A posteriori error estimation of residual type for anisotropic diffusion-convection-reaction problems

This paper presents a robust a posteriori residual error estimator for diffusion-convection-reaction problems with anisotropic diffusion, approximated by a SUPG finite element method on isotropic or anisotropic meshes in R^d, d=2 or 3. The equivalence between the energy norm of the error and the residual error estimator is proved. Numerical tests confirm the theoretical results.     

A posteriori error analysis for numerical approximations of Friedrichs systems

The global error of numerical approximations for symmetric positive systems in the sense of Friedrichs is decomposed into a locally created part and a propagating component. Residual-based two-sided local a posteriori error bounds are derived for the locally created part of the global error. These suggest taking the -norm as well as weaker, dual norms of the computable residual as local error indicators. The dual graph norm of the residual is further bounded from above and below in terms of the norm of where h is the local mesh size. The theoretical results are illustrated by a series of numerical experiments. Received January 10, 1997 / Revised version received March 5, 1998     

A posteriori error estimates for elliptic problems with Dirac delta source terms

The aim of this paper is to introduce residual type a posteriori error estimators for a Poisson problem with a Dirac delta source term, in L ^p norm and W^1,p seminorm. The estimators are proved to yield global upper and local lower bounds for the corresponding norms of the error. They are used to guide adaptive procedures, which are experimentally shown to lead to optimal orders of convergence.     

A posteriori finite element error estimators for indefinite elliptic boundary value problems ∗

A general construction technique is presented for a posteriori error estimators of finite element solutions of elliptic boundary value problems that satisfy a Gång inequality. The estimators are obtained by an element–by–element solution of ‘weak residual’ with or without considering element boundary residuals. There is no order restriction on the finite element spaces used for the approximate solution or the error estimation; that is, the design of the estimators is applicable in connection with either one of the h–p–, or hp– formulations of the finite element method. Under suitable assumptions it is shown that the estimators are bounded by constant multiples of the true error in a suitable norm. Some numerical results are given to demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of the approach.     

An adaptive stabilized finite element method for the generalized Stokes problem

In this work we present an adaptive strategy (based on an a posteriori error estimator) for a stabilized finite element method for the Stokes problem, with and without a reaction term. The hierarchical type estimator is based on the solution of local problems posed on appropriate finite dimensional spaces of bubble-like functions. An equivalence result between the norm of the finite element error and the estimator is given, where the dependence of the constants on the physics of the problem is explicited. Several numerical results confirming both the theoretical results and the good performance of the estimator are given.     

Continuous-discontinuous finite element method for convection-diffusion problems with characteristic layers

We study convergence properties of a numerical method for convection-diffusion problems with characteristic layers on a layer-adapted mesh. The method couples standard Galerkin with an h-version of the nonsymmetric discontinuous Galerkin finite element method with bilinear elements. In an associated norm, we derive the error estimate as well as the supercloseness result that are uniform in the perturbation parameter. Applying a post-processing operator for the discontinuous Galerkin method, we construct a new numerical solution with enhanced convergence properties.     

A unified approach to a posteriori error estimation using element residual methods

Summary This paper deals with the problem of obtaining numerical estimates of the accuracy of approximations to solutions of elliptic partial differential equations. It is shown that, by solving appropriate local residual type problems, one can obtain upper bounds on the error in the energy norm. Moreover, in the special case of adaptiveh-p finite element analysis, the estimator will also give a realistic estimate of the error. A key feature of this is the development of a systematic approach to the determination of boundary conditions for the local problems. The work extends and combines several existing methods to the case of fullh-p finite element approximation on possibly irregular meshes with, elements of non-uniform degree. As a special case, the analysis proves a conjecture made by Bank and Weiser [Some A Posteriori Error Estimators for Elliptic Partial Differential Equations, Math. Comput.44, 283–301 (1985)].     

