Robust preconditioners for a new stabilized discretization of the poroelastic equations

In this paper, we present block preconditioners for a stabilized discretization of the poroelastic equations developed in [45]. The discretization is proved to be well-posed with respect to the physical and discretization parameters, and thus provides a framework to develop preconditioners that are robust with respect to such parameters as well. We construct both norm-equivalent (diagonal) and field-of-value-equivalent (triangular) preconditioners for both the stabilized discretization and a perturbation of the stabilized discretization that leads to a smaller overall problem after static condensation. Numerical tests for both two- and three-dimensional problems confirm the robustness of the block preconditioners with respect to the physical and discretization parameters

Continuity properties of the inf-sup constant for the divergence

The inf-sup constant for the divergence, or LBB constant, is explicitly known for only few domains. For other domains, upper and lower estimates are known. If more precise values are required, one can try to compute a numerical approximation. This involves, in general, approximation of the domain and then the computation of a discrete LBB constant that can be obtained from the numerical solution of an eigenvalue problem for the Stokes system. This eigenvalue problem does not fall into a class for which standard results about numerical approximations can be applied. Indeed, many reasonable finite element methods do not yield a convergent approximation. In this article, we show that under fairly weak conditions on the approximation of the domain, the LBB constant is an upper semi-continuous shape functional, and we give more restrictive sufficient conditions for its continuity with respect to the domain. For numerical approximations based on variational formulations of the Stokes eigenvalue problem, we also show upper semi-continuity under weak approximation properties, and we give stronger conditions that are sufficient for convergence of the discrete LBB constant towards the continuous LBB constant. Numerical examples show that our conditions are, while not quite optimal, not very far from necessary

Robust Preconditioners for Incompressible MHD Models

In this paper, we develop two classes of robust preconditioners for the structure-preserving discretization of the incompressible magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) system. By studying the well-posedness of the discrete system, we design block preconditioners for them and carry out rigorous analysis on their performance. We prove that such preconditioners are robust with respect to most physical and discretization parameters. In our proof, we improve the existing estimates of the block triangular preconditioners for saddle point problems by removing the scaling parameters, which are usually difficult to choose in practice. This new technique is not only applicable to the MHD system, but also to other problems. Moreover, we prove that Krylov iterative methods with our preconditioners preserve the divergence-free condition exactly, which complements the structure-preserving discretization. Another feature is that we can directly generalize this technique to other discretizations of the MHD system. We also present preliminary numerical results to support the theoretical results and demonstrate the robustness of the proposed preconditioners

Incorporating variable viscosity in vorticity-based formulations for Brinkman equations

In this brief note, we introduce a non-symmetric mixed finite element formulation for Brinkman equations written in terms of velocity, vorticity and pressure with non-constant viscosity. The analysis is performed by the classical Babu\v{s}ka-Brezzi theory, and we state that any inf-sup stable finite element pair for Stokes approximating velocity and pressure can be coupled with a generic discrete space of arbitrary order for the vorticity. We establish optimal a priori error estimates which are further confirmed through computational example

Stability and Monotonicity for Some Discretizations of the Biot's Model

We consider finite element discretizations of the Biot's consolidation model in poroelasticity with MINI and stabilized P1-P1 elements. We analyze the convergence of the fully discrete model based on spatial discretization with these types of finite elements and implicit Euler method in time. We also address the issue related to the presence of non-physical oscillations in the pressure approximation for low permeabilities and/or small time steps. We show that even in 1D a Stokes-stable finite element pair fails to provide a monotone discretization for the pressure in such regimes. We then introduce a stabilization term which removes the oscillations. We present numerical results confirming the monotone behavior of the stabilized schemes