Symmetric modified finite volume element methods for self-adjoint elliptic and parabolic problems

The finite volume element method is a discretization technique for partial differential equations, but in general case the coefficient matrix of its linear system is not symmetric, even for the self-adjoint continuous problem. In this paper we develop a kind of symmetric modified finite volume element methods both for general self-adjoint elliptic and for parabolic problems on general discretization, their coefficient matrix are symmetric. We give the optimal order energy norm error estimates. We also prove that the difference between the solutions of the finite volume element method and symmetric modified finite volume element method is a high order term. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.