A Weak Galerkin Finite Element Scheme for solving the stationary Stokes Equations

A weak Galerkin (WG) finite element method for solving the stationary Stokes equations in two- or three- dimensional spaces by using discontinuous piecewise polynomials is developed and analyzed. The variational form we considered is based on two gradient operators which is different from the usual gradient-divergence operators. The WG method is highly flexible by allowing the use of discontinuous functions on arbitrary polygons or polyhedra with certain shape regularity. Optimal-order error estimates are established for the corresponding WG finite element solutions in various norms. Numerical results are presented to illustrate the theoretical analysis of the new WG finite element scheme for Stokes problems.