2011, Galvin, Keith J., Linke, Alexander, Rebholz, Leo G., Wilson, Nicholas E.

We consider the problem of poor mass conservation in mixed finite element algorithms for flow problems with large rotation-free forcing in the momentum equation. We provide analysis that suggests for such problems, obtaining accurate solutions necessitates either the use of pointwise divergence-free finite elements (such as Scott-Vogelius), or heavy grad-div stabilization of weakly divergence-free elements. The theory is demonstrated in numerical experiments for a benchmark natural convection problem, where large irrotational forcing occurs with high Rayleigh numbers.