Finite volume element method for monotone nonlinear elliptic problems (Q2846175)

This paper is concerned with numerical approximations of solutions to elliptic partial differential equations of the type NEWLINE\[NEWLINE -\nabla\cdot a(x,\nabla u)+a_0(x,u)=f(x)\quad\text{ in }\Omega, NEWLINE\]NEWLINE subject to homogeneous Dirichlet boundary conditions. Here \(\Omega\) is a polygonal domain in the plane, \(a\) and \(a_0\) are given functions.NEWLINENEWLINEThe first goal of the paper is to establish the well possedness of the finite volume approximations. With the minimal regularity on the solution, namely \(u\in H^1(\Omega)\), the authors obtain uniform convergence of the approximation method in \(H^1(\Omega)\) space. Next, the authors develop an a posteriori error analysis and derive a global upper bound and a local upper bound on the error for the finite volume method. The approach relies on the Petrov-Galerkin finite element argument.