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A unified construction of H(div)-conforming finite element tensors, including vector element, symmetric matrix element, traceless matrix element, and, in general, tensors with linear constraints, is developed in this work. It is based on the geometric decomposition of Lagrange elements into bubble functions on each sub-simplex. Each tensor at a sub-simplex is further decomposed into tangential and normal components. The tangential component forms the bubble function space, while the normal component characterizes the trace. Some degrees of freedom can be redistributed to (n-1)-dimensional faces. The developed finite element spaces are H(div)-conforming and satisfy the discrete inf-sup condition. Intrinsic bases of the constraint tensor space are also established.
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This content will become publicly available on May 29, 2027
Superconvergent and Divergence-Free Finite Element Methods for the Stokes Equation
This paper develops divergence-free mixed finite element methods for the Stokes equation. Using H(div)-conforming velocities and discontinuous pressures ensures the inf-sup condition for the velocity--pressure pair and yields pointwise divergence-free velocities. However, this choice makes the vector Laplacian difficult to discretize. Inspired by mass-conserving mixed formulations with stresses, tangential--normal continuous traceless tensor elements are introduced to discretize the vector Laplacian. An inf-sup condition for the weak div operator between the stress and velocity spaces is then proved. Two key properties characterize the scheme. First, the stress--velocity inf-sup stability gives a stable discretization of the vector Laplacian without additional stabilization, unlike discontinuous Galerkin or virtual element methods. Second, the scheme has the property that if a stress field is distributionally divergence-free against the discrete divergence-free velocity space, then it is also distributionally divergence-free against the continuous divergence-free velocity space. This property decouples the stress and velocity errors and leads to superconvergence. As a result, optimal-order error estimates are obtained for the stress, while the velocity and pressure converge at rates higher than the approximation orders of the chosen spaces. Numerical experiments confirm the theoretical results.
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- PAR ID:
- 10686025
- Publisher / Repository:
- SIAM
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- SIAM journal on numerical analysis
- ISSN:
- 1095-7170
- Subject(s) / Keyword(s):
- Stokes equation divergence-free superconvergence mixed finite element method
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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