Published In
SIAM Journal on Numerical Analysis
Document Type
Post-Print
Publication Date
2020
Abstract
We introduce a new discretization of a mixed formulation of the incompressible Stokes equations that includes symmetric viscous stresses. The method is built upon a mass conserving mixed formulation that we recently studied. The improvement in this work is a new method that directly approximates the viscous fluid stress $\sigma$, enforcing its symmetry weakly. The finite element space in which the stress is approximated consists of matrix-valued functions having continuous “normal-tangential” components across element interfaces. Stability is achieved by adding certain matrix bubbles that were introduced earlier in the literature on finite elements for linear elasticity. Like the earlier work, the new method here approximates the fluid velocity $u$ using $H(div)$-conforming finite elements, thus providing exact mass conservation. Our error analysis shows optimal convergence rates for the pressure and the stress variables. An additional postprocessing yields an optimally convergent velocity satisfying exact mass conservation. The method is also pressure robust.
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DOI
10.1137/19M1248960
Persistent Identifier
https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/33495
Citation Details
Gopalakrishnan, J., Lederer, P. L., & Schöberl, J. (2020). A mass conserving mixed stress formulation for Stokes flow with weakly imposed stress symmetry. SIAM Journal on Numerical Analysis, 58(1), 706-732.
Description
First Published in SIAM Journal on Numerical Analysis in 58; 1; 2020, published by the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM). Copyright © by SIAM. Unauthorized reproduction of this article is prohibited.