Analysis and Elimination of Numerical Pressure Dependency in Coupled Stokes-Darcy Problem

Abstract: This paper presents a pressure-robust mixed finite element method (FEM) for the coupled Stokes-Darcy system. We revisits the rigorous theoretical framework of Layton et al. [2002], where velocity and pressure errors are coupled, masking pressure's influence on velocity accuracy. To investigate the pressure dependency, we introduce a auxiliary velocity projection that preserves discrete divergence and interface continuity constraints. By analyzing the difference between the discrete and projected velocities, we rigorously prove that classical FEM incurs pressure-dependent consistency errors due to inexact divergence enforcement and approximate interface conditions. To eliminate these errors, we design a pressure-robust method using divergence-free reconstruction operator, which enforce exact divergence constraint and interface continuity. Numerical examples confirm the theory: under high-pressure or low-viscosity, the proposed method reduces velocity errors by orders of magnitude compared to classical method.