Analysis of Subgrid Stabilization Method for Stokes-Darcy Problems

A number of techniques, used as remedy to the instability of the Galerkin finite element formulation for Stokes like problems, are found in the literature. In this work we consider a coupled Stokes-Darcy problem, where in one part of the domain the fluid motion is described by Stokes equations and for the other part the fluid is in a porous medium and described by Darcy law and the conservation of mass. Such systems can be discretized by heterogeneous mixed finite elements in the two parts. A better method, from a computational point of view, consists in using a unified approach on both subdomains. Here, the coupled Stokes-Darcy problem is analyzed using equal-order velocity and pressure approximation combined with subgrid stabilization. We prove that the obtained finite element solution is stable and converges to the classical solution with optimal rates for both velocity and pressure.