Partial expansion of a Lipschitz domain and some applications

We show that a Lipschitz domain can be expanded solely near a part of its boundary, assuming that the part is enclosed by a piecewise C ¹ curve. The expanded domain as well as the extended part are both Lipschitz. We apply this result to prove a regular decomposition of standard vector Sobolev spaces with vanishing traces only on part of the boundary. Another application in the construction of low-regularity projectors into finite element spaces with partial boundary conditions is also indicated. © 2012 Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.