Hybridizable discontinuous Galerkin methods for the coupled Stokes--Biot problem

Abstract: We present and analyze a hybridizable discontinuous Galerkin (HDG) finite element method for the coupled Stokes--Biot problem. Of particular interest is that the discrete velocities and displacement are $H(\text{div})$-conforming and satisfy the compressibility equations pointwise on the elements. Furthermore, in the incompressible limit, the discretization is strongly conservative. We prove well-posedness of the discretization and, after combining the HDG method with backward Euler time stepping, present a priori error estimates that demonstrate that the method is free of volumetric locking. Numerical examples further demonstrate optimal rates of convergence in the $L^2$-norm for all unknowns and that the discretization is locking-free.