A finite element formulation for transient incompressible viscous flows stabilized by local time-steps Original Research Article

Stabilized finite element formulations are well suited for convection dominated flows and for the solution of the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations in primitive variables. In this paper, we present a method where the structure of stabilization terms appear naturally from a least-squares minimization of the time-discretized momentum balance. Local time-steps, chosen according to the time-scales of convection–diffusion of momentum, play the role of stabilization parameters. Numerical solutions of incompressible viscous flows demonstrate the usefulness of the proposed stabilized formulation.