Superconvergent biquadratic finite volume element method for two-dimensional Poisson’s equations

In this paper, a kind of biquadratic finite volume element method is presented for two-dimensional Poisson’s equations by restricting the optimal stress points of biquadratic interpolation as the vertices of control volumes. The method can be effectively implemented by alternating direction technique. It is proved that the method has optimal energy norm error estimates. The superconvergence of numerical gradients at optimal stress points is discussed and it is proved that the method has also superconvergence displacement at nodal points by a modified dual argument technique. Finally, a numerical example verifies the theoretical results and illustrates the effectiveness of the method.     

A posteriori error estimations of residual type for Signorini's problem

This paper presents an a posteriori error analysis for the linear finite element approximation of the Signorini problem in two space dimensions. A posteriori estimations of residual type are defined and upper and lower bounds of the discretization error are obtained. We perform several numerical experiments in order to compare the convergence of the terms in the error estimator with the discretization error.     

Adaptive finite elements for exterior domain problems

Summary. We present an adaptive finite element method for solving elliptic problems in exterior domains, that is for problems in the exterior of a bounded closed domain in , . We describe a procedure to generate a sequence of bounded computational domains , , more precisely, a sequence of successively finer and larger grids, until the desired accuracy of the solution is reached. To this end we prove an a posteriori error estimate for the error on the unbounded domain in the energy norm by means of a residual based error estimator. Furthermore we prove convergence of the adaptive algorithm. Numerical examples show the optimal order of convergence. Received July 8, 1997 /Revised version received October 23, 1997     

A new a posteriori error estimate for convection–reaction–diffusion problems

A new a posteriori error estimate is derived for the stationary convection–reaction–diffusion equation. In order to estimate the approximation error in the usual energy norm, the underlying bilinear form is decomposed into a computable integral and two other terms which can be estimated from above using elementary tools of functional analysis. Two auxiliary parameter-functions are introduced to construct such a splitting and tune the resulting bound. If these functions are chosen in an optimal way, the exact energy norm of the error is recovered, which proves that the estimate is sharp. The presented methodology is completely independent of the numerical technique used to compute the approximate solution. In particular, it is applicable to approximations which fail to satisfy the Galerkin orthogonality, e.g. due to an inconsistent stabilization, flux limiting, low-order quadrature rules, round-off and iteration errors, etc. Moreover, the only constant that appears in the proposed error estimate is global and stems from the Friedrichs–Poincaré inequality. Numerical experiments illustrate the potential of the proposed error estimation technique.     

A posteriori error estimators for nonconforming finite element methods of the linear elasticity problem

In this work we derive and analyze a posteriori error estimators for low-order nonconforming finite element methods of the linear elasticity problem on both triangular and quadrilateral meshes, with hanging nodes allowed for local mesh refinement. First, it is shown that equilibrated Neumann data on interelement boundaries are simply given by the local weak residuals of the numerical solution. The first error estimator is then obtained by applying the equilibrated residual method with this set of Neumann data. From this implicit estimator we also derive two explicit error estimators, one of which is similar to the one proposed by Dörfler and Ainsworth (2005) [24] for the Stokes problem. It is established that all these error estimators are reliable and efficient in a robust way with respect to the Lamé constants. The main advantage of our error estimators is that they yield guaranteed, i.e., constant-free upper bounds for the energy-like error (up to higher order terms due to data oscillation) when a good estimate for the inf-sup constant is available, which is confirmed by some numerical results.     

Localization of the Aronszajn-Slobodeckij norm and application to adaptive boundary element methods Part II. The three-dimensional case

Summary. In this paper we introduce new local a-posteriori error indicators for the Galerkin discretization of three-dimensional boundary integral equations. These error indicators are efficient and reliable for a wide class of integral operators, in particular for operators of negative order. They are based on local norms of the computable residual and can be used for controlling the adaptive refinement. The proofs of efficiency and reliability are based on the result that the Aronszajn-Slobodeckij norm (given by a double integral for a non-integer ) is localizable for certain functions. Neither inverse estimates nor saturation properties are needed. In this paper, we extend the two-dimensional results of a previous paper to the three-dimensional case. Received March 20, 2000 / Published online November 15, 2001     

Asymptotic exactness of an a posteriori error estimator based on the equilibrated residual method

In this paper we analyze an a posteriori error estimator based on the equilibrated residual method. We prove that this estimator is asymptotically exact in the energy norm for regular solutions and meshes. Numerical examples are included to illustrate the theoretical results.     

