Spurious Pressure Modes Research Articles

The cause and cure (?) of the spurious pressures generated by certain FEM solutions of the incompressible Navier‐Stokes equations: Part 1

AbstractThe spurious pressures and ostensibly acceptable velocities which sometimes result from certain FEM approximate solutions of the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations are explained in detail. The concept of pressure modes, physical and spurious, pure and impure, is introduced and their effects on discretized solutions is analysed, in the context of both mixed interpolation and penalty approaches. Pressure filtering schemes, which are capable of recovering useful pressures from otherwise polluted numerical results, are developed for two particular elements in two‐dimensions and one element in three‐dimensions. Implications regarding the effect of spurious pressure modes on accuracy and ultimate convergence with mesh refinement are discussed and a list of unanswered questions presented. Sufficient numerical examples are discussed to corroborate the theory presented herein.

A comparison of various mixed-interpolation finite elements in the velocity-pressure formulation of the Navier-Stokes equations

Abstract It is generally recognized that mixed interpolation should be used in the velocity-pressure finite element formulation of incompressible viscous flow problems. In this paper, four types of mixed interpolation elements are considered and compared. These are namely: six-node triangular elements, eight-node serendipity elements, nine-node Lagrangian elements and four-node quadrilateral elements. The comparison is made via two numerical examples concerning steady flow through a sudden expansion and steady free thermal convection in a square cavity. Results indicate that for the same number of pressure unknowns, serendipity elements can give considerably less accurate pressure fields than most other types of elements. Lagrangian elements give the most accurate pressure and velocity distributions. The numerical performance of triangular elements is intermediate in accuracy and is dependent on the triangular pattern used. Finally, the four-node element may generate spurious pressure modes depending on the boundary condition specifications.