[Nek5000-users] Spectral method with Nek

[nek5000-users at lists.mcs.anl.gov]

All,

I was wondering if the following statement is true or false:

"If a single element is used for the whole domain then one can claim the 
Nek simulation is spectral instead of spectral element".

Based on this, I carried out DNS on cavity for relatively large Reynolds 
numbers and I was not able to capture the instability mechanisms with 
one element (even when I increased the power of polynomial to 12 or 18). 
While I'm not surprised, I just wanted to see if anyone else has a 
similar experience.

As a side question, why Nek utilizes Legendre polynomials instead of 
Chebyshev for each element? Is this because we're also interested in 
modeling non-uniformly spaced nodes?

Best,
Saleh