In this paper, we propose two initialization techniques for the lattice Boltzmann method. The first one is based on the theory of asymptotic analysis developed in [M. Junk and W.-A. Yong, Asymptotic Anal., 35(2003)]. By selecting consistent macroscopic quantities, this initialization leads to the second-order convergence for both velocity and pressure. Another one is an improvement of the consistent initial conditions proposed in [R. W. Mei, L.-S. Luo, P. Lallemand and D. d’Humières, Comput. Fluids, 35(2006)]. The improvement involves a modification of the collision term and a reconstruction step. Numerical examples confirm the accuracy and efficiency of our techniques.

The incompressible Navier-Stokes problem is discretized in time by the two-step backward differentiation formula. Error estimates are proved under feasible assumptions on the regularity of the exact solution avoiding hardly fulfillable compatibility conditions. Whereas the time-weighted velocity error is of optimal second order, the time-weighted error in the pressure is of first order. Suboptimal estimates are shown for a linearisation. The results cover both the two- and three-dimensional case.