A lowest order divergence-free finite element on rectangular grids (Q537620)

A low order conforming finite element approach for solving Stokes' equation on 2D rectangular grids is presented. The discrete velocity consists of continuous piecewise polynomial components having degree 2 in the corresponding coordinate direction respectively degree 1 in the other. The discrete pressure space is obtained by simply taking the divergence of the velocity space, resulting in a subspace of the space of piecewise discontinuous polynomials of degree 1. As a direct consequence, the obtained finite element approach is divergence-free. Stability of the method is shown by proving the Ladyshenskaya-Babuška-Brezzi condition. Moreover, results concerning the approximation order are presented. Finally, the performance of the method is examined by numerical experiments, including a comparison to the popular \(Q_1/P_0\) element.