ME5204 Finite Element Analysis

Class 3: Galerkin’s Approximation

August 11 2021
I The starting point for the finite element method is the weak
statement.
I The rough idea is the following: δ and V contain infinitely
many functions. We approximate δ and V by finite dimensional
collection of functions.
I Before we proceed to see how this is done, some more notation:
Let,
Z 1
a(w , u) = w,x u,x dx (1)
0
Z 1
(w , l) = wldx (2)
0
I The variational equation can now be written as,

a(w , u) = (w , l) + w (0)h (3)

I It is noted that a(.,.) and (.,.) are symmetric, bilinear forms.

I This means that it has the symmetry property:

a(u, v ) = a(v , u) (4)

(u, v ) = (v , u). (5)

I Bilinearity means linearity in each of its arguments.

a(c1 u + c2 v , w ) = c1 a(u, w ) + c2 a(v , w ) (6)

(c1 u + c2 v , w ) = c1 (u, w ) + c2 (v , w ) (7)

Note this is also true with the second argument.

Galerkin’s Approximation Method1
I The first step is to construct finite-dimensional approximations
of δ and V. These are denoted by δ h and Vh respectively.
I The superscript refers to an association of δ h and Vh with a
mesh i.e a discretization of the domain Ω.
I It is noted that δ h and Vh are subsets of δ and V respectively.
i.e.

δ h ⊂ δ (i.e if uh ∈ δ h , then uh ∈ δ) (8)

h h h h
V ⊂ V (i.e if w ∈ V , then w ∈ V) (9)

I Consequently

u h (1) = g (10)
h
w (1) = 0 (11)

1
Also called the Bubnov-Galerkin method
I Assume the collection Vh is given.Then to each member of vh
∈ Vh , we can construct a function u h ∈ δ h by

uh = v h + g h (12)

where g h is a given function satisfying the essential boundary

condition i.e,
g h (1) = g (13)
I Thus Eq.12 is a definition of δ h .
I The key point to observe is that, upto the function g h , the
spaces δ h and Vh are composed of identical collection of
functions.
I The variational equation can now be rewritten in terms of wh
∈ Vh and uh ∈ δ h ,

a(w h , u h ) = (w h , l) + w h (0)h (14)

I The above equation can be thought of as defining an

approximate weak solution, u h .
I The previous equation may be further re-written as follows,

a(w h , v h ) = (w h , l) + w h (0)h − a(w h , g h ) (15)

where we have used uh = vh + gh .

I Thus we now state the Galerkin form (G) of the problem,
Given l, g and h as before, find uh = vh + gh , where vh ∈ Vh ,
such that for all wh ∈ Vh ,

a(w h , v h ) = (w h , l) + w h (0)h − a(w h , g h ) (16)

I To make things concrete, gh and Vh have to be explicitly

defined.
I It is noted here that there is also a class of approximation
methods called the Petrov-Galerkin methods, in which vh is
contained in a collection of function other than Vh . We will
however focus only on the Bubnov-Galerkin method and
henceforth refer to it simply as the Galerkin method.