Gradient schemes for Stokes problem

Abstract

We provide a framework which encompasses a large family of conforming and nonconforming numerical schemes, for the approximation of the steady state incompressible Stokes equations with homogeneous Dirichlet’s boundary conditions. Three examples (Taylor-Hood, extended MAC and Crouzeix-Raviart schemes) are shown to enter into this framework. The convergence of the scheme is proved by compactness arguments, thanks to estimates on the discrete solution that allow to prove the weak convergence to the unique continuous solution of the problem. Then strong convergence results are obtained thanks to the limit problem.An error estimate result is provided, applying on solutions with low regularity.