Finite element solution of the Stokes problem with dominating Coriolis force

The objective of this paper is to present a finite element formulation to solve the Stokes problem with Coriolis force. This force results in a skew-symmetric term in the weak formulation of the problem that deteriorates the stability of the standard Galerkin finite element method when the viscosity is small. We show that the stability is worsened due to the presence of the pressure gradient to enforce the incompressibility of the flow. The relevance of this effect depends on the relative importance of the viscous force and the Coriolis force, which is measured by the Ekman number. When it is small, oscillations occur using the Galerkin approach. To overcome them, we propose two different methods based on a consistent modification of the basic Galerkin formulation. Both methods eliminate the oscillations, keeping the accuracy of the formulation and enhancing its numerical stability.