On the convergence of second-order in time numerical discretizations for the evolution Navier-Stokes equations

Abstract

We prove the convergence of certain second-order numerical methods to weak solutions of the Navier-Stokes equations satisfying in addition the local energy inequality, and therefore suitable in the sense of Scheffer and Caffarelli-Kohn-Nirenberg. More precisely, we treat the space-periodic case in three space-dimensions and we consider a full discretization in which the the classical Crank-Nicolson method (θ-method with θ = 1/2) is used to discretize the time variable, while in the space variables we consider finite elements. The convective term is discretized in several implicit, semi-implicit, and explicit ways. In particular, we focus on proving (possibly conditional) convergence of the discrete solutions towards weak solutions (satisfying a precise local energy balance), without extra regularity assumptions on the limit problem. We do not prove orders of convergence, but our analysis identifies some numerical schemes providing also alternate proofs of existence of "physically relevant" solutions in three space dimensions.