MAC schemes on triangular Delaunay meshes

Abstract

We study two classical generalized MAC schemes on unstructured triangular Delaunay meshes for the incompressible Stokes and Navier-Stokes equations and prove their convergence for the first time. These generalizations use the duality between Voronoi and triangles of Delaunay meshes, in order to construct two staggered discretization schemes. Both schemes are especially interesting, since compatible finite volume discretizations for coupled convection-diffusion equations can be constructed which preserve discrete maximum principles. In the first scheme, called tangential velocity scheme, the pressures are defined at the vertices of the mesh, and the discrete velocities are tangential to the edges of the triangles. In the second scheme, called normal velocity scheme, the pressures are defined in the triangles, and the discrete velocities are normal to the edges of the triangles. For both schemes, we prove the convergence in $L^2$ for the velocities and the discrete rotations of the velocities for the Stokes and the Navier-Stokes problem. Further, for the normal velocity scheme, we also prove the strong convergence of the pressure in $L^2$. Linear and nonlinear numerical examples illustrate the theoretical predictions.