A mixed and discontinuous Galerkin finite volume element method for incompressible miscible displacement problems in porous media

The incompressible miscible displacement problem in porous media is modeled by a coupled system of two nonlinear partial differential equations, the pressure‐velocity equation and the concentration equation. In this article, we present a mixed finite volume element method for the approximation of pressure‐velocity equation and a discontinuous Galerkin finite volume element method for the concentration equation. A priori error estimates in L^∞(L²) are derived for velocity, pressure, and concentration. Numerical results are presented to substantiate the validity of the theoretical results. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq, 2012     

On solenoidal high‐degree polynomial approximations to solutions of the stationary Stokes equations

The cell discretization algorithm, a nonconforming extension of the finite element method, is used to obtain approximations to the velocity and pressure functions satisfying the Stokes equations. Error estimates show convergence of the method. An implementation using polynomial bases is described that permits the use of the continuous approximations of the h‐p finite element method and exactly satisfies the solenoidal requirement. We express the error estimates in terms of the diameter h of a cell and degree p of the approximation on each cell. Examples of 10^th degree polynomial approximations are described that substantiate the theoretical estimates. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 16: 480–493, 2000     

Finite volume element approximations of nonlocal reactive flows in porous media

In this article, we study finite volume element approximations for two‐dimensional parabolic integro‐differential equations, arising in the modeling of nonlocal reactive flows in porous media. These types of flows are also called NonFickian flows and exhibit mixing length growth. For simplicity, we consider only linear finite volume element methods, although higher‐order volume elements can be considered as well under this framework. It is proved that the finite volume element approximations derived are convergent with optimal order in H¹‐ and L²‐norm and are superconvergent in a discrete H¹‐norm. By examining the relationship between finite volume element and finite element approximations, we prove convergence in L^∞‐ and W^1,∞‐norms. These results are also new for finite volume element methods for elliptic and parabolic equations. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 16: 285–311, 2000     

A superconvergent nonconforming mixed finite element method for the Navier–Stokes equations

The superconvergence for a nonconforming mixed finite element approximation of the Navier–Stokes equations is analyzed in this article. The velocity field is approximated by the constrained nonconforming rotated Q₁ (CNRQ₁) element, and the pressure is approximated by the piecewise constant functions. Under some regularity assumptions, the superconvergence estimates for both the velocity in broken H¹‐norm and the pressure in L²‐norm are obtained. Some numerical examples are presented to demonstrate our theoretical results. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 32: 646–660, 2016     

Stabilized mixed finite element methods for the Navier‐Stokes equations with damping

In this paper, the stabilized mixed finite element methods are presented for the Navier‐Stokes equations with damping. The existence and uniqueness of the weak solutions are proven by use of the Brouwer fixed‐point theorem. Then, optimal error estimates for the H¹‐norm and L²‐norm of the velocity and the L²‐norm of the pressure are derived. Moreover, on the basis of the optimal L²‐norm error estimate of the velocity, a stabilized two‐step method is proposed, which is more efficient than the usual stabilized methods. Finally, two numerical examples are implemented to confirm the theoretical analysis.     

An analysis for the compressible Stokes equations by first‐order system of least‐squares finite element method

This article applies the first‐order system least‐squares (fosls) finite element method developed by Cai, Manteuffel and McCormick to the compressible Stokes equations. By introducing a new dependent velocity flux variable, we recast the compressible Stokes equations as a first‐order system. Then it is shown that the ellipticity and continuity hold for the least‐squares functionals employing the mixture of H^?1 and L², so that the fosls finite element methods yield best approximations for the velocity flux and velocity. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 17:689–699, 2001     

Error analysis of the L2 least‐squares finite element method for incompressible inviscid rotational flows

In this article we analyze the L² least‐squares finite element approximations to the incompressible inviscid rotational flow problem, which is recast into the velocity‐vorticity‐pressure formulation. The least‐squares functional is defined in terms of the sum of the squared L² norms of the residual equations over a suitable product function space. We first derive a coercivity type a priori estimate for the first‐order system problem that will play the crucial role in the error analysis. We then show that the method exhibits an optimal rate of convergence in the H¹ norm for velocity and pressure and a suboptimal rate of convergence in the L² norm for vorticity. A numerical example in two dimensions is presented, which confirms the theoretical error estimates. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq, 2004     

Adaptive stabilized mixed finite volume methods for the incompressible flow

In this article, we study adaptive stabilized mixed finite volume methods for the incompressible flows approximated using the lower order elements. A residual type of a posteriori error estimator is designed and studied with the derivation of upper and lower bounds between the exact solution and the finite volume solution. A discrete local lower bound between two successive finite volume solutions is also obtained. Also, convergence of the adaptive stabilized mixed finite volume methods is established. The presented methods have three prominent features. First, it is of practical convenience in real applications with the same partitions for velocity and pressure. Second, less computational time is required by easily applying both the lower order elements and the local grid refinement necessary for the elements of interest. Third, compared with the standard finite element method, its analysis of H¹‐norm and L²‐norm for the velocity and pressure are usually derived without any high order regularity conditions on the exact solution. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 31: 1424–1443, 2015     

