Exponential convergence of the hp-version for the boundary element method on open surfaces

Summary. We analyze the boundary element Galerkin method for weakly singular and hypersingular integral equations of the first kind on open surfaces. We show that the hp-version of the Galerkin method with geometrically refined meshes converges exponentially fast for both integral equations. The proof of this fast convergence is based on the special structure of the solutions of the integral equations which possess specific singularities at the corners and the edges of the surface. We show that these singularities can be efficiently approximated by piecewise tensor products of splines of different degrees on geometrically graded meshes. Numerical experiments supporting these results are presented. Received December 19, 1996 / Revised version received September 24, 1997 / Published online August 19, 1999