An optimally consistent stabilization of the inf-sup condition (Q1597703)

A constraint problem satisfying the inf-sup condition (and consequently well-posed) may turn, after discretization by the finite element method, into a discrete problem which does not satisfy the discrete inf-sup condition. A common technique to overcome this difficulty is the stabilization of the discrete problem, which means to add an extra term which guarantees the discrete inf-sup condition to be satisfied. The author proposes a stabilization, based on an optimized Verfürth Lemma [cf. \textit{R. Verfürth}, RAIRO, Anal. Numer. 18, 175-182 (1984; Zbl 0557.76037)], which is used to solve the Stokes problem. Some good properties of the approximation and comparisons with the scheme of \textit{F. Brezzi} and \textit{J. Pitkäranta} [On the stabilization of finite element approximations of the Stokes equations. Efficient solutions of elliptic systems, Notes on Numerical Fluid Mechanics, Vol. 10. W. Hackbusch (ed.), Braunschweig, Wiesbaden (1984)] are shown on bench mark problems.