A two-level finite element method with grad-div stabilizations for the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations

Abstract

This article presents and studies a two-level grad-div stabilized finite element discretization method for solving numerically the steady incompressible Navier–Stokes equations. The method consists of two steps. In the first step, we compute a rough solution by solving a nonlinear Navier–Stokes system on a coarse grid. And then, in the second step, we pass the coarse grid solution to a fine grid to linearize the nonlinear term, update the solution by solving a linearized problem based on Newton iterations. In both steps, a grad-div stabilization term is incorporated into the system to reduce the influence of pressure on the approximate velocity. We analyze stability and asymptotic convergence of the approximate solutions, derive explicit dependence of the solution errors on the grad-div stabilization parameter and viscosity. We perform also some numerical tests to validate the theoretical analysis and illustrate the efficiency of the proposed method. Compared with the standard two-level method without stabilizations, the grad-div stabilization term added in present method improves the accuracy of the approximate velocity, accelerates the convergence of the nonlinear iterations for the coarse mesh nonlinear system, and reduces the computational time.