An approximation of incompressible miscible displacement in porous media by mixed finite elements and symmetric finite volume element method of characteristics

A nonlinear system of two coupled partial differential equations models miscible displacement of one incompressible fluid by another in a porous medium. A sequential implicit time‐stepping procedure is defined, in which the pressure and Darcy velocity of the mixture are approximated by a mixed finite element method and the concentration is approximated by a combination of a modified symmetric finite volume element method and the method of characteristics. Optimal order convergence in H¹ and in L² are proved for full discrete schemes. Finally, some numerical experiments are presented. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq, 2013     

A combined hybrid mixed element method for incompressible miscible displacement problem with local discontinuous Galerkin procedure

In this article, we propose a combined hybrid discontinuous mixed finite element method for miscible displacement problem with local discontinuous Galerkin method. Here, to obtain more accurate approximation and deal with the discontinuous case, we use the hybrid mixed element method to approximate the pressure and velocity, and use the local discontinuous Galerkin finite element method for the concentration. Compared with other combined methods, this method can improve the efficiency of computation, deal with the discontinuous problem well and keep local mass balance. We study the convergence of this method and give the corresponding optimal error estimates in L^∞(L²) for velocity and concentration and the super convergence in L^∞(H¹) for pressure. Finally, we also present some numerical examples to confirm our theoretical analysis.     

An Error Analysis of Discontinuous Finite Element Methods for the Optimal Control Problems Governed by Stokes Equation

In this article, an abstract framework for the error analysis of discontinuous finite element method is developed for the distributed and Neumann boundary control problems governed by the stationary Stokes equation with control constraints. A priori error estimates of optimal order are derived for velocity and pressure in the energy norm and the L²-norm, respectively. Moreover, a reliable and efficient a posteriori error estimator is derived. The results are applicable to a variety of problems just under the minimal regularity possessed by the well-posedness of the problem. In particular, we consider the abstract results with suitable stable pairs of velocity and pressure spaces like as the lowest-order Crouzeix–Raviart finite element and piecewise constant spaces, piecewise linear and constant finite element spaces. The theoretical results are illustrated by the numerical experiments.     

Analysis of a combined mixed finite element and discontinuous Galerkin method for incompressible two‐phase flow in porous media

We analyze a combined method consisting of the mixed finite element method for pressure equation and the discontinuous Galerkin method for saturation equation for the coupled system of incompressible two‐phase flow in porous media. The existence and uniqueness of numerical solutions are established under proper conditions by using a constructive approach. Optimal error estimates in L²(H¹) for saturation and in L ^∞ (H(div)) for velocity are derived. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

One‐level and two‐level finite element methods for the Boussinesq problem

Previous works on the convergence of numerical methods for the Boussinesq problem were conducted, while the optimal L²‐norm error estimates for the velocity and temperature are still lacked. In this paper, the backward Euler scheme is used to discrete the time terms, standard Galerkin finite element method is adopted to approximate the variables. The MINI element is used to approximate the velocity and pressure, the temperature field is simulated by the linear polynomial. Under some restriction on the time step, we firstly present the optimal L² error estimates of approximate solutions. Secondly, two‐level method based on Stokes iteration for the Boussinesq problem is developed and the corresponding convergence results are presented. By this method, the original problem is decoupled into two small linear subproblems. Compared with the standard Galerkin method, the two‐level method not only keeps good accuracy but also saves a lot of computational cost. Finally, some numerical examples are provided to support the established theoretical analysis.     

Error analysis of a weighted least-squares finite element method for 2-D incompressible flows in velocity–stress–pressure formulation

In this paper we are concerned with a weighted least-squares finite element method for approximating the solution of boundary value problems for 2-D viscous incompressible flows. We consider the generalized Stokes equations with velocity boundary conditions. Introducing the auxiliary variables (stresses) of the velocity gradients and combining the divergence free condition with some compatibility conditions, we can recast the original second-order problem as a Petrovski-type first-order elliptic system (called velocity–stress–pressure formulation) in six equations and six unknowns together with Riemann–Hilbert-type boundary conditions. A weighted least-squares finite element method is proposed for solving this extended first-order problem. The finite element approximations are defined to be the minimizers of a weighted least-squares functional over the finite element subspaces of the H¹ product space. With many advantageous features, the analysis also shows that, under suitable assumptions, the method achieves optimal order of convergence both in the L²-norm and in the H¹-norm. © 1998 B. G. Teubner Stuttgart—John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A finite element method for the axisymmetric three‐field Stokes system with a discontinuous pressure

