New interpolation error estimates and a posteriori error analysis for linear parabolic interface problems

We derive residual‐based a posteriori error estimates of finite element method for linear parabolic interface problems in a two‐dimensional convex polygonal domain. Both spatially discrete and fully discrete approximations are analyzed. While the space discretization uses finite element spaces that are allowed to change in time, the time discretization is based on the backward Euler approximation. The main ingredients used in deriving a posteriori estimates are new Clément type interpolation estimates and an appropriate adaptation of the elliptic reconstruction technique introduced by (Makridakis and Nochetto, SIAM J Numer Anal 4 (2003), 1585–1594). We use only an energy argument to establish a posteriori error estimates with optimal order convergence in the ‐norm and almost optimal order in the ‐norm. The interfaces are assumed to be of arbitrary shape but are smooth for our purpose. Numerical results are presented to validate our derived estimators. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 33: 570–598, 2017