TY  - EJOU
AU  - TONTI, Enzo 

TI  - A Direct Discrete Formulation of Field Laws: The Cell Method
T2  - Computer Modeling in Engineering \& Sciences

PY  - 2001
VL  - 2
IS  - 2
SN  - 1526-1506

AB  - We present a new numerical method for the solution of field equations. The essence of the method is to directly provide a discrete formulation of field laws, without using and requiring a differential formulation. It is proved that, for linear interpolation, the stiffness matrix so obtained coincides with the one of the Finite Element Method. For quadratic interpolation, however, the present stiffness matrix differs from that of FEM; moreover it is unsymmetric. It is shown that by using a parabolic interpolation, a convergence of the fourth order is obtained. This is greater than the one obtained with FEM, using the same interpolation.
KW  - 

DO  - 10.3970/cmes.2001.002.237