Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 March 2013
We introduce a piecewise P2-nonconforming quadrilateralfinite element. First, we decompose a convex quadrilateral into the union of fourtriangles divided by its diagonals. Then the finite element space is defined by the set ofall piecewise P2-polynomials that are quadratic in eachtriangle and continuously differentiable on the quadrilateral. The degrees of freedom(DOFs) are defined by the eight values at the two Gauss points on each of the four edgesplus the value at the intersection of the diagonals. Due to the existence of one linearrelation among the above DOFs, it turns out the DOFs are eight. Global basis functions aredefined in three types: vertex-wise, edge-wise, and element-wise types. The correspondingdimensions are counted for both Dirichlet and Neumann types of elliptic problems. Forsecond-order elliptic problems and the Stokes problem, the local and global interpolationoperators are defined. Also error estimates of optimal order are given in both brokenenergy and L2(Ω) norms. The proposed elementis also suitable to solve Stokes equations. The element is applied to approximate eachcomponent of velocity fields while the discontinuousP1-nonconforming quadrilateral element is adopted toapproximate the pressure. An optimal error estimate in energy norm is derived. Numericalresults are shown to confirm the optimality of the presented piecewiseP2-nonconforming element on quadrilaterals.