Adaptive Order WENO Reconstructions for the Semi-Lagrangian Finite Difference Scheme for Advection Problem

We present a new conservative semi-Lagrangian finite difference weighted essentially non-oscillatory scheme with adaptive order. This is an extension of the conservative semi-Lagrangian (SL) finite difference WENO scheme in [Qiu and Shu, JCP, 230 (4) (2011), pp. 863-889], in which linear weights in SL WENO framework were shown not to exist for variable coefficient problems. Hence, the order of accuracy is not optimal from reconstruction stencils. In this paper, we incorporate a recent WENO adaptive order (AO) technique [Balsara et al., JCP, 326 (2016), pp. 780-804] to the SL WENO framework. The new scheme can achieve an optimal high order of accuracy, while maintaining the properties of mass conservation and non-oscillatory capture of solutions from the original SL WENO. The positivity-preserving limiter is further applied to ensure the positivity of solutions. Finally, the scheme is applied to high dimensional problems by a fourth-order dimensional splitting. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the new scheme by extensive numerical tests on linear advection equations, the Vlasov-Poisson system, the guiding center Vlasov model as well as the incompressible Euler equations.     

AUSM-Based High-Order Solution for Euler Equations

In this paper we demonstrate the accuracy and robustness of combining the advection upwind splitting method (AUSM), specifically AUSM⁺-UP [9], with high-order upwind-biased interpolation procedures, the weighted essentially non-oscillatory (WENO-JS) scheme [8] and its variations [2, 7], and the monotonicity preserving (MP) scheme [16], for solving the Euler equations. MP is found to be more effective than the three WENO variations studied. AUSM⁺-UP is also shown to be free of the so-called "carbuncle" phenomenon with the high-order interpolation. The characteristic variables are preferred for interpolation after comparing the results using primitive and conservative variables, even though they require additional matrix-vector operations. Results using the Roe flux with an entropy fix and the Lax-Friedrichs approximate Riemann solvers are also included for comparison. In addition, four reflective boundary condition implementations are compared for their effects on residual convergence and solution accuracy. Finally, a measure for quantifying the efficiency of obtaining high order solutions is proposed; the measure reveals that a maximum return is reached after which no improvement in accuracy is possible for a given grid size.     

High Order Finite Difference WENO Methods with Unequal-Sized Sub-Stencils for the Degasperis-Procesi Type Equations

In this paper, we develop two finite difference weighted essentially non-oscillatory (WENO) schemes with unequal-sized sub-stencils for solving the Degasperis-Procesi (DP) and $\mu$-Degasperis-Procesi ($\mu$DP) equations, which contain nonlinear high order derivatives, and possibly peakon solutions or shock waves. By introducing auxiliary variable(s), we rewrite the DP equation as a hyperbolic-elliptic system, and the $\mu$DP equation as a first order system. Then we choose a linear finite difference scheme with suitable order of accuracy for the auxiliary variable(s), and two finite difference WENO schemes with unequal-sized sub-stencils for the primal variable. One WENO scheme uses one large stencil and several smaller stencils, and the other WENO scheme is based on the multi-resolution framework which uses a series of unequal-sized hierarchical central stencils. Comparing with the classical WENO scheme which uses several small stencils of the same size to make up a big stencil, both WENO schemes with unequal-sized sub-stencils are simple in the choice of the stencil and enjoy the freedom of arbitrary positive linear weights. Another advantage is that the final reconstructed polynomial on the target cell is a polynomial of the same degree as the polynomial over the big stencil, while the classical finite difference WENO reconstruction can only be obtained for specific points inside the target interval. Numerical tests are provided to demonstrate the high order accuracy and non-oscillatory properties of the proposed schemes.     

High-Order Runge-Kutta Discontinuous Galerkin Methods with a New Type of Multi-Resolution WENO Limiters on Tetrahedral Meshes

In this paper, the second-order and third-order Runge-Kutta discontinuous Galerkin (RKDG) methods with multi-resolution weighted essentially non-oscillatory (WENO) limiters are proposed on tetrahedral meshes. The multi-resolution WENO limiter is an extension of a finite volume multi-resolution WENO scheme developed in [81], which serves as a limiter for RKDG methods on tetrahedral meshes. This new WENO limiter uses information of the DG solution essentially only within the troubled cell itself which is identified by a new modified version of the original KXRCF indicator [42], to build a sequence of hierarchical $L^2$ projection polynomials from zeroth degree to the second or third degree of the DG solution. The second-order and third-order RKDG methods with the associated multi-resolution WENO limiters are developed as examples for general high-order RKDG methods, which could maintain the original order of accuracy in smooth regions and keep essentially non-oscillatory property near strong discontinuities by gradually degrading from the optimal order to the first order. The linear weights inside the procedure of the new multi-resolution WENO limiters can be set as any positive numbers on the condition that they sum to one. A series of polynomials of different degrees within the troubled cell itself are applied in a WENO fashion to modify the DG solutions in the troubled cell on tetrahedral meshes. These new WENO limiters are very simple to construct, and can be easily implemented to arbitrary high-order accuracy on tetrahedral meshes. Such spatial reconstruction methodology improves the robustness in the simulation on the same compact spatial stencil of the original DