Isogeometric analysis with $C^1$ functions on unstructured quadrilateral meshes

Abstract: In the context of isogeometric analysis, globally $C^1$ isogeometric spaces over unstructured quadrilateral meshes allow the direct solution of fourth order partial differential equations on complex geometries via their Galerkin discretization. The design of such smooth spaces has been intensively studied in the last five years, in particular for the case of planar domains, and is still task of current research. In this paper, we first give a short survey of the developed methods and especially focus on the approach [26]. There, the construction of a specific $C^1$ isogeometric spline space for the class of so-called analysis-suitable $G^1$ multi-patch parametrizations is presented. This particular class of parameterizations comprises exactly those multi-patch geometries, which ensure the design of $C^1$ spaces with optimal approximation properties, and allows the representation of complex planar multi-patch domains. We present known results in a coherent framework, and also extend the construction to parametrizations that are not analysis-suitable $G^1$ by allowing higher-degree splines in the neighborhood of the extraordinary vertices and edges. Finally, we present numerical tests that illustrate the behavior of the proposed method on representative examples.