Quadrature for $hp$-Galerkin BEM in ${\hbox{\sf l\kern-.13em R}}^3$

Summary.

The Galerkin discretization of a Fredholm integral equation of the second kind on a closed, piecewise analytic surface $\Gamma \subset \hbox{\sf l\kern-.13em R}^3$ is analyzed. High order, $hp$-boundary elements on grids which are geometrically graded toward the edges and vertices of the surface give exponential convergence, similar to what is known in the $hp$-Finite Element Method. A quadrature strategy is developed which gives rise to a fully discrete scheme preserving the exponential convergence of the $hp$-Boundary Element Method. The total work necessary for the consistent quadratures is shown to grow algebraically with the number of degrees of freedom. Numerical results on a curved polyhedron show exponential convergence with respect to the number of degrees of freedom as well as with respect to the CPU-time.