Penalty finite element method for the Navier-Stokes equations

We present an analysis of a penalty formulation of the stationary Navier-Stokes equations for an incompressible fluid. Subject to restrictions on the viscosity and prescribed body force, it is shown that there exists a unique solution to this penalty problem. The solution to the penalty problem is shown to converge to the solution of the Navier-Stokes problem as O(ε) where ε → 0 is the penalty parameter.Existence, uniqueness and stability properties for the approximate problem are then developed and we derive estimates for finite element approximation of the penalized Navier-Stokes problem presented here. Numerical studies are conducted to examine rates of convergence and sample numerical results presented for test cases.