A posteriori error estimates and adaptivity for locally conservative methods. Inexpensive implementation and evaluation, polytopal meshes, iterative linearization and algebraic solvers, and applications to complex porous media flows

Abstract: A posteriori estimates give bounds on the error between the unknown solution of a partial differential equation and its numerical approximation. We present here the methodology based on H1-conforming potential and H(div)-conforming equilibrated flux reconstructions, where the error bounds are guaranteed and fully computable. We consider any lowest-order locally conservative method of the finite volume type and treat general polytopal meshes. We start by a pure diffusion problem and first address the discretization error. We then progressively pass to more complicated model problems, up to complex multiphase multicomponent flow in porous media, and also take into account the errors arising in iterative linearization of nonlinear problems and in algebraic resolution of systems of linear algebraic equations. We focus on the ease of implementation and evaluation of the estimates. In particular, the evaluation of our estimates is explicit and inexpensive, since it merely consists in some local matrix-vector multiplications. Here, on each mesh element, the matrices are either directly inherited from the given numerical method, or easily constructed from the element geometry, while the vectors are the algebraic unknowns of the flux and potential approximations on the given element. Our mtehodology leads to an easy-to-implement and fast-to-run adaptive algorithm with guaranteed overall precision, adaptive stopping criteria for nonlinear and linear solvers, and adaptive space and time mesh refinements and derefinements. Progressively along the theoretical exposition, numerical experiments on academic benchmarks as well as on real-life problems in two and three space dimensions illustrate the performance of the derived methodology. The presentation is largely self-standing, developing all the details and recalling all necessary basic notions.