2
( )y
2
[ ]
0
C.3

1
1
2A
e
--------- y
2
y
3
( )u
x
x
2
x
3
( )u
y
[ ]

2
1
2A
e
--------- y
3
y
1
( )u
x
x
3
x
1
( )u
y
[ ]

3
1
2A
e
--------- y
1
y
2
( )u
x
x
1
x
2
( )u
y
[ ]
Appendix_C.fm Page 478 Friday, December 1, 2006 2:30 PM
C.4 Decoupled and Coupled Node Potentials
479
are obtained:
(C.9)
They are used in Example 4.19.
Decoupled and Coupled Node Potentials
The coupling matrix [C] has a dimension (N
d
N) where N
d
is the total num-
ber of the decoupled nodes and N is the total number of the coupled nodes
after assembling. In the case of two elements, the number of the decoupled
nodes is N
d
6 (see Figure 419a), while the number of the coupled nodes is
N 4 (see Figure 419b). The decoupled nodes are numbered with a sub-
script k 1, 2, , N
d
, while the coupled nodes are numbered with a sub-
script m 1, 2, , N. The elements of the coupling matrix are dened by
the following rule: C
k,m
1 when the k-th decoupled node corresponds to
the m-th coupled node and C
k,m
0 otherwise. There is only one 1 on ev-
ery row, but there can be one or two 1 on every column (the last case re-
ects the boundary conditions). For the particular problem considered in
Figure 419, the corresponding C-matrix is
(C.10)
S
1 1 ,

4A
e
--------- y
2
y
3
( )
2
x
2
x
3
( )
2
[ ];
S
1 2 ,
S
2 1 ,

4A
e
--------- y
1
y
3
( ) y
3
y
2
( ) x
1
x
3
( ) x
3
x
2
( ) [ ];
S
1 3 ,
S
3 1 ,

4A
e
--------- y
1
y
2
( ) y
2
y
3
( ) x
1
x
2
( ) x
2
x
3
( ) [ ];
S
2 2 ,

4A
e
--------- y
3
y
1
( )
2
x
3
x
1
( )
2
[ ];
S
2 3 ,
S
3 2 ,

4A
e
--------- y
2
y
1
( ) y
1
y
3
( ) x
2
x
1
( ) x
1
x
3
( ) [ ];
S
3 3 ,

4A
e
--------- y
1
y
2
( )
2
x
1
x
2
( )
2
[ ].
C.4
C [ ]
1 0 0 0
0 1 0 0
0 0 1 0
0 0 0 1
0 1 0 0
0 0 1 0

Appendix_C.fm Page 479 Friday, December 1, 2006 2:30 PM

480
Mathematical Foundation of the Finite Element Method
which coincides with equation (4.85). The following relation between the
column matrices of the decoupled potentials and coupled potentials [V]
is obtained
(C.11)
where the coupling matrix [C] is involved. This equation matches with
(4.84).
After the determination of the energy of the element from (4.86) via the
potentials of the decoupled nodes and via the potentials of the coupled
nodes as
(C.12)
we obtain for the global S-matrix of the coupled system using the following
relation
(C.13)
We can show that the last equation yields equation (4.90) for the global
S-matrix in its explicit form. For convenience we can write this equation
in two stages
(C.14)
From (C.10) for the decoupled matrix [S]
d
of the system of two triangles, the
following expression is obtained
(C.15)
V [ ]
d
V [ ]
d
C [ ] V [ ]
W
1
2
--- V [ ]
T
S [ ] V [ ]
S [ ] C [ ]
T
S [ ]
d
C [ ]
B [ ] S [ ]
d
C [ ],
S [ ] C [ ]
T
B [ ]
S [ ]
d
S
1 1 ,
1 ( )
S
1 2 ,
1 ( )
S
1 3 ,
1 ( )
0 0 0
S
2 1 ,
1 ( )
S
2 2 ,
1 ( )
S
2 3 ,
1 ( )
0 0 0
S
3 1 ,
1 ( )
S
3 1 ,
1 ( )
S
3 1 ,
1 ( )
0 0 0
0 0 0
S
4 4 ,
2 ( )
S
4 5 ,
2 ( )
S
4 6 ,
2 ( )
0 0 0
S
5 4 ,
2 ( )
S
5 5 ,
2 ( )
S
5 6 ,
2 ( )
0 0 0
S
6 4 ,
2 ( )
S
6 5 ,
2 ( )
S
6 6 ,
2 ( )

