Sobolev--Poincaré inequalities for piecewise $W^{2,p}$ functions over general polytopic meshes

Abstract

We establish Sobolev--Poincaré inequalities for piecewise $W^{2,p}$ functions in two and three dimensions over families of general polytopic (including shape-regular simplicial and Cartesian) meshes, allowing for degenerate facets. The proposed inequalities feature control by either the broken Hessian or, more naturally for general fourth-order problems, the broken Laplacian. Important tools in their derivation are a Helmholtz decomposition in Banach--Sobolev spaces and Sobolev--Poincaré inequalities for piecewise $W^{1,p}$ functions; we avoid the use of any inverse inequality. We provide estimates with fairly general Lebesgue exponents. Applications to the stability analysis of nonconforming discretizations for second- and fourth-order, linear and nonlinear problems are exhibited.