623

SHORT COMMUNICATIONS

ON FINITE ELEMENTS SIMULTANEOUSLY IN SPACE AND TIME

J . M. SANZ-SERNA

Departamento de Ecuaciones Funcionales, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Valladolid, Valladolid, Spain

There are two main ways in which finite elements can be applied to the solution of timedependent problems in partial differential equations.'

(1) Use of elements in the space variables only so as to transform the original partial differential
equation into a system of ordinary differential equations with the time as independent variable.
This system is then discretized by means of a finite difference of finite element method.
(2) Use of elements involving simultaneously the space variables and the time. Almost
invariably the basis functions imployed take the tensor product form q5 (x)t+b(t).
The purpose of this note is to prove that, in the tensor product case, both methods are
equivalent, provided that finite elements are used to integrate the semi-discrete system of
ordinary differential equations which arises in alternative 1. Unfortunately this simple fact
does not appear to be too widely known.
For simplicity, we consider only the nonlinear problem
u (x ,t,u )-=b(X,t,U)&)
au
at ax
a (
ax
u(O,t)=u(L,t)=O
u (x, 0)

O<x<L

t>O

t>O

given 0 d x G L

Higher dimensional equations or systems, more general boundary conditions or hyperbolic

problems can be dealt with in a similar manner.
When alternative 1 is employed, u(x, t ) is first approximated by u * ( x , t ) =
Ui(t)di(x),
where &(x) are basis functions and the Ui(t)
satisfy

loL

au *
a ( x , t, u*) -4&) dx = at

au *

b(x, t, u *) -4:(x)dx
ax

r = 0, . . .,IZ

This system is now discretized in time by Galerkin's method with basis functions t+bi(t),j =
0, . . . ,m to yield

=-lo(1"
At

au **
b ( x , f , u * * ) -ax
d:(x)dx)$r(t)dt

0029-5981/83/040623-02$01.00
0 1 9 8 3 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

r = O , . . . , n,

s = l , . . . ,m

Received August 1982

624

SHORT COMMUNICATIONS

where u * * ( x , t ) = Cy=,C,T=,U,-&(X)$~(C).
By introducing the region R,O s x G I , ; O c t ~ A t ,
the previous equation can obviously be rewritten as

and this is precisely the result of applying alternative 2 with basis functions & ( x ) $ j ( t ) , i =
0 , . . . ,n ;j = 1,. . . ,m.

REFERENCE
1. A. R.Mitchell and R. Wait, The Finite Element Method in Partial Differential Equations, Wiley, London, 1977.