Hierarchical tangential vector finite elements for tetrahedra

Tangential vector finite elements (TVFEs) overcome most of the shortcomings of node based finite elements for electromagnetic simulations. Hierarchical TVFEs are of considerable practical interest since they allow use of effective selective field expansions where different order TVFEs are combined within a computational domain. For a tetrahedral element, this paper proposes a set of hierarchical mixed-order TVFEs up to and including order 2.5 that differ from previously presented TVFEs. The hierarchical mixed-order TVFEs are constructed as the three-dimensional equivalent of hierarchical mixed-order TVFEs for a triangular element. They can be formulated for higher orders than 2.5 and the generalization to curved tetrahedral elements is straightforward.