A quadrilateral based velocity‐pressure‐extrastress tensor mixed finite element method for solving the three‐field Stokes system in the axisymmetric case is studied. The method derived from Fortin's Q₂ − P₁ velocity‐pressure element is to be used in connection with the standard Galerkin formulation. This makes it particularly suitable for the numerical simulation of viscoelastic flow. It is proven to be second‐order convergent in the natural weighted Sobolev norms, for the system under consideration. The crucial result that the method is uniformly stable is proven for the case of rectangular meshes. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 15: 739–763, 1999     

Low‐order stabilized finite element methods for the unsteady Stokes/Navier‐Stokes equations with friction boundary conditions

In this paper, we consider low‐order stabilized finite element methods for the unsteady Stokes/Navier‐Stokes equations with friction boundary conditions. The time discretization is based on the Euler implicit scheme, and the spatial discretization is based on the low‐order element (P₁−P₁ or P₁−P₀) for the approximation of the velocity and pressure. Moreover, some error estimates for the numerical solution of fully discrete stabilized finite element scheme are obtained. Finally, numerical experiments are performed to confirm our theoretical results.     

An optimal nonlinear Galerkin method with mixed finite elements for the steady Navier‐Stokes equations

An optimal nonlinear Galerkin method with mixed finite elements is developed for solving the two‐dimensional steady incompressible Navier‐Stokes equations. This method is based on two finite element spaces X_H and X_h for the approximation of velocity, defined on a coarse grid with grid size H and a fine grid with grid size h ? H, respectively, and a finite element space M_h for the approximation of pressure. We prove that the difference in appropriate norms between the solutions of the nonlinear Galerkin method and a classical Galerkin method is of the order of H⁵. If we choose H = O(h^2/5), these two methods have a convergence rate of the same order. We numerically demonstrate that the optimal nonlinear Galerkin method is efficient and can save a large amount of computational time. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 19: 762–775, 2003.     

An expanded mixed covolume method for elliptic problems

We consider the mixed covolume method combining with the expanded mixed element for a system of first‐order partial differential equations resulting from the mixed formulation of a general self‐adjoint elliptic problem with a full diffusion tensor. The system can be used to model the transport of a contaminant carried by a flow in porous media. We use the lowest order Raviart‐Thomas mixed element space. We show the first‐order error estimate for the approximate solution in L² norm. We show the superconvergence both for pressure and velocity in certain discrete norms. We also get a finite difference scheme by using proper approximate integration formulas. Finally we give some numerical examples. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq, 2005     

On Two Iterative Least-Squares Finite Element Schemes for the Incompressible Navier–Stokes Problem

This paper is mainly devoted to a comparative study of two iterative least-squares finite element schemes for solving the stationary incompressible Navier–Stokes equations with velocity boundary condition. Introducing vorticity as an additional unknown variable, we recast the Navier–Stokes problem into a first-order quasilinear velocity–vorticity–pressure system. Two Picard-type iterative least-squares finite element schemes are proposed to approximate the solution to the nonlinear first-order problem. In each iteration, we adopt the usual L ² least-squares scheme or a weighted L ² least-squares scheme to solve the corresponding Oseen problem and provide error estimates. We concentrate on two-dimensional model problems using continuous piecewise polynomial finite elements on uniform meshes for both iterative least-squares schemes. Numerical evidences show that the iterative L ² least-squares scheme is somewhat suitable for low Reynolds number flow problems, whereas for flows with relatively higher Reynolds numbers the iterative weighted L ² least-squares scheme seems to be better than the iterative L ² least-squares scheme. Numerical simulations of the two-dimensional driven cavity flow are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the iterative least-squares finite element approach.     

The Crank‐Nicolson/Adams‐Bashforth scheme for the time‐dependent Navier‐Stokes equations with nonsmooth initial data

In this article, we study the stability and convergence of the Crank‐Nicolson/Adams‐Bashforth scheme for the two‐dimensional nonstationary Navier‐Stokes equations with a nonsmooth initial data. A finite element method is applied for the spatial approximation of the velocity and pressure. The time discretization is based on the implicit Crank‐Nicolson scheme for the linear terms and the explicit Adams‐Bashforth scheme for the nonlinear term. Moreover, we prove that the scheme is almost unconditionally stable for a nonsmooth initial data u₀ with div u₀ = 0, i.e., the time step τ satisfies: τ ≤ C₀ if u₀ ∈ H¹ ∩ L^∞; τ |log h| ≤ C₀ if u₀ ∈ H¹ for the mesh size h and some positive constant C₀. Finally, we obtain some error estimates for the discrete velocity and pressure under the above stability condition. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq, 28: 155‐187, 2012