Abstract

The paper addresses stability and finite element analysis of the stationary two-phase Stokes problem with a piecewise constant viscosity coefficient experiencing a jump across the interface between two fluid phases. We first prove a priori estimates for the individual terms of the Cauchy stress tensor with stability constants independent of the viscosity coefficient. Next, this stability result is extended to the approximation of the two-phase Stokes problem by a finite element method. In the method considered, the interface between the phases does not respect the underlying triangulation, putting the finite element method into the class of unfitted discretizations. The finite element error estimates are proved with constants independent of viscosity. Numerical experiments supporting the theoretical results are provided.