Recovery type a posteriori error estimators are popular, particularly in the engineering community, for their computationally inexpensive, easy to implement, and generally asymptotically exactness. Unlike the residual type error estimators, one can not establish upper and lower a posteriori error bounds for the classical recovery type error estimators without the saturation assumption. In this paper, we first present three examples to show the unsatisfactory performance in the practice of standard residual or recovery-type error estimators, then, an improved gradient recovery-based a posteriori error estimator is constructed. The proposed error estimator contains two parts, one is the difference between the direct and post-processed gradient approximations, and the other is the residual of the recovered gradient. The reliability and efficiency of the enhanced estimator are derived. Based on the improved recovery-based error estimator and the newest-vertex bisection refinement method with a tailored mark strategy, an adaptive finite element algorithm is designed. We then prove the convergence of the adaptive method by establishing the contraction of gradient error plus oscillation. Numerical experiments are provided to illustrate the asymptotic exactness of the new recovery-based a posteriori error estimator and the high efficiency of the corresponding adaptive algorithm.

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