This may not be what you seek, but in the 1996 paper, "Anisotropic refinement algorithms for finite elements" by Goodman, Samuelsson, and Szepessy ([.ps link][1]), they show an example of a function $u(x,y)=\frac{1}{2} y^2$, independent of $x$, which solves $\Delta u = 1$ on $\mathbb{R}^2$. But with the triangulation shown below, with $\delta \ll \epsilon$, as $\delta \rightarrow 0$, the finite element equation approximates $\Delta u = 0$ instead of $\Delta u = 1$. <br /> ![Nonconvergence][2] <br /> [1]: http://math.nyu.edu/faculty/goodman/research/anisotropic_refinement.ps [2]: http://cs.smith.edu/~orourke/MathOverflow/Nonconvergence.jpg