A Lagrange-Galerkin scheme with a locally linearized velocity for the Navier--Stokes equations

Abstract: We present a Lagrange--Galerkin scheme free from numerical quadrature for the Navier--Stokes equations. Our idea is to use a locally linearized velocity and the backward Euler method in finding the position of fluid particle at the previous time step. Since the scheme can be implemented exactly as it is, the theoretical stability and convergence results are assured. While the conventional Lagrange--Galerkin schemes may encounter the instability caused by numerical quadrature errors, the present scheme is genuinely stable. For the $\pk 2/\pk 1$- and $\mini$-finite elements optimal error estimates are proved in $\ell^\infty(H^1)\times \ell^2(L^2)$ norm for the velocity and pressure. We present some numerical results, which reflect these estimates and also show the genuine stability of the scheme.