Numerical approximation of statistical solutions of the incompressible Navier-Stokes Equations

Abstract

Statistical solutions, which are time-parameterized probability measures on spaces of square-integrable functions, have been established as a suitable framework for global solutions of incompressible Navier-Stokes equations (NSE). We compute numerical approximations of statistical solutions of NSE on two-dimensional domains with non-periodic boundary conditions and empirically investigate the convergence of these approximations and their observables. For the numerical solver, we use Monte Carlo sampling with an H(div)-FEM based deterministic solver. Our numerical experiments for high Reynolds number turbulent flows demonstrate that the statistics and observables of the approximations converge. We also develop a novel algorithm to compute structure functions on unstructured meshes.