A posteriori error estimators for stationary convection–diffusion problems: a computational comparison Original Research Article

We consider the scalar convection–diffusion problem in 2-D, present standard and stabilized finite element methods and give a survey of different a posteriori error estimators. These estimators are either based on the evaluation of local residuals or on the solution of discrete local Neumann problems. Besides that, a heuristic indicator based on local averaging techniques for the solution gradient is presented and compared with the estimators. We give an overview of another aspect of adaptive mesh-refinement, namely the decision which elements have to be marked for refinement. Several marking strategies are described and compared.