A new stabilized method for quasi-Newtonian flows

For a generalized quasi-Newtonian flow, a new stabilized method focused on the low-order velocity-pressure pairs, (bi)linear/(bi)linear and (bi)linear/constant element, is presented. The pressure projection stabilized method is extended from Stokes problems to quasi-Newtonian flow problems. The theoretical framework developed here yields an estimate bound, which measures error in the approximate velocity in theW^1,r(Ω) norm and that of the pressure in the L^r´(Ω) (1/r +1/r´ = 1). The power law model and the Carreau model are special ones of the quasi-Newtonian flow problem discussed in this paper. Moreover, a residual-based posterior bound is given. Numerical experiments are presented to confirm the theoretical results.