On a higher order accurate fully discrete Galerkin approximation to the Navier-Stokes equations

We consider approximating the solution of the initial and boundary value problem for the Navier-Stokes equations in bounded two- and three-dimensional domains using a nonstandard Galerkin (finite element) method for the space discretization and the third order accurate, three-step backward differentiation method (coupled with extrapolation for the nonlinear terms) for the time stepping. The resulting scheme requires the solution of one linear system per time step plus the solution of five linear systems for the computation of the required initial conditions; all these linear systems have the same matrix. The resulting approximations of the velocity are shown to have optimal rate of convergence in L 2 {L^2} under suitable restrictions on the discretization parameters of the problem and the size of the solution in an appropriate function space.