A posteriori error estimates for the mixed finite element method with Lagrange multipliers

Abstract

AbstractWe consider the mixed finite element method with Lagrange multipliers as applied to second‐order elliptic equations in divergence form with mixed boundary conditions. The corresponding Galerkin scheme is defined by using Raviart‐Thomas spaces. We develop a posteriori error analyses yielding a reliable and efficient estimate based on residuals, and a reliable and quasi‐efficient estimate based on local problems, respectively. Several numerical results illustrate the suitability of these a posteriori estimates for the adaptive computation of the discrete solutions. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq, 2005