Old and new finite elements for incompressible flows

Abstract This paper presents some seemingly new elements for the computation of two and three‐dimensional incompressible flow. We want to obtain elements satisfying the Babǔska‐Brezzi condition for mixed methods and thus introducing no spurious pressure modes (cf. Sani et al. 1 ). In order to present clearly the advantages and disadvantages of our new elements we compare them on a qualitative basis with more standard ones. Of particular importance for incompressible flow is the size and shape of vortices that can be produced by the elements. We shall try to describe this as precisely as possible. The conclusion is that the elements introduced here should be quite competitive on a cost/precision scale.