A posteriori error estimates for a finite element approximation of transmission problems with sign changing coefficients

We perform the a posteriori error analysis of residual type of transmission problem with sign changing coefficients. According to Bonnet-BenDhia et al. (2010) [9], if the contrast is large enough, the continuous problem can be transformed into a coercive one. We further show that a similar property holds for the discrete problem for any regular meshes, extending the framework from Bonnet-BenDhia et al. [9]. The reliability and efficiency of the proposed estimator are confirmed by some numerical tests.     

Pointwise a posteriori error estimates for monotone semi-linear equations

We derive upper and lower a posteriori estimates for the maximum norm error in finite element solutions of monotone semi-linear equations. The estimates hold for Lagrange elements of any fixed order, non-smooth nonlinearities, and take numerical integration into account. The proof hinges on constructing continuous barrier functions by correcting the discrete solution appropriately, and then applying the continuous maximum principle; no geometric mesh constraints are thus required. Numerical experiments illustrate reliability and efficiency properties of the corresponding estimators and investigate the performance of the resulting adaptive algorithms in terms of the polynomial order and quadrature.     

An adaptive discontinuous finite volume method for elliptic problems

An adaptive discontinuous finite volume method is developed and analyzed in this paper. We prove that the adaptive procedure achieves guaranteed error reduction in a mesh-dependent energy norm and has a linear convergence rate. Numerical results are also presented to illustrate the theoretical analysis.     

Guaranteed and robust discontinuous Galerkin a posteriori error estimates for convection-diffusion-reaction problems

We propose and study a posteriori error estimates for convection-diffusion-reaction problems with inhomogeneous and anisotropic diffusion approximated by weighted interior-penalty discontinuous Galerkin methods. Our twofold objective is to derive estimates without undetermined constants and to analyze carefully the robustness of the estimates in singularly perturbed regimes due to dominant convection or reaction. We first derive locally computable estimates for the error measured in the energy (semi)norm. These estimates are evaluated using -conforming diffusive and convective flux reconstructions, thereby extending the previous work on pure diffusion problems. The resulting estimates are semi-robust in the sense that local lower error bounds can be derived using suitable cutoff functions of the local Péclet and Damköhler numbers. Fully robust estimates are obtained for the error measured in an augmented norm consisting of the energy (semi)norm, a dual norm of the skew-symmetric part of the differential operator, and a suitable contribution of the interelement jumps of the discrete solution. Numerical experiments are presented to illustrate the theoretical results.     

Discrete harmonics for stream function-vorticity Stokes problem

Summary. We consider the bidimensional Stokes problem for incompressible fluids in stream function-vorticity. For this problem, the classical finite element method of degree one converges only in for the norm of the vorticity. We propose to use harmonic functions to approach the vorticity along the boundary. Discrete harmonics are functions that are used in practice to derive a new numerical method. We prove that we obtain with this numerical scheme an error of order for the norm of the vorticity. Received January, 2000 / Revised version received May 15, 2001 / Published online December 18, 2001     

An asymptotic behavior and a posteriori error estimates for the generalized Schwartz method of advection-diffusion equation

In this paper, a posteriori error estimates for the generalized Schwartz method with Dirichlet boundary conditions on the interfaces for advection-diffusion equation with second order boundary value problems are proved by using the Euler time scheme combined with Galerkin spatial method. Furthermore, an asymptotic behavior in Sobolev norm is deduced using Benssoussan-Lions' algorithm. Finally, the results of some numerical experiments are presented to support the theory.