3D nurbs-enhanced finite element method

Abstract

An improvement of the classical finite element method is proposed in [1], the NURBS-Enhanced Finite Element Method (NEFEM). It is able to exactly represent the geometry by means of the usual CAD description of the boundary with Non-Uniform Rational B-Splines (NURBS). For elements not intersecting the boundary, a standard finite element interpolation and numerical integration is used. But elements intersecting the NURBS boundary need a specifically designed piecewise polynomial interpolation and numerical integration. This document presents preliminary work on the 3D extension of NEFEM.