The micropolar Navier-Stokes equations: A priori error analysis
This work provides a stable and efficient numerical method for simulating micropolar fluids, which is relevant for applications like ferrofluid manipulation.
The authors propose a first-order semi-implicit fully-discrete scheme for the Micropolar Navier-Stokes equations that decouples linear and angular velocity computations, is unconditionally stable, and achieves optimal convergence rates. They also introduce a second-order scheme that is almost unconditionally stable.
The unsteady Micropolar Navier-Stokes Equations (MNSE) are a system of parabolic partial differential equations coupling linear velocity and pressure with angular velocity: material particles have both translational and rotational degrees of freedom. We propose and analyze a first order semi-implicit fully-discrete scheme for the MNSE, which decouples the computation of the linear and angular velocities, is unconditionally stable and delivers optimal convergence rates under assumptions analogous to those used for the Navier-Stokes equations. With the help of our scheme we explore some qualitative properties of the MNSE related to ferrofluid manipulation and pumping. Finally, we propose a second order scheme and show that it is almost unconditionally stable.