Duality-Based $\textit{A Posteriori}$ Error Identities for Subgradient Flows Based on the Brézis-Ekeland-Nayroles Principle

Abstract

We derive duality-based $\textit{a posteriori}$ error identities for a broad class of subgradient flows induced by time-dependent convex integral functionals. Starting from the Brézis-Ekeland-Nayroles principle, we identify an unsteady primal energy functional and derive its Fenchel dual formulation, including strong duality and the corresponding optimality system under general normal-integrand assumptions. This Fenchel duality framework is used to derive $\textit{a posteriori}$ error identities for subgradient flows. In doing so, we depart from the usual duality-based $\textit{a posteriori}$ error control framework in the unsteady setting, since the Brézis-Ekeland-Nayroles formulation reveals the following unsteady feature: the minimal primal value and the maximal dual value are both prescribed by the initial datum. This allows us to pass from a combined primal-dual gap identity to separate primal and dual gap identities. These identities quantify the primal and dual errors independently and admit representations in terms of generalized Bregman divergences and, under a spatial convex conjugation formula, as non-negative time-space integral quantities suitable for localization. The abstract framework is applied to a number of variational problems of physical interest, including the unsteady heat equation, the unsteady Stokes equations, the unsteady Navier-Lamé equations, the unsteady Bingham flow through a pipe, the unsteady obstacle problem, and the unsteady elasto-plastic torsion problem.