An up-to-date, one-stop reference-complete with applications This volume presents the most up-to-date information available on aposteriori error estimation for finite element approximation inmechanics and mathematics. It emphasizes methods for ellipticboundary value problems and includes applications to incompressibleflow and nonlinear problems. Recent years have seen an explosion in the study of a posteriorierror estimators due to their remarkable influence on improvingboth accuracy and reliability in scientific computing. In an effortto provide an accessible source, the authors have sought to presentkey ideas and common principles on a sound mathematicalfooting. Topics covered in this timely reference include: * Implicit and explicit a posteriori error estimators * Recovery-based error estimators * Estimators, indicators, and hierarchic bases * The equilibrated residual method * Methodology for the comparison of estimators * Estimation of errors in quantities of interest A Posteriori Error Estimation in Finite Element Analysis is a lucidand convenient resource for researchers in almost any field offinite element methods, and for applied mathematicians andengineers who have an interest in error estimation and/or finiteelements.

A posteriori error estimation techniques are fundamental to the efficient numerical solution of PDEs arising in physical and technical applications. This book gives a unified approach to these techniques and guides graduate students, researchers, and practitioners towards understanding, applying and developing self-adaptive discretization methods.

Self-adaptive discretization methods are now an indispensable tool for the numerical solution of partial differential equations that arise from physical and technical applications. The aim is to obtain a numerical solution within a prescribed tolerance using a minimal amount of work. The main tools in achieving this goal are a posteriori error estimates which give global and local information on the error of the numerical solution and which can easily be computed from the given numerical solution and the data of the differential equation. This book reviews the most frequently used a posteriori error estimation techniques and applies them to a broad class of linear and nonlinear elliptic and parabolic equations. Although there are various approaches to adaptivity and a posteriori error estimation, they are all based on a few common principles. The main aim of the book is to elaborate these basic principles and to give guidelines for developing adaptive schemes for new problems. Chapters 1 and 2 are quite elementary and present various error indicators and their use for mesh adaptation in the framework of a simple model problem. The basic principles are introduced using a minimal amount of notations and techniques providing a complete overview for the non-specialist. Chapters 4-6 on the other hand are more advanced and present a posteriori error estimates within a general framework using the technical tools collected in Chapter 3. Most sections close with a bibliographical remark which indicates the historical development and hints at further results.

Most of the many books on finite elements are devoted either to mathematical theory or to engineering applications, but not to both. This book presents computed numbers which not only illustrate the theory but can only be analysed using the theory. This approach, both dual and interacting between theory and computation makes this book unique.

Advanced numerical simulations that use adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) methods have now become routine in engineering and science. Originally developed for computational fluid dynamics applications these methods have propagated to fields as diverse as astrophysics, climate modeling, combustion, biophysics and many others. The underlying physical models and equations used in these disciplines are rather different, yet algorithmic and implementation issues facing practitioners are often remarkably similar. Unfortunately, there has been little effort to review the advances and outstanding issues of adaptive mesh refinement methods across such a variety of fields. This book attempts to bridge this gap. The book presents a collection of papers by experts in the field of AMR who analyze past advances in the field and evaluate the current state of adaptive mesh refinement methods in scientific computing.

This book gives an introduction to the finite element method as a general computational method for solving partial differential equations approximately. Our approach is mathematical in nature with a strong focus on the underlying mathematical principles, such as approximation properties of piecewise polynomial spaces, and variational formulations of partial differential equations, but with a minimum level of advanced mathematical machinery from functional analysis and partial differential equations. In principle, the material should be accessible to students with only knowledge of calculus of several variables, basic partial differential equations, and linear algebra, as the necessary concepts from more advanced analysis are introduced when needed. Throughout the text we emphasize implementation of the involved algorithms, and have therefore mixed mathematical theory with concrete computer code using the numerical software MATLAB is and its PDE-Toolbox. We have also had the ambition to cover some of the most important applications of finite elements and the basic finite element methods developed for those applications, including diffusion and transport phenomena, solid and fluid mechanics, and also electromagnetics.​

These Lecture Notes have been compiled from the material presented by the second author in a lecture series ('Nachdiplomvorlesung') at the Department of Mathematics of the ETH Zurich during the summer term 2002. Concepts of 'self adaptivity' in the numerical solution of differential equations are discussed with emphasis on Galerkin finite element methods. The key issues are a posteriori er ror estimation and automatic mesh adaptation. Besides the traditional approach of energy-norm error control, a new duality-based technique, the Dual Weighted Residual method (or shortly D WR method) for goal-oriented error estimation is discussed in detail. This method aims at economical computation of arbitrary quantities of physical interest by properly adapting the computational mesh. This is typically required in the design cycles of technical applications. For example, the drag coefficient of a body immersed in a viscous flow is computed, then it is minimized by varying certain control parameters, and finally the stability of the resulting flow is investigated by solving an eigenvalue problem. 'Goal-oriented' adaptivity is designed to achieve these tasks with minimal cost. The basics of the DWR method and various of its applications are described in the following survey articles: R. Rannacher [114], Error control in finite element computations. In: Proc. of Summer School Error Control and Adaptivity in Scientific Computing (H. Bulgak and C. Zenger, eds), pp. 247-278. Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1998. M. Braack and R. Rannacher [42], Adaptive finite element methods for low Mach-number flows with chemical reactions.