Anisotropic error estimator for the Stokes–Biot system

This paper presents an a posteriori error analysis for the problem defining the interaction between a free fluid and poroelastic structure approximated by finite element methods on anisotropic meshes in $R^d$, $d=2$ or 3. Korn’s inequality for piecewise linear vector fields on anisotropic meshes is established and is applied to nonconforming finite element method. Then the existence and uniqueness of the approximation solution are deduced for conforming and nonconforming cases. With the obtained finite element solutions, local error indicators and a global estimator are generated, demonstrating reliability and efficiency. The efficiency is proved by means of bubble functions and the corresponding anisotropic inverse inequalities. In order to prove the reliability, it is vital that an anisotropic mesh corresponds to the anisotropic function under consideration. To measure this correspondence, a so-called matching function is defined, and its discussion shows it to be useful tool. With its help, the upper error bound is shown by means of the corresponding anisotropic interpolation estimates and a special Helmholtz decomposition in both media.