Polynomial Approximation over Arbitrary Shape Domains

In spectral/finite element methods, a robust and stable high-order polynomial approximation method for the solution can significantly reduce the required number of degrees of freedom (DOFs) to achieve a certain level of accuracy. In this work, a closed-form relation is proposed to approximate the Fekete points (AFPs) on arbitrary shape domains based on the singular value decomposition (SVD) of the Vandermonde matrix. In addition, a novel method is derived to compute the moments on highly complex domains, which may include discontinuities. Then, AFPs are used to generate compatible basis functions using SVD. Equations are derived and presented to determine orthogonal/orthonormal modal basis functions, as well as the Lagrange basis. Furthermore, theorems are proved to show the convergence and accuracy of the proposed method, together with an explicit form of the Weierstrass theorem for polynomial approximation. The method was implemented and some classical cases were analyzed. The results show the superior performance of the proposed method in terms of convergence and accuracy using many fewer DOFs and, thus, a much lower computational cost. It was shown that the orthogonal modal basis is the best choice to decrease the DOFs while maintaining a small Lebesgue constant when very high degree of polynomial is employed.