Error estimates for finite element approximations of nonlinear monotone elliptic problems with application to numerical homogenization (Q2808871)

This paper considers the nonlinear monotone elliptic problem \(-\operatorname{div}({\mathcal A}(x,\nabla u)) = f(x)\) in a convex polyhedral domain \(\Omega \subset {\mathbb R}^d\), \(d\leq 3\), with homogeneous Dirichlet boundary conditions. This problem is discretized by the conforming simplicial finite element method of an arbitrary order. Using a linear elliptic projection, the authors prove optimal \(L^2\) a priori error estimates. They also prove optimal a priori error estimates in both \(H^1\) and \(L^2\) norms for the case of inexact numerical quadrature. They illustrate the theory on a simple numerical example and apply it to the nonlinear monotone elliptic homogenization problem solved by the heterogeneous multiscale finite element method.