A Posteriori Error Estimates for the Weak Galerkin Finite Element Methods on Polytopal Meshes

Abstract

In this paper, we present a simple a posteriori error estimate for the weak Galerkin (WG) finite element method for a model second order elliptic equation. This residual type estimator can be applied to general meshes such as hybrid, polytopal and those with hanging nodes. We prove the reliability and efficiency of the estimator. Extensive numerical tests demonstrate the effectiveness and flexibility of the mesh refinement guided by this error estimator.