A stabilizer free weak Galerkin method for the Biharmonic Equation on Polytopal Meshes

Abstract

A new stabilizer free weak Galerkin (WG) method is introduced and analyzed for the biharmonic equation. Stabilizing/penalty terms are often necessary in the finite element formulations with discontinuous approximations to ensure the stability of the methods. Removal of stabilizers will simplify finite element formulations and reduce programming complexity. This stabilizer free WG method has an ultra simple formulation and can work on general partitions with polygons/polyhedra. Optimal order error estimates in a discrete $H^2$ for $k\ge 2$ and in $L^2$ norm for $k>2$ are established for the corresponding weak Galerkin finite element solutions. Numerical results are provided to confirm the theories.