New analysis of Mixed finite element methods for incompressible Magnetohydrodynamics

Abstract: The paper focuses on a new error analysis of a class of mixed FEMs for stationary incompressible magnetohydrodynamics with the standard inf-sup stable velocity-pressure space pairs to Navier-Stokes equations and the N\'ed\'elec's edge element for the magnetic field. The methods have been widely used in various numerical simulations in the last several decades, while the existing analysis is not optimal due to the strong coupling of system and the pollution of the lower-order N\'ed\'elec's edge approximation in analysis. In terms of a newly modified Maxwell projection we establish new and optimal error estimates. In particular, we prove that the method based on the commonly-used Taylor-Hood/lowest-order N\'ed\'elec's edge element is efficient and the method provides the second-order accuracy for numerical velocity. Two numerical examples for the problem in both convex and nonconvex polygonal domains are presented. Numerical results confirm our theoretical analysis.