Novel Geometrically Defined Mass Matrices for Tetrahedral Meshes

This contribution introduces a novel method for constructing mass matrices for general tetrahedral elements. By considering the construction of the reluctivity mass matrix as an example, a new derivation of a recipe to geometrically construct a symmetric positive semi-definite and consistent mass matrix is provided. It is shown why such a matrix can be used inside formulations where the mass matrix is right multiplied by the appropriate incidence matrix. Then, a second recipe is introduced to produce a consistent and symmetric positive definite matrix. The proposed method is based on an original algebraic technique that differs fundamentally from what is available in the literature. The proposed recipe opens also the possibility to improve the conditioning of the resulting elementary mass matrices.