An isogeometrical approach to error estimation and stress recovery

Presentation of a new approach for improvement of stresses and estimation of solution errors based on the isogeometrical analysis method is the subject of this paper. This estimator falls in the category of the stress recovery error estimators. In this approach, by making use of the superconvergent points, each of the components of the improved stress tensor is considered as an imaginary surface. This surface is generated by using the same NURBS’ basis functions which are employed for approximation of the primary variables in the isogeometric analysis method. The performance of the method is demonstrated by comparison of the exact and approximate energy norm errors for three examples that an exact solution is available for them. The obtained results indicate that the suggested method can be used as a suitable approach for error estimation in the isogeometrical analysis method.