Robust high-order semi-implicit backward difference formulas for Navier-Stokes equations

Taylor-Hood finite elements provide a robust numerical discretization of Navier-Stokes equations (NSEs) with arbitrary high order of accuracy in space. To match the accuracy of the lowest degree Taylor-Hood element, we propose a very efficient time-stepping methods for unsteady flows, which are based on high-order semi-implicit backward difference formulas (SBDF) and the inclusion of grad -div term in the NSE. To mitigate the impact on the numerical accuracy (in time) of the extrapolation of the nonlinear term in SBDF, several variants of nonlinear extrapolation formulas are investigated. The first approach is based on an extrapolation of the nonlinear advection term itself. The second formula uses the extrapolation of the velocity prior to the evaluation of the nonlinear advection term as a whole. The third variant is constructed such that it produces similar error on both velocity and pressure to that with fully implicit backward difference formulas methods at a given order of accuracy. This can be achieved by fixing one-order higher than usually done in the extrapolation formula for the nonlinear advection term, while keeping the same extrapolation formula for the time derivative. The resulting truncation errors (in time) between these formulas are identified using Taylor expansions. These truncation error formulas are shown to properly represent the error seen in numerical tests using a 2D manufactured solution. Lastly, we show the robustness of the proposed semi-implicit methods by solving test cases with high Reynolds numbers using one of the nonlinear extrapolation formulas, namely, the 2D flow past circular cylinder at Re=300 and Re = 1000 and the 2D lid-driven cavity at Re = 50 000 and Re = 100 000. Our numerical solutions are found to be in a good agreement with those obtained in the literature, both qualitatively and quantitatively.