In this paper, we consider a least squares nonconforming finite element of low order for solving the transport equations. We give a detailed overview on the stability and the convergence properties of our considered methods in the stability norm. Moreover, we derive residual type a posteriori error estimates for the least squares nonconforming finite element methods under H–1-norm, which can be used as the error indicators to guide the mesh refinement procedure in the adaptive finite element method. The theoretical results are supported by a series of numerical experiments.

A new class of nonparametric nonconforming quadrilateral finite elements is introducedwhich has the midpoint continuity and the mean value continuity at the interfaces ofelements simultaneously as the rectangular DSSY element [J. Douglas, Jr., J.E. Santos, D.Sheen and X. Ye, ESAIM: M2AN 33 (1999) 747–770.] Theparametric DSSY element for general quadrilaterals requires five degrees of freedom tohave an optimal order of convergence [Z. Cai, J. Douglas, Jr., J.E. Santos, D. Sheen andX. Ye, Calcolo 37 (2000) 253–254.], while the newnonparametric DSSY elements require only four degrees of freedom. The design of newelements is based on the decomposition of a bilinear transform into a simple bilinear mapfollowed by a suitable affine map. Numerical results are presented to compare the newelements with the parametric DSSY element.