where ⊂R2 is the problem domain and is its boundary. In the finite element method, the
domain is partitioned into M non-overlapping subdomains (elements), =
M
k=1Tk , where Tk
is either a triangle or a quadrilateral (isoparametric transformation of the elements shown in
Figures 1(a) and (b)). In finite elements, basis functions are associated with each vertex (node)
of Tk , and within an element, the local restriction of a basis function is known as a shape
function.
In a Galerkin method, a weak or variational statement of the strong form, Equation (4), is used:
find u ∈ H1
0 () such that