A finite element method for low-speed compressible flows Original Research Article

The derivation and justification for various low-speed approximations to the fully compressible, Navier–Stokes equations are presented. A numerical formulation based on the finite element method is developed and implemented as an extension to the standard Boussinesq equations. Example steady and transient flow problems are simulated to examine the performance of the numerical algorithm and the solution differences with the more commonly studied Boussinesq approximation.