A posteriori error estimates for elliptic variational inequalities (Q1921207)

A posteriori error estimates play a crucial role in the approximative solution of partial differential equations by adaptive finite element methods. In the paper, the author describes a hierachical error estimate which results from the following two steps: (i) Discretize the defect problem with respect to an enlarged space. (ii) Localize the discrete defect problem by domain decomposition. This method reduces the evaluation amounts to the solution of corresponding scalar local subproblems. Some upper bounds for the effectivity rates and the numerical properties of the method are derived and illustrated by typical examples.