Optimal error estimates of second-order semi-discrete stabilized scheme for the incompressible MHD equations

The purpose of this paper is to construct optimal error estimates of second-order stabilized scheme for the incompressible magnetohydrodynamic(MHD) system. For this purpose, we first construct first- and second-order semi-discrete schemes in which the time derivative term is treated by the first-order backward Euler method and the second-order backward difference formulation, respectively. Moreover, the nonlinear terms are treated by semi-implicit method, and the coupling of velocity and pressure is decoupled by a Gauge–Uzawa method. Thus, the schemes achieve decoupling of velocity, magnetic field and pressure. Most importantly, the proposed schemes do not need to deal with the artificial boundary conditions on pressure and do not need to give an initial value of pressure. Then, the unconditional stability of the two schemes is demonstrated. Furthermore, through rigorous error analysis, we provide optimal convergence orders for all unknowns. Finally, some numerical experiments demonstrate the accuracy and effectiveness of the proposed schemes.