Stable finite element pair for Stokes problem and discrete Stokes complex on quadrilateral grids

In this paper, we first construct a nonconforming finite element pair for the incompressible Stokes problem on quadrilateral grids, and then construct a discrete Stokes complex associated with that finite element pair. The finite element spaces involved consist of piecewise polynomials only, and the divergence-free condition is imposed in a primal formulation. Combined with some existing results, these constructions can be generated onto grids that consist of both triangular and quadrilateral cells

Stabilized nonconforming finite element methods for data assimilation in incompressible flows

We consider a stabilized nonconforming finite element method for data assimilation in incompressible flow subject to the Stokes' equations. The method uses a primal dual structure that allows for the inclusion of nonstandard data. Error estimates are obtained that are optimal compared to the conditional stability of the ill-posed data assimilation problem

Stabilized Multiscale Nonconforming Finite Element Method for the Stationary Navier-Stokes Equations

We consider a stabilized multiscale nonconforming finite element method for the two-dimensional stationary incompressible Navier-Stokes problem. This method is based on the enrichment of the standard polynomial space for the velocity component with multiscale function and the nonconforming lowest equal-order finite element pair. Stability and existence uniqueness of the numerical solution are established, optimal-order error estimates are also presented. Finally, some numerical results are presented to validate the performance of the proposed method

An assessment of solvers for saddle point problems emerging from the incompressible Navier--Stokes equations

Efficient incompressible flow simulations, using inf-sup stable pairs of finite element spaces, require the application of efficient solvers for the arising linear saddle point problems. This paper presents an assessment of different solvers: the sparse direct solver UMFPACK, the flexible GMRES (FGMRES) method with different coupled multigrid preconditioners, and FGMRES with Least Squares Commutator (LSC) preconditioners. The assessment is performed for steady-state and time-dependent flows around cylinders in 2d and 3d. Several pairs of inf-sup stable finite element spaces with second order velocity and first order pressure are used. It turns out that for the steady-state problems often FGMRES with an appropriate multigrid preconditioner was the most efficient method on finer grids. For the time-dependent problems, FGMRES with LSC preconditioners that use an inexact iterative solution of the velocity subproblem worked best for smaller time steps

On the role of the Helmholtz-decomposition in mixed methods for incompressible flows and a new variational crime

According to the Helmholtz decomposition, the irrotational parts of the momentum balance equations of the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations are balanced by the pressure gradient. Unfortunately, nearly all mixed methods for incompressible flows violate this fundamental property, resulting in the well-known numerical instability of poor mass conservation. The origin of this problem is the lack of L2-orthogonality between discretely divergence-free velocities and irrotational vector fields. In order to cure this, a new variational crime using divergence-free velocity reconstructions is proposed. Applying lowest order Raviart-Thomas velocity reconstructions to the nonconforming Crouzeix-Raviart element allows to construct a cheap flow discretization for general 2d and 3d simplex meshes that possesses the same advantageous robustness properties like divergence-free flow solvers. In the Stokes case, optimal a-priori error estimates for the velocity gradients and the pressure are derived. Moreover, the discrete velocity is independent of the continuous pressure. Several detailed linear and nonlinear numerical examples illustrate the theoretical findings

Mathematical Aspects of Computational Fluid Dynamics

[no abstract available