ON FINITE ELEMENT APPROXIMATION OF INCOMPRESSIBLE FLOW PROBLEMS: COMPARISON OF PRESSURE CORRECTION METHODS AND COUPLED APPROACH

The article focuses on comparison of discretizations of the Navier-Stokes equations using the finite element method. Several choices of finite element spaces are discussed. First, the conforming spaces (TH, SV) are used. Second, the nonconforming equal order choice of P1/P1 elements is made. For the latter case the discrete equations are solved by a pressure correction scheme for the Taylor-Hood and Scott-Vogelius elements, the arising system is solved by a direct solver. The numerical results are compared to experimental and reference data. Methods are applied for the flow over the backward-facing step and for the flow around the cylinder.