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For the stiffness tensor in solid mechanics, see Hooke's law#Matrix representation (stiffness
tensor).
In the finite element method for the numerical solution of elliptic partial differential equations, the stiffness matrix represents
the system of linear equations that must be solved in order to ascertain an approximate solution to the differential equation.
Contents
1The stiffness matrix for the Poisson problem
2The stiffness matrix for other problems
3Practical assembly of the stiffness matrix
4References
The stiffness matrix for the Poisson problem[edit]
For simplicity, we will first consider the Poisson problem
on some domain Ω, subject to the boundary condition u = 0 on the boundary of Ω. To discretize this equation by the finite
element method, one chooses a set of basis functions {φ1, ..., φn} defined on Ω which also vanish on the boundary. One
then approximates
The coefficients u1, ..., un are determined so that the error in the approximation is orthogonal to each basis
function φi:
The stiffness matrix is the n-element square matrix A defined by
By defining the vector F with components Fi = , the coefficients ui are determined by the linear
system AU = F. The stiffness matrix is symmetric, i.e. Aij = Aji, so all its eigenvalues are real. Moreover, it
is a strictly positive-definite matrix, so that the system AU = F always has a unique solution. (For other
problems, these nice properties will be lost.)
Note that the stiffness matrix will be different depending on the computational grid used for the domain
and what type of finite element is used. For example, the stiffness matrix when piecewise quadratic finite
elements are used will have more degrees of freedom than piecewise linear elements.
The stiffness matrix for other problems[edit]
Determining the stiffness matrix for other PDE follows essentially the same procedure, but it can be
complicated by the choice of boundary conditions. As a more complex example, consider the elliptic
equation
where A(x) = akl(x) is a positive-definite matrix defined for each point x in the domain. We impose
the Robin boundary condition
where νk is the component of the unit outward normal vector ν in the k-th direction. The
system to be solved is
as can be shown using an analogue of Green's identity. The coefficients ui are still found
by solving a system of linear equations, but the matrix representing the system is
markedly different from that for the ordinary Poisson problem.
In general, to each scalar elliptic operator L of order 2k, there is associated a bilinear
form B on the Sobolev space Hk, so that the weak formulation of the equation Lu = f is
for all functions v in Hk. Then the stiffness matrix for this problem is
Practical assembly of the stiffness
matrix[edit]
In order to implement the finite element method on a computer, one must first
choose a set of basis functions and then compute the integrals defining the
stiffness matrix. Usually, the domain Ω is discretized by some form of mesh
generation, wherein it is divided into non-overlapping triangles or
quadrilaterals, which are generally referred to as elements. The basis
functions are then chosen to be polynomials of some order within each
element, and continuous across element boundaries. The simplest choices
are piecewise linear for triangular elements and piecewise bilinear for
rectangular elements.
The element stiffness matrix A[k] for element Tk is the matrix
The element stiffness matrix is zero for most values of i and j, for which
the corresponding basis functions are zero within Tk. The full stiffness
matrix A is the sum of the element stiffness matrices. In particular, for
basis functions that are only supported locally, the stiffness matrix
is sparse.
For many standard choices of basis functions, i.e. piecewise linear basis
functions on triangles, there are simple formulas for the element
stiffness matrices. For example, for piecewise linear elements, consider
a triangle with vertices (x1,y1), (x2,y2), (x3,y3), and define the 2×3 matrix
Then the element stiffness matrix is
When the differential equation is more complicated, say by
having an inhomogeneous diffusion coefficient, the integral
defining the element stiffness matrix can be evaluated
by Gaussian quadrature.
The condition number of the stiffness matrix depends strongly
on the quality of the numerical grid. In particular, triangles
with small angles in the finite element mesh induce large
eigenvalues of the stiffness matrix, degrading the solution
quality.
