Pressure bubbles stabilization features in the Stokes problem Original Research Article

The standard finite element approximation using equal-order-linear-continuous velocity–pressure variables is enriched with velocity and pressure bubble functions to model the Stokes problem. We show by static condensation that these bubble functions give rise to a stabilized method involving least-squares forms of the momentum and of the continuity equations. In particular, pressure bubbles play a key role in explaining the addition of the least-squares form of the continuity equation in a stabilized method for Stokes.