We prove that a certain discrete energy for triangulated surfaces, defined in the spirit of discrete differential geometry, converges to the Willmore energy in the sense of Γ-convergence. Variants of this discrete energy have been discussed before in the computer graphics literature.
Gladbach, P., & Olbermann, H. (2023). Approximation of the Willmore energy by a discrete geometry model. Advances in Calculus of Variations, 16(2), 403-424. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/236502 (Original work published 2023)