Solution of Steady Incompressible MHD Problems with Quasi-Least Square Method

Abstract

A quasi-least-squares (QLS) mixed finite element method (MFE) based on the L2-inner product is utilized to solve an incompressible magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) model. These models are associated with the three unknown terms, i.e., fluid velocity, fluid pressure, and magnetic field. For the MHD-based models, common theories and algorithms for approximation of the solutions are not always applicable because of the choice of the functional spaces during the utilization of the weak formulation. It is well known that the spaces used for the approximation of the different unknowns, e.g., the spaces for the unknowns, cannot be chosen independently for the variational formulation, and may have to satisfy strict stability conditions such as the inf-sup, or Ladyzhenskaya–Babuska–Brezzi (LBB) condition. The dependency of the selection of the spaces for the unknowns are critical and always not applicable for some pair of unknowns. Because of this, the numerical or theoretical solutions must have to face some stability issue. The proposed scheme (L2-inner product) is introduced to circumvent this deficiency of the conditions (inf-sup or LBB) and obtained a well-posed solution theoretically. The model equations are nonlinear and highly coupled with the combination of Navier–Stokes and Maxwell relations. First, these nonlinear models are made linear around a specific state wherein the modified system represents an algebraic equation in a first-order symmetric form. Secondly, a direct iteration technique is applied to solve the nonlinearities and obtain a theoretical convergent rate for a general initial guess. Theoretical results show that only a single parameter with a single initial guess is sufficient to establish the well-posedness of the solution.