Appendix_C.fm Page 480 Friday, December 1, 2006 2:30 PM

C.5 The Matrix Equation for the Unknown Potentials
481
Now after a simple matrix multiplication, we get for the intermediate matrix
[B] the rst equation (C.14) yields
Then from the second equation of (C.14) after a matrix multiplication, we
obtain the result presented by equation (4.93):
(C.16)
The Matrix Equation for the Unknown Potentials
The necessary condition that the function (C.12) has a minimum is that the
appropriate derivatives must be equal to zero
(C.17)
First, the potential matrix-column is split into two parts: known [V]
k
and un-
known [V]
u
as shown in equation (4.94):
and the same is done with the S-matrix, as shown in equation (4.95):
B [ ]
S
1 1 ,
1 ( )
S
1 2 ,
1 ( )
S
1 3 ,
1 ( )
0
S
2 1 ,
1 ( )
S
2 2 ,
1 ( )
S
2 3 ,
1 ( )
0
S
3 1 ,
1 ( )
S
3 2 ,
1 ( )
S
3 3 ,
1 ( )
0
0 S
4 5 ,
2 ( )
S
4 6 ,
2 ( )
S
4 4 ,
2 ( )
0 S
5 5 ,
2 ( )
S
5 6 ,
2 ( )
S
5 4 ,
2 ( )
0 S
6 5 ,
2 ( )
S
6 6 ,
2 ( )
S
6 4 ,
2 ( )

S [ ]
S
1 1 ,
1 ( )
S
1 2 ,
1 ( )
S
1 3 ,
1 ( )
0
S
2 1 ,
1 ( )
S
2 2 ,
1 ( )
S
5 5 ,
2 ( )
S
2 3 ,
1 ( )
S
5 6 ,
2 ( )
S
5 4 ,
2 ( )
S
3 1 ,
1 ( )
S
3 2 ,
1 ( )
S
6 5 ,
2 ( )
S
3 3 ,
1 ( )
S
6 6 ,
2 ( )
S
6 4 ,
2 ( )
0 S
4 5 ,
2 ( )
S
4 6 ,
2 ( )
S
4 4 ,
2 ( )

C.5
W
V
j
[ ]
u

---------------- 0 j 1 2 N , , , ( )
V [ ]
V [ ]
k
V [ ]
u

S [ ]
S [ ]
k k ,
S [ ]
k u ,
S [ ]
u k ,
S [ ]
u u ,

Appendix_C.fm Page 481 Friday, December 1, 2006 2:30 PM

482
Mathematical Foundation of the Finite Element Method
The following explicit expression is found from (C.12) for the energy:
(C.18)
where the symmetry of the S-matrix is used.
From (C.17), we write
(C.19)
which leads to the nal equation (4.97):
(C.20)
W
1
2
--- V [ ]
k
T
S [ ]
k k ,
V [ ]
k
V [ ]
u
T
S [ ]
u k ,
V [ ]
k
1
2
--- V [ ]
u
T
S [ ]
u u ,
V [ ]
u

S [ ]
u u ,
V [ ]
u
S [ ]
u k ,
V [ ]
k
0
V [ ]
u
S [ ]
u u ,
1
S [ ]
u k ,
V [ ]
k

Appendix_C.fm Page 482 Friday, December 1, 2006 2:30 PM