Abstract: | We consider the numerical approximation of singularly perturbed reaction‐diffusion problems over two‐dimensional domains with smooth boundary. Using the h version of the finite element method over appropriately designed piecewise uniform (Shishkin) meshes, we are able to uniformly approximate the solution at a quasi‐optimal rate. The results of numerical computations showing agreement with the analysis are also presented. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 19: 89–111, 2003 |