On the finite volume element method

SummaryThe finite volume element method (FVE) is a discretization technique for partial differential equations. It uses a volume integral formulation of the problem with a finite partitioning set of volumes to discretize the equations, then restricts the admissible functions to a finite element space to discretize the solution. this paper develops discretization error estimates for general selfadjoint elliptic boundary value problems with FVE based on triangulations with linear finite element spaces and a general type of control volume. We establishO(h) estimates of the error in a discreteH1 semi-norm. Under an additional assumption of local uniformity of the triangulation the estimate is improved toO(h2). Results on the effects of numerical integration are also included.