Fully Computable Bounds for the Error in Nonconforming Finite Element Approximations of Arbitrary Order on Triangular Elements

Abstract

We obtain a fully computable a posteriori error bound on the broken energy norm of the error in the nonconforming finite element approximation on triangles of arbitrary order of a linear second order elliptic problem with variable permeability. The estimator is completely free of unknown constants and provides a guaranteed numerical bound on the broken energy norm of the error. This estimator is shown to be efficient in the sense that it also provides a lower bound for the broken energy norm of the error up to a constant and higher order data oscillation terms.