Degenerate finite elements: turning a bug into a feature

• Date: 4. 12. 2025
• Time: 14:00 - 15:30
• Address:
  Sokolovská 83, Praha
• Room: K3
• Speaker: Václav Kučera

Degenerate elements, i.e. flat or (nearly) zero measure elements, are a severe obstacle in classical finite element methods requiring special mesh adjustments, especially in 3D. In our recent paper, the Tempered Finite Element Method (TFEM) was introduced, which bypasses these problems. TFEM even allows to take advantage of bad elements, effectively turning a bug into a feature - degenerate elements can now be used to easily implement mortaring, penalization, or even discontinuous Galerkin methods by trivially modifying vanilla finite element codes. We give an overview of these approaches and the theory and practice behind them.