A posteriori boundary element error estimation

Abstract

An a posteriori error estimator is presented for the boundary element method in a general framework. It is obtained by solving local residual problems for which a local concept is introduced to accommodate the fact that integral operators are nonlocal operators. The estimator is shown to have an upper and a lower bound by the constant multiples of the exact error in the energy norm for Symm's and hypersingular integral equations. Numerical results are also given to demonstrate the effectiveness of the estimator for these equations. It can be used for adaptive h, p, and hp methods. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.