hp-adaptive01.docVIP

1 Introduction In the last few years, a new area of numerical methods - adaptive finite element methods (FEMs) - culminated in a very complex but advantageous technique for three-dimensional anisotropic adaptivity. This technique uses a very different approach from ``traditional FEM. These differences are so profound that, for some users or developers, the methodology is completely foreign. This document explains some of the more important issues which distinguish these versions of the finite element method. We will discuss some new ideas related to adaptive techniques and present new problems