TY - JOUR T1 - Unified a Posteriori Error Estimator for Finite Element Methods for the Stokes Equations AU - J. Wang, Y. Wang & X. Ye JO - International Journal of Numerical Analysis and Modeling VL - 3 SP - 551 EP - 570 PY - 2013 DA - 2013/10 SN - 10 DO - http://doi.org/ UR - https://global-sci.org/intro/article_detail/ijnam/582.html KW - A posteriori error estimate, finite element methods, Stokes equations. AB -

This paper is concerned with residual type a posteriori error estimators for finite element methods for the Stokes equations. In particular, the authors established a unified approach for deriving and analyzing a posteriori error estimators for velocity-pressure based finite element formulations for the Stokes equations. A general a posteriori error estimator was presented with a unified mathematical analysis for the general finite element formulation that covers conforming, non-conforming, and discontinuous Galerkin methods as examples. The key behind the mathematical analysis is the use of a lifting operator from discontinuous finite element spaces to continuous ones for which all the terms involving jumps at interior edges disappear.