Finite Element Methods and Their Convergence for Elliptic and Parabolic Interface Problems

In this paper, we consider the finite element methods for solving second order elliptic and parabolic interface problems in two-dimensional convex polygonal domains. Nearly the same optimal L 2 -norm and energy-norm error estimates as for regular problems are obtained when the interfaces are of arbitrary shape but are smooth, though the regularities of the solutions are low on the whole domain. The assumptions on the finite element triangulation are reasonable and practical. Mathematics Subject Classification (1991): 65N30, 65F10. A running title: Finite element methods for interface problems. Correspondence to: Dr. Jun Zou Email: zou@math.cuhk.edu.hk Fax: (852) 2603 5154 1 Institute of Mathematics, Academia Sinica, Beijing 100080, P.R. China. Email: zmchen@math03.math.ac.cn. The work of this author was partially supported by China National Natural Science Foundation. 2 Department of Mathematics, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, N.T., Hong Kong. E-mail: zou@math.cuhk...