Recursive super-convergence computation for multi-dimensional problems via one-dimensional element energy projection technique

This paper presents a strategy for computation of super-convergent solutions of multi-dimensional problems in the finite element method (FEM) by recursive application of the one-dimensional (1D) element energy projection (EEP) technique. The main idea is to conceptually treat multi-dimensional problems as generalized 1D problems, based on which the concepts of generalized 1D FEM and its consequent EEP formulae have been developed in a unified manner. Equipped with these concepts, multi-dimensional problems can be recursively discretized in one dimension at each step, until a fully discretized standard finite element (FE) model is reached. This conceptual dimension-by-dimension (D-by-D) discretization procedure is entirely equivalent to a full FE discretization. As a reverse D-by-D recovery procedure, by using the unified EEP formulae together with proper extraction of the generalized nodal solutions, super-convergent displacements and first derivatives for two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) problems can be obtained over the domain. Numerical examples of 3D Poisson’s equation and elasticity problem are given to verify the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed strategy.