This article deals with solving partial differential equations with the finite element method on hybrid non-conforming hexahedral-tetrahedral meshes. By non-conforming, we mean that a quadrangular face of a hexahedron can be connected to two triangular faces of tetrahedra. We introduce a set of low-order continuous (C0) finite element spaces defined on these meshes. They are built from standard tri-linear and quadratic Lagrange finite elements with an extra set of constraints at non-conforming hexahedra-tetrahedra junctions to recover continuity. We consider both the continuity of the geometry and the continuity of the function basis as follows: the continuity of the geometry is achieved by using quadratic mappings for tetrahedra connected to tri-affine hexahedra and the continuity of interpolating functions is enforced in a similar manner by using quadratic Lagrange basis on tetrahedra with constraints at non-conforming junctions to match tri-linear hexahedra. The so-defined function spaces are validated numerically on simple Poisson and linear elasticity problems for which an analytical solution is known. We observe that using a hybrid mesh with the proposed function spaces results in an accuracy significantly better than when using linear tetrahedra and slightly worse than when solely using tri-linear hexahedra. As a consequence, the proposed function spaces may be a promising alternative for complex geometries that are out of reach of existing full hexahedral meshing methods.
@cite_14: We study arbitrarily high-order finite elements defined on pyramids on discontinuous Galerkin methods. We propose a new family of high-order pyramidal finite element using orthogonal basis functions which can be used in hybrid meshes including hexahedra, tetrahedra, wedges and pyramids. We perform a comparison between these orthogonal functions and nodal functions for affine and non-affine elements. Different strategies for the inversion of mass matrix are also considered and discussed. Numerical experiments are conducted for 3-D Maxwell's equations.
@cite_9: 
@cite_1: Shape functions and numerical integration formulas for three-dimensional finite element analysis as found in most finite element reference books are incomplete. For example, shape functions and integration formulas for a pyramid with a quadrilateral base are missing. It is also difficult to find symmetric higher-order integration formulas for triangular and tetrahedral elements. In general, these shape functions and integration formulas cannot be satisfactorily derived as degenerate cases of shape functions and integration formulas for hexahedral (brick) elements. In this paper we present C°-continuous quadrilateral pyramid elements and integration formulas for two- and three-dimensional elements.
@cite_16: We provide a comprehensive study of arbitrarily high-order finite elements defined on pyramids. We propose a new family of high-order nodal pyramidal finite element which can be used in hybrid meshes which include hexahedra, tetrahedra, wedges and pyramids. Finite elements matrices can be evaluated through approximate integration, and we show that the order of convergence of the method is conserved. Numerical results demonstrate the efficiency of hybrid meshes compared to pure tetrahedral meshes or hexahedral meshes obtained by splitting tetrahedra into hexahedra.
@cite_20: We present a time-explicit discontinuous Galerkin (DG) solver for the time-domain acoustic wave equation on hybrid meshes containing vertex-mapped hexahedral, wedge, pyramidal and tetrahedral elements. Discretely energy-stable formulations are presented for both Gauss-Legendre and Gauss-Legendre-Lobatto (Spectral Element) nodal bases for the hexahedron. Stable timestep restrictions for hybrid meshes are derived by bounding the spectral radius of the DG operator using order-dependent constants in trace and Markov inequalities. Computational efficiency is achieved under a combination of element-specific kernels (including new quadrature-free operators for the pyramid), multi-rate timestepping, and acceleration using Graphics Processing Units. We present an energy-stable low-storage high order discontinuous Galerkin method for the wave equation.We describe algorithms for efficient implementation on Graphics Processing Units (GPUs).We derive order-dependent global and local timestep restrictions for DG on hybrid meshes.We verify high order convergence and computational efficiency with numerical experiments.
Recently in the context of discontinuous Galerkin methods, hybrid meshes have been successfully used on acoustic wave equation problems @cite_20 or on Maxwell equations @cite_14 with significant speedups over tetrahedral meshes. For standard Galerkin methods, continuous finite element spaces for hybrid meshes have been introduced, such as in @cite_9 . A succinct survey exposing various approaches with emphasis on the pyramidal element is available in the introduction of @cite_16 . All these propositions involve special functions, such as rationals, as it is not possible to build a polynomial function basis on the pyramid which is conforming with tetrahedra and hexahedra polynomial function basis, as noticed in @cite_1 .