Orthogonal Hierarchical NÉdÉlec Elements

An orthogonalization procedure for a set of high-order hierarchical (curl)-conforming basis functions or tangential vector elements which retains the span of the Nedelec space is proposed as an alternative to the Gram-Schmidt procedure which cannot be used without compromising the Nedelec space. The resulting basis functions are compared with published basis functions in terms of conditioning and solution performance. Relatively better conditioned element matrices and improved convergence speed of an iterative solver have been observed.