Numerous papers have appeared in the literature over the past thirty years discussing projection-type methods for solving the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations. A recurring difficulty encountered is the choice of boundary conditions for the intermediate or predicted velocity in order to obtain at least second order convergence. A further issue is the formula for the pressure correction at each timestep. A simple overview is presented here based on recently published results by Brown, Cortez and Minion [2].

Recently there has been substantial interest in least-squares finite element methods for velocity-vorticity-pressure formulations of the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations. The main cause for this interest is the fact that algorithms for the resulting discrete equations can be devised which require the solution of only symmetric, positive definite systems of algebraic equations. On the other hand, it is well-documented that methods using the vorticity as a primary variable often yield very poor approximations. Thus, here we study the accuracy of these methods through a series of computational experiments, and also comment on theoretical error estimates. It is found, despite the failure of standard methods for deriving error estimates, that computational evidence suggests that these methods are, at the least, nearly optimally accurate. Thus, in addition to the desirable matrix properties yielded by least-squares methods, one also obtains accurate approximations. Bochev, Pavel B. and Gunzburger, Max D. Glenn Research Center NCC3-233; RTOP 505-90-5K...