A FAST VECTOR-POTENTIAL METHOD USING TANGENTIALLY CONTINUOUS VECTOR FINITE-ELEMENTS

An efficient finite-element method for driven time-harmonic wave-propa gation problems is proposed. The special properties of tangentially co ntinuous vector finite elements (TVFEM's) are utilized to formulate an ungauged vector-potential scheme in terms of the field method plus on e very sparse ''gradient matrix'' with two nonzero integer or pointer entries per row. The suggested formalism is intended for use with iter ative solvers. It combines the simplicity and modest memory requiremen ts of the field formulation with the superior numerical convergence of the ungauged vector-potential scheme.