Progress in symmetric formulation of the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations (Q802965)

In this work the authors present a symmetric formulation of 3D incompressible Navier-Stokes equations, giving explicitly symmetric forms for the nonlinear term. The fundamental idea is to represent the nonlinear term \(\vec u\cdot \text{grad} \vec u\) as a scalar product \(T\cdot \vec u\), for some second order symmetric tensor T. More precisely, \(T=1/2(Re \sigma +Z^ s)\) where Re is the Reynolds number, \(\sigma\) is the stress tensor, and \(Z^ s\) is also a symmetric tensor that appears in a reformulation of the vectorial product between vorticity and velocity vectors. Using the incompressibility condition the authors find other symmetric form useful in weak formulations, particularly when the impenetrability condition holds at the boundary. In this case the nullity of the principal form implies the stability of the flow. A local investigation of limiting points is made in order to prevent eventual loss of accuracy in finite elements discretization method. A numerical test for stationary highly nonlinear 2D driven cavity flow is given in order to demonstrate the applicability of symmetric formulations.