A multiscale a posteriori error estimate Original Research Article

We introduce a hierarchic a posteriori error estimate for singularly perturbed reaction–diffusion problems. The estimator is based on a Petrov–Galerkin method in which the trial space is enriched with nonpolynomial functions or multiscale functions. We study the equivalence between the a posteriori estimate and the exact error in the energy norm. Moreover, we prove a relationship between the hierarchic estimator and an explicit residual estimator. The approach provides accurate estimates for the boundary layer regions which is confirmed by numerical experiments.