Stable cheapest nonconforming finite elements for the Stokes equations

TL;DR

This paper presents two new stable, cost-effective nonconforming finite element pairs for the Stokes equations, demonstrating their stability, efficiency, and reliability through theoretical analysis and numerical tests.

Contribution

The paper introduces two novel stable nonconforming finite element pairs for the Stokes equations, with specific velocity and pressure approximations, and proves their uniform inf-sup stability.

Findings

Both element pairs satisfy the discrete inf-sup condition uniformly.

Numerical examples confirm the methods' efficiency and reliability.

The second pair includes a macro bubble enrichment based on DSSY elements.

Abstract

We introduce two pairs of stable cheapest nonconforming finite element space pairs to approximate the Stokes equations. One pair has each component of its velocity field to be approximated by the $P_1$ nonconforming quadrilateral element while the pressure field is approximated by the piecewise constant function with globally two-dimensional subspaces removed: one removed space is due to the integral mean--zero property and the other space consists of global checker--board patterns. The other pair consists of the velocity space as the $P_1$ nonconforming quadrilateral element enriched by a globally one--dimensional macro bubble function space based on $DSSY$ (Douglas-Santos-Sheen-Ye) nonconforming finite element space; the pressure field is approximated by the piecewise constant function with mean--zero space eliminated. We show that two element pairs satisfy the discrete inf-sup condition uniformly. And we investigate the relationship between them. Several numerical examples are shown to confirm the efficiency and reliability of the proposed methods.