Correct energy evolution of stabilized formulations: The relation between VMS, SUPG and GLS via dynamic orthogonal small-scales and isogeometric analysis. I: The convective–diffusive context

This paper presents the construction of novel stabilized finite element methods in the convective–diffusive context that exhibit correct-energy behavior. Classical stabilized formulations can create unwanted artificial energy. Our contribution corrects this undesired property by employing the concepts of dynamic as well as orthogonal small-scales within the variational multiscale framework (VMS). The desire for correct energy indicates that the large- and small-scales should be H₀ ¹-orthogonal. Using this orthogonality the VMS method can be converted into the streamline-upwind Petrov–Galerkin (SUPG) or the Galerkin/least-squares (GLS) method. Incorporating both large- and small-scales in the energy definition asks for dynamic behavior of the small-scales. Therefore, the large- and small-scales are treated as separate equations. Two consistent variational formulations which depict correct-energy behavior are proposed: (i) the Galerkin/least-squares method with dynamic small-scales (GLSD) and (ii) the dynamic orthogonal formulation (DO). The methods are presented in combination with an energy-decaying generalized-α time-integrator. Numerical verification shows that dissipation due to the small-scales in classical stabilized methods can become negative, on both a local and a global scale. The results show that without loss of accuracy the correct-energy behavior can be recovered by the proposed methods. The computations employ NURBS-based isogeometric analysis for the spatial discretization.