Improved flux calculations for viscous incompressible flow by the variable penalty method

The Navier-Stokes system for viscous, incompressible flow is considered, taking into account a replacement of the continuity equation by the perturbed continuity equation. The introduction of the approximation allows the pressure variable to be eliminated to obtain the system of equations for the approximate velocity. The penalty approximation is often applied to numerical discretizations since it provides a reduction in the size and band-width of the system of equations. Attention is given to error estimates, and to two numerical experiments which illustrate the error estimates considered. It is found that the variable penalty method provides an accurate solution for a much wider range of epsilon than the classical penalty method.