Tutorial Sheet 6.

Meshes
Diploma: M2 MMS Université de Pau
Lecture: Numerical Analysis Collège E2S
Year: 2020/2021 R. Becker and D. Capatina

Exercice 1 (Barycentric coordinates)

 
Let H = x ∈ Rd  nT (x − xH ) = 0 be a hyperplane defined by xH ∈ H and n ∈ Rd
with knk = 1. The orthogonal projection PH : Rd → H is defined as the solution to the
minimisation problem kPH x − xk = inf {ky − xk | y ∈ H}.
1. Show that PH is well-defined and that we have

d(x, H) = min ky − xk = kPH x − xk .

y∈H

 
2. Let the half-space H− = x ∈ Rd  nT (x − xH ) < 0 . Show that for x ∈ H− , we
have PH x = x + d(x, H)n.
3. Let xP ∈ H− . We define
nT (xH − x)
λP (x) = T . (1)
n (xH − xP )
Show that
d(x, H) −n
λP (x) = , ∇λP = . (2)
d(xp , H) d(xp , H)

4. Let K = conv {a0 , a1 , . . . , ad } ⊂ Rd be a non-degenerate simplex, Si be the face

opposite to ai ,

Si = conv{{a0 , a1 , . . . , ad } \ {ai }}, hi := d(ai , Si ) = inf {ky − ai k | y ∈ Si }

and ni the exterior unit normal to Si . We denote by λi (x) the barycentric coor-
dinate of x ∈ K associated to ai . Show that λi ∈ P1 (R3 ) and
d(x, Si ) −ni
λi (x) = , ∇λi = . (3)
hi hi

5. What do you get for d = 2 ? What are K, Si and hi ? Give the barycentric
coordinates when a0 = (0, 0), a1 = (1, 0) and a2 = (0, 1).
Solution Exercice 1
1. H is a closed convex set and, for a given x the mapping y → ky − xk is strictly
convex. Then the minimization problem inf {ky − xk | y ∈ H} has a unique solu-
tion. We have d(x, H) = kPH x − xk by definition of the distance.
2. We have hPH x − x, yi = 0 for all y ∈ H. Therefore, by the definition of the
normal PH x − x = αn with α ∈ R+ . But, since knk = 1, we have d(x, H) =
kx − PH xk = α.

1
3. By adding and subtracting PH x ∈ H and PH xp ∈ H and by using the definition
of H, we get
nT (xH − x) nT (PH x − x) d(x, H) knk
λP (x) = T
= T
=
n (xH − xp ) n (PH xp − xp ) d(xp , H) knk
Derivation of (1) with respect to x gives the result. The components of ∇λP (x)
are
Pd
∂λP ∂ j=1 nj (xH − x)j ni
= T
=−
∂xi ∂xi n (xH − xp ) d(xp , H)

4. We apply the first questions with H := Si . The linearity of λi follows from the
expression (1) and the other formulae are immediate.

Exercice 2 (Mesh regularity)

1. Show that in one dimension d = 1, all mesh families are regular.
2. Let d = 2 and H a mesh family. Prove that the regularity condition, i.e. existence
of C ∈ R+ such that
hK
sup sup 6 C, (4)
h∈H K∈Kh ρK

is equivalent to the minimum angle condition: There exists α0 > 0 such that
∀h ∈ H, ∀K ∈ Kh the minimum angle of K is bigger than α0 . (5)

3. Is the mesh regularity condition equivalent to the following side-length condi-

tion ?
max {|S| | S ∈ S(K)} 6 C2 min {|S| | S ∈ S(K)} . (6)
Solution Exercice 2
1. For d = 1 we have hK = 2ρK = b − a, if K =]a, b[.
2. We have the following elementary relations with α the angle opposed to the side
a and so on,
a b c abc
= = = (Law of sines) (7)
sin α sin β sin γ 2 |K|
ρK (a + b + c)
|K| = (Perimeter formula) (8)
2

2
 Without loss of generality, we can suppose a > b > c which implies that the
minimum angle of K is γ. We have

2 |K| ab sin γ
ρK = = (9)
a+b+c a+b+c
hK
(4) implies (5). From (9) and ρK
6 C, we have

ρK (a + b + c) hK (a + b + c) h2
sin γ = > C−1 > C−1 K > C—1 .
ab ab ab
π
(5) implies (4). Since α0 6 γ 6 β < 2
and hK = a, we get from (9)

hK a a+b+c a 3 sin α 3 3
= = 6 = 6 =: C.
ρK ρK b sin γ b sin γ sin β sin γ sin2 α0

3. Let again a > b > c. Then (5) implies (6):

a sin α 1
= 6 ,
c sin γ sin α0
but the converse is false, see the Figure above. Indeed, if you take for instance
a
K an isosceles triangle where the base is the largest side a, then cos γ = 2b 61
a
so b 6 C2 with C2 = 2. So, (6) holds true but (5) might not hold, if you let the
vertex A get close to the side BC, that is if you let β = γ tend to 0.