Goal-Oriented Error Estimation and Adaptivity for Free-Boundary Problems: The Domain-Map Linearization Approach

In free-boundary problems, the accuracy of a goal quantity of interest depends on both the accuracy of the approximate solution and the accuracy of the domain approximation. We develop duality-based a posteriori error estimates for functional outputs of solutions of free-boundary problems that include both sources of error. The derivation of an appropriate dual problem (linearized adjoint) is, however, nonobvious for free-boundary problems. To derive an appropriate dual problem, we present the domain-map linearization approach. In this approach, the free-boundary problem is first transformed into an equivalent problem on a fixed reference domain after which the dual problem is obtained by linearization with respect to the domain map. We show for a Bernoulli-type free-boundary problem that this dual problem corresponds to a Poisson problem with a nonlocal Robin-type boundary condition. Furthermore, we present numerical experiments that demonstrate the effectivity of the dual-based error estimate and its usefulness in goal-oriented adaptive mesh refinement.