Inf-sup stable discretization of the quasi-static Biot’s equations in poroelasticity

Abstract

We propose a new full discretization of the Biot’s equations in poroelasticity. The construction is driven by the inf-sup theory, which we recently developed. It builds upon the four-field formulation of the equations obtained by introducing the total pressure and the total fluid content. We discretize in space with Lagrange finite elements and in time with backward Euler. We establish inf-sup stability and quasi-optimality of the proposed discretization, with robust constants with respect to all material parameters and the time horizon. We further construct an interpolant showing how the error decays for smooth solutions.