An augmented mixed finite element method for the Navier-Stokes equations with variable viscosity

A new mixed variational formulation for the Navier–Stokes equations with constant density and variable viscosity depending nonlinearly on the gradient of velocity, is proposed and analyzed here. Our approach employs a technique previously applied to the stationary Boussinesq problem and to the Navier-Stokes equations with constant viscosity, which consists firstly of the introduction of a modified pseudostress tensor involving the diffusive and convective terms, and the pressure. Next, by using an equivalent statement suggested by the incompressibility condition, the pressure is eliminated, and in order to handle the nonlinear viscosity, the gradient of velocity is incorporated as an auxiliary unknown. Furthermore, since the convective term forces the velocity to live in a smaller space than usual, we overcome this difficulty by augmenting the variational formulation with suitable Galerkin-type terms arising from the constitutive and equilibrium equations, the aforementioned relation defining the additional unknown, and the Dirichlet boundary condition. The resulting augmented scheme is then written equivalently as a fixed point equation, and hence the well-known Schauder and Banach theorems, combined with classical results on bijective monotone operators, are applied to prove the unique solvability of the continuous and discrete systems. No discrete inf-sup conditions are required for the well-posedness of the Galerkin scheme, and hence arbitrary finite element subspaces of the respective continuous spaces can be utilized. In particular, given an integer k ≥ 0, piecewise polynomials of degree ≤ k for the gradient of velocity, Raviart-Thomas spaces of order k for the pseudostress, and continuous piecewise polynomials of degree ≤ k + 1 for the velocity, constitute feasible choices. Finally, optimal a priori error estimates are derived, and several numerical results illustrating the good performance of the augmented mixed finite element method and confirming the theoretical rates of convergence are reported.Comisión Nacional de Investigación Científica y Tecnológica (Chile)Universidad del Bío-BíoMinistry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republi

On an adaptive stabilized mixed finite element method for the Oseen problem with mixed boundary conditions

[Abstract] We consider the Oseen problem with nonhomogeneous Dirichlet boundary conditions on a part of the boundary and a Neumann type boundary condition on the remaining part. Suitable least squares terms that arise from the constitutive law, the momentum equation and the Dirichlet boundary condition are added to a dual-mixed formulation based on the pseudostress-velocity variables. We prove that the new augmented variational formulation and the corresponding Galerkin scheme are well-posed, and a Céa estimate holds for any finite element subspaces. We also provide the rate of convergence when each row of the pseudostress is approximated by Raviart–Thomas elements and the velocity is approximated by continuous piecewise polynomials. We develop an a posteriori error analysis based on a Helmholtz-type decomposition, and derive a posteriori error indicators that consist of two residual terms per element except on those elements with a side on the Dirichlet boundary, where they both have two additional terms. We prove that these a posteriori error indicators are reliable and locally efficient. Finally, we provide several numerical experiments that support the theoretical results.Xunta de Galicia; ED431G 2019/01Universidad Católica de la Santísima Concepción (Chile); 1160578Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad; MTM2016-76497-RMinisterio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades; PRX19/00475Xunta de Galicia; GRC ED431C 2018-03

A posteriori error analysis of an augmented mixed method for the Navier-Stokes equations with nonlinear viscosity

In this work we develop the a posteriori error analysis of an augmented mixed finite element method for the 2D and 3D versions of the Navier-Stokes equations when the viscosity depends nonlinearly on the module of the velocity gradient. Two different reliable and efficient residual-based a posteriori error estimators for this problem on arbitrary (convex or non-convex) polygonal and polyhedral regions are derived. Our analysis of reliability of the proposed estimators draws mainly upon the global inf-sup condition satisfied by a suitable linearization of the continuous formulation, an application of Helmholtz decomposition, and the local approximation properties of the Raviart-Thomas and Clément interpolation operators. In addition, differently from previous approaches for augmented mixed formulations, the boundedness of the Clément operator plays now an interesting role in the reliability estimate. On the other hand, inverse and discrete inequalities, and the localization technique based on triangle-bubble and edge-bubble functions are utilized to show their efficiency. Finally, several numerical results are provided to illustrate the good performance of the augmented mixed method, to confirm the aforementioned properties of the a posteriori error estimators, and to show the behaviour of the associated adaptive algorithm.Centre for Mathematical Modeling (Universidad de Chile)Centro de Investigación en Ingeniería Matemática (Universidad de Concepción)Comisión Nacional de Investigación Científica y Tecnológica (Chile)Swiss National Science FoundationElsevier Mathematical Sciences Sponsorship FundMinistry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republi

The Prager-Synge theorem in reconstruction based a posteriori error estimation

In this paper we review the hypercircle method of Prager and Synge. This theory inspired several studies and induced an active research in the area of a posteriori error analysis. In particular, we review the Braess--Sch\"oberl error estimator in the context of the Poisson problem. We discuss adaptive finite element schemes based on two variants of the estimator and we prove the convergence and optimality of the resulting algorithms

A virtual element method for the elasticity problem allowing small edges

In this paper we analyze a virtual element method for the two dimensional elasticity problem allowing small edges. With this approach, the classic assumptions on the geometrical features of the polygonal meshes can be relaxed. In particular, we consider only star-shaped polygons for the meshes. Suitable error estimates are presented, where a rigorous analysis on the influence of the Lam\'e constants in each estimate is presented. We report numerical tests to assess the performance of the method

A mixed finite element method for Darcy’s equations with pressure dependent porosity

In this work we develop the a priori and a posteriori error analyses of a mixed finite element method for Darcy’s equations with porosity depending exponentially on the pressure. A simple change of variable for this unknown allows to transform the original nonlinear problem into a linear one whose dual-mixed variational formulation falls into the frameworks of the generalized linear saddle point problems and the fixed point equations satisfied by an affine mapping. According to the latter, we are able to show the well-posedness of both the continuous and discrete schemes, as well as the associated Cea estimate, by simply applying a suitable combination of the classical Babuska-Brezzi theory and the Banach fixed point Theorem. In particular, given any integer k ≥ 0, the stability of the Galerkin scheme is guaranteed by employing Raviart-Thomas elements of order k for the velocity, piecewise polynomials of degree k for the pressure, and continuous piecewise polynomials of degree k+1 for an additional Lagrange multiplier given by the trace of the pressure on the Neumann boundary. Note that the two ways of writing the continuous formulation suggest accordingly two different methods for solving the discrete schemes. Next, we derive a reliable and efficient residualbased a posteriori error estimator for this problem. The global inf-sup condition satisfied by the continuous formulation, Helmholtz decompositions, and the local approximation properties of the Raviart-Thomas and Cl´ement interpolation operators are the main tools for proving the reliability. In turn, inverse and discrete inequalities, and the localization technique based on triangle-bubble and edge-bubble functions are utilized to show the efficiency. Finally, several numerical results illustrating the good performance of both methods, confirming the aforementioned properties of the estimator, and showing the behaviour of the associated adaptive algorithm, are reported.Centro de Investigación en Ingeniería Matemática (CI2MA), Universidad de ConcepciónUniversity of LausanneMinistry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republi

Least-squares finite element methods for coupled generalized Newtonian Stokes-Darcy flow

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