Elliptic reconstruction and a posteriori error estimates for fully discrete linear parabolic problems

We derive a posteriori error estimates for fully discrete approximations to solutions of linear parabolic equations. The space discretization uses finite element spaces that are allowed to change in time. Our main tool is an appropriate adaptation of the elliptic reconstruction technique, introduced by Makridakis and Nochetto. We derive novel a posteriori estimates for the norms of L∞(0, T; L2(Ω)) and the higher order spaces, L∞(0, T;H1(Ω)) and H1(0, T; L2(Ω)), with optimal orders of convergence

Rate of convergence for a Galerkin scheme approximating a two-scale reaction-diffusion system with nonlinear transmission condition

We study a two-scale reaction-diffusion system with nonlinear reaction terms and a nonlinear transmission condition (remotely ressembling Henry's law) posed at air-liquid interfaces. We prove the rate of convergence of the two-scale Galerkin method proposed in Muntean & Neuss-Radu (2009) for approximating this system in the case when both the microstructure and macroscopic domain are two-dimensional. The main difficulty is created by the presence of a boundary nonlinear term entering the transmission condition. Besides using the particular two-scale structure of the system, the ingredients of the proof include two-scale interpolation-error estimates, an interpolation-trace inequality, and improved regularity estimates.Comment: 14 pages, table of content

A comparison of duality and energy aposteriori estimates for L?(0,T;L2({\Omega})) in parabolic problems

We use the elliptic reconstruction technique in combination with a duality approach to prove aposteriori error estimates for fully discrete back- ward Euler scheme for linear parabolic equations. As an application, we com- bine our result with the residual based estimators from the aposteriori esti- mation for elliptic problems to derive space-error indicators and thus a fully practical version of the estimators bounding the error in the L \infty (0, T ; L2({\Omega})) norm. These estimators, which are of optimal order, extend those introduced by Eriksson and Johnson (1991) by taking into account the error induced by the mesh changes and allowing for a more flexible use of the elliptic estima- tors. For comparison with previous results we derive also an energy-based aposteriori estimate for the L \infty (0, T ; L2({\Omega}))-error which simplifies a previous one given in Lakkis and Makridakis (2006). We then compare both estimators (duality vs. energy) in practical situations and draw conclusions.Comment: 30 pages, including 7 color plates in 4 figure

A posteriori L∞(L^2)-error bounds in finite element approximation of the wave equation

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A finite element method for second order nonvariational elliptic problems

We propose a numerical method to approximate the solution of second order elliptic problems in nonvariational form. The method is of Galerkin type using conforming finite elements and applied directly to the nonvariational (nondivergence) form of a second order linear elliptic problem. The key tools are an appropriate concept of “finite element Hessian” and a Schur complement approach to solving the resulting linear algebra problem. The method is illustrated with computational experiments on three linear and one quasi-linear PDE, all in nonvariational form

Gradient recovery in adaptive finite element methods for parabolic problems

We derive energy-norm aposteriori error bounds, using gradient recovery (ZZ) estimators to control the spatial error, for fully discrete schemes for the linear heat equation. This appears to be the first completely rigorous derivation of ZZ estimators for fully discrete schemes for evolution problems, without any restrictive assumption on the timestep size. An essential tool for the analysis is the elliptic reconstruction technique. Our theoretical results are backed with extensive numerical experimentation aimed at (a) testing the practical sharpness and asymptotic behaviour of the error estimator against the error, and (b) deriving an adaptive method based on our estimators. An extra novelty provided is an implementation of a coarsening error "preindicator", with a complete implementation guide in ALBERTA.Comment: 6 figures, 1 sketch, appendix with pseudocod

Error Control for the Mean Curvature Flow

We study the equation describing the motion of a nonparametric surface according to its mean curvature flow. This is a nonuniformly parabolic equation that can be discretized in space via a finite element method. We conduct an aposteriori error analysis of the semidiscrete scheme and derive upper bounds to the error in terms of computable quantities called estimators. The reliability of the estimators is practically tested through numerical simulations