A Note on the Reliability of Goal-Oriented Error Estimates for Galerkin Finite Element Methods with Nonlinear Functionals

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Main Authors: Granzow, Brian N., Bond, Stephen D., Seidl, D. Thomas, Endtmayer, Bernhard
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Granzow, Brian N.
Bond, Stephen D.
Seidl, D. Thomas
Endtmayer, Bernhard
author_facet Granzow, Brian N.
Bond, Stephen D.
Seidl, D. Thomas
Endtmayer, Bernhard
contents We consider estimating the discretization error in a nonlinear functional $J(u)$ in the setting of an abstract variational problem: find $u \in \mathcal{V}$ such that $B(u,φ) = L(φ) \; \forall φ\in \mathcal{V}$, as approximated by a Galerkin finite element method. Here, $\mathcal{V}$ is a Hilbert space, $B(\cdot,\cdot)$ is a bilinear form, and $L(\cdot)$ is a linear functional. We consider well-known error estimates $η$ of the form $J(u) - J(u_h) \approx η= L(z) - B(u_h, z)$, where $u_h$ denotes a finite element approximation to $u$, and $z$ denotes the solution to an auxiliary adjoint variational problem. We show that there exist nonlinear functionals for which error estimates of this form are not reliable, even in the presence of an exact adjoint solution solution $z$. An estimate $η$ is said to be reliable if there exists a constant $C \in \mathbb{R}_{>0}$ independent of $u_h$ such that $|J(u) - J(u_h)| \leq C|η|$. We present several example pairs of bilinear forms and nonlinear functionals where reliability of $η$ is not achieved.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2506_09913
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle A Note on the Reliability of Goal-Oriented Error Estimates for Galerkin Finite Element Methods with Nonlinear Functionals
Granzow, Brian N.
Bond, Stephen D.
Seidl, D. Thomas
Endtmayer, Bernhard
Numerical Analysis
Computational Engineering, Finance, and Science
We consider estimating the discretization error in a nonlinear functional $J(u)$ in the setting of an abstract variational problem: find $u \in \mathcal{V}$ such that $B(u,φ) = L(φ) \; \forall φ\in \mathcal{V}$, as approximated by a Galerkin finite element method. Here, $\mathcal{V}$ is a Hilbert space, $B(\cdot,\cdot)$ is a bilinear form, and $L(\cdot)$ is a linear functional. We consider well-known error estimates $η$ of the form $J(u) - J(u_h) \approx η= L(z) - B(u_h, z)$, where $u_h$ denotes a finite element approximation to $u$, and $z$ denotes the solution to an auxiliary adjoint variational problem. We show that there exist nonlinear functionals for which error estimates of this form are not reliable, even in the presence of an exact adjoint solution solution $z$. An estimate $η$ is said to be reliable if there exists a constant $C \in \mathbb{R}_{>0}$ independent of $u_h$ such that $|J(u) - J(u_h)| \leq C|η|$. We present several example pairs of bilinear forms and nonlinear functionals where reliability of $η$ is not achieved.
title A Note on the Reliability of Goal-Oriented Error Estimates for Galerkin Finite Element Methods with Nonlinear Functionals
topic Numerical Analysis
Computational Engineering, Finance, and Science
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.09913