Error estimation in adaptive BEM by postprocessing interpolation.

A posteriori error estimation for the boundary element method is developed. The nodal error is estimated from the difference of two solutions—one from the original BEM solution, and the other from interpolation of the original solution. Based on nodal errors, a matrix analysis is carried out to calculate the corresponding errors at source points. Two formulae for estimating global percentage errors are proposed in the paper. The first formula uses nodal errors directly to estimate element error, and the second uses an integral form to calculate element error to eliminate extremely high mesh concentration near areas with singular solutions. An h-version adaptive mesh refinement is implemented to study the accuracy of the proposed error estimation. Numerical examples show that the error estimator can correctly guide mesh refinement, and a final mesh can be obtained in a few iterations. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]