Finite Element Methods for Navier-Stokes Equations

The material covered by this book has been taught by one of the authors in a post-graduate course on Numerical Analysis at the University Pierre et Marie Curie of Paris. It is an extended version of a previous text (cf. Girault & Raviart [32J) published in 1979 by Springer-Verlag in its series: Lecture Notes in Mathematics. In the last decade, many engineers and mathematicians have concentrated their efforts on the finite element solution of the Navier-Stokes equations for incompressible flows. The purpose of this book is to provide a fairly comprehen­ sive treatment of the most recent developments in that field. To stay within reasonable bounds, we have restricted ourselves to the case of stationary prob­ lems although the time-dependent problems are of fundamental importance. This topic is currently evolving rapidly and we feel that it deserves to be covered by another specialized monograph. We have tried, to the best of our ability, to present a fairly exhaustive treatment of the finite element methods for inner flows. On the other hand however, we have entirely left out the subject of exterior problems which involve radically different techniques, both from a theoretical and from a practical point of view. Also, we have neither discussed the implemen­ tation of the finite element methods presented by this book, nor given any explicit numerical result. This field is extensively covered by Peyret & Taylor [64J and Thomasset [82].

I. Mathematical Foundation of the Stokes Problem.- § 1. Generalities on Some Elliptic Boundary Value Problems.- 1.1. Basic Concepts on Sobolev Spaces.- 1.2. Abstract Elliptic Theory.- 1.3. Example 1: Dirichlet’s Problem for the Laplace Operator.- 1.4. Example 2: Neumann’s Problem for the Laplace Operator.- 1.5. Example 3: Dirichlet’s Problem for the Biharmonic Operator.- §2. Function Spaces for the Stokes Problem.- 2.1. Preliminary Results.- 2.2. Some Properties of Spaces Related to the Divergence Operator.- 2.3. Some Properties of Spaces Related to the Curl Operator.- § 3. A Decomposition of Vector Fields.- 3.1. Decomposition of Two-Dimensional Vector Fields.- 3.2. Application to the Regularity of Functions of H(div; ?) ? H(curl; ?).- 3.3. Decomposition of Three-Dimensional Vector Fields.- 3.4. The Imbedding of H(div; ?) ? H0 (curl; ?) into H1(?)3.- 3.5. The Imbedding of H0(div; ?) ? H (curl; ?) into H1(?)3.- §4. Analysis of an Abstract Variational Problem.- 4.1. A General Result.- 4.2. A Saddle-Point Approach.- 4.3. Approximation by Regularization or Penalty.- 4.4. Iterative Methods of Gradient Type.- §5. The Stokes Equations.- 5.1. The Dirichlet Problem in the Velocity-Pressure Formulation.- 5.2. The Stream Function Formulation of the Dirichlet Problem in Two Dimensions.- 5.3. The Three-Dimensional Case.- Appendix A. Results of Standard Finite Element Approximation.- A.l. Triangular Finite Elements.- A.2. Quadrilateral Finite Elements.- A.3. Interpolation of Discontinuous Functions.- II. Numerical Solution of the Stokes Problem in the Primitive Variables.- §1. General Approximation.- 1.1. An Abstract Approximation Result.- 1.2. Decoupling the Computation of uh and ?h.- 1.3. Application to the Homogeneous Stokes Problem.- 1.4. Checking the inf-sup Condition.- § 2. Simplicial Finite Element Methods Using Discontinuous Pressures.- 2.1. A First Order Approximation on Triangular Elements.- 2.2. Higher-Order Approximation on Triangular Elements.- 2.3. The Three-Dimensional case: First and Higher-Order Schemes.- § 3. Quadrilateral Finite Element Methods Using Discontinuous Pressures.- 3.1. A quadrilateral Finite Element of Order One.- 3.2. Higher-Order Quadrilateral Elements.- 3.3. An Example of Checkerboard Instability: the Q1 — P0 Element.- 3.4. Error Estimates for the Q1 — P0 Element.- §4. Continuous Approximation of the Pressure.- 4.1. A First Order Method: the “Mini” Finite Element.- 4.2. The “Hood-Taylor” Finite Element Method.- 4.3. The “Glowinski-Pironneau” Finite Element Method.- 4.4. Implementation of the Glowinski-Pironneau Scheme.- III. Incompressible Mixed Finite Element Methods for Solving the Stokes Problem.- §1. Mixed Approximation of an Abstract Problem.- 1.1. A Mixed Variational Problem.- 1.2. Abstract Mixed Approximation.- §2. The “Stream Function-Vorticity-Pressure” Method for the Stokes Problem in Two Dimensions.- 2.1. A Mixed Formulation.- 2.2. Mixed Approximation and Application to Finite Elements of Degree l.- 2.3. The Technique of Mesh-Dependent Norms.- § 3. Further Topics on the “Stream Function-Vorticity-Pressure” Scheme.- 3.1. Refinement of the Error Analysis.- 3.2. Super Convergence Using Quadrilateral Finite Elements of Degree l.- § 4. A “Stream Function-Gradient of Velocity Tensor” Method in Two Dimensions.- 4.1. The Hellan-Herrmann-Johnson Formulation.- 4.2. Approximation with Triangular Finite Elements of Degree l.- 4.3. Additional Results for the Hellan-Herrmann-Johnson Scheme.- 4.4. Discontinuous Approximation of the Pressure.- § 5. A “Vector Potential-Vorticity” Scheme in Three Dimensions.- 5.1. A Mixed Formulation of the Three-Dimensional Stokes Problem.- 5.2. Mixed Approximation in H(curl; ?).- 5.3. A Family of Conforming Finite Elements in H(curl; ?).- 5.4. Error Analysis for Finite Elements of Degree l.- 5.5. Discontinuous Approximation of the Pressure.- IV. Theory and Approximation of the Navier-Stokes Problem.- § 1. A Class of Nonlinear Problems.- §2. Theory of the Steady-State Navier-Stokes Equations.- 2.1. The Dirichlet Problem in the Velocity-Pressure Formulation.- 2.2. The Stream Function Formulation of the Homogeneous Problem..- § 3. Approximation of Branches of Nonsingular Solutions.- 3.1. An Abstract Framework.- 3.2. Approximation of Branches of Nonsingular Solutions.- 3.3. Application to a Class of Nonlinear Problems.- 3.4. Non-Differentiable Approximation of Branches of Nonsingular Solutions.- §4. Numerical Analysis of Centered Finite Element Schemes.- 4.1. Formulation in Primitive Variables: Methods Using Discontinuous Pressures.- 4.2. Formulation in Primitive Variables: the Case of Continuous Pressures.- 4.3. Mixed Incompressible Methods: the “Stream Function-Vorticity” Formulation.- 4.4. Remarks on the “Stream Function-Gradient of Velocity Tensor” Scheme.- § 5. Numerical Analysis of Upwind Schemes.- 5.1. Upwinding in the Stream Function-Vorticity Scheme.- 5.2. Error Analysis of the Upwind Scheme.- 5.3. Approximating the Pressure with the Upwind Scheme.- §6. Numerical Algorithms.- 2.11. General Methods of Descent and Application to Gradient Methods.- 2.12. Least-Squares and Gradient Methods to Solve the Navier-Stokes Equations.- 2.13. Newton’s Method and the Continuation Method.- References.- Index of Mathematical Symbols.