A Posteriori Error Estimation of Spectral and Spectral Element Methods for the Stokes/Darcy Coupled Problem

Abstract

In this paper, we carry out an a posteriori error analysis of Legendre spectral approximations to the Stokes/Darcy coupled equations. The spectral approximations are based on a weak formulation of the coupled equations by using the Beavers-Joseph-Saffman interface condition. The main contribution of the paper consists of deriving a number of posteriori error indicators and their upper and lower bounds for the single domain case. An extension of the upper bounds to the multi-domain case in the spectral element framework is also given.