Long-term stability estimates and existence of a global attractor in a finite element approximation of the Navier-Stokes equations with numerical sub-grid scale modeling

Abstract

Variational multiscale methods lead to stable finite element approximations of the NavierStokes equations, both dealing with the indefinite nature of the system (pressure stability) and the velocity stability loss for high Reynolds numbers. These methods enrich the Galerkin formulation with a sub-grid component that is modelled. In fact, the effect of the sub-grid scale on the captured scales has been proved to dissipate the proper amount of energy needed to approximate the correct energy spectrum. Thus, they also act as effective large-eddy simulation turbulence models and allow to compute flows without the need to capture all the scales in the system. In this article, we consider a dynamic sub-grid model that enforces the sub-grid component to be orthogonal to the finite element space in $L^{2}$ sense. We analyze the long-term behavior of the algorithm, proving the existence of appropriate absorbing sets and a compact global attractor. The improvements with respect to a finite element Galerkin approximation are the long-term estimates for the sub-grid component, that are translated to effective pressure and velocity stability. Thus, the stabilization introduced by the sub-grid model into the finite element problem is not deteriorated for infinite time intervals of computation.