The effect of the choice of the reference pressure location in numerical modelling of incompressible flow

The discontinuity of a finite-element pressure field that is sometimes present in the neighbourhood of the pressure-specification-point is shown to arise either from round-off, or from mistakes in modelling. The implications of this are considered. In particular it restricts grid refinement near the pressure-specification-point. The analysis can be extended to finite-difference calculations, and to other fields governed by equations similar to Poisson's equation.