Edge elements, their advantages and their disadvantages

In finite-element methods for solving electromagnetic field problems, the use of edge elements has become very popular. In fact, edge elements are often said to be a cure for many difficulties that are encountered and they are claimed to yield accurate results. In the present paper we analyse these claims for tetrahedral elements. In particular we compare two different types of “linear” edge elements and the classical linear nodal element. Comparisons for higher-order elements and elements defined on other elementary subdomains, for instance on hexahedra, run along the same lines and yield similar conclusions