AbstractA variational formulation for the solution of two dimensional, incompressible viscous flows has been developed by one of the authors.1The main objective of the present paper is to demonstrate the applicability of this approach for the solution of practical problems and in particular to investigate the introduction of boundary conditions to the Navier‐Stokes equations through a variational formulation. The application of boundary conditions for typical internal and external flow problems is presented. Sample cases include flow around a cylinder and flow through a stepped channel.Quadrilateral, bilinear isoparametric elements are utilized in the formulation. A single‐step, implicit, and fully coupled numerical integration scheme based on the variational principle is employed. Presented results include sample cases with different Reynolds numbers for laminar and turbulent flows. Turbulence is modelled using a simple mixing length model. Numerical results show good agreement with existing soluti