Semidiscrete finite element Galerkin approximations to the equations of motion arising in the Oldroyd model

In this paper, a semidiscrete finite element Galerkin methodfor the equations of motion arising in the 2D Oldroyd modelof viscoelastic fluids with zero forcing function is analysed.Some new a priori bounds for the exact solutions are derivedunder realistically assumed conditions on the data. Moreover,the long-time behaviour of the solution is established. By introducinga Stokes–Volterra projection, optimal error bounds forthe velocity in the L(L²) as well as in the L(H¹)-norms andfor the pressure in the L(L²)-norm are derived which are validuniformly in time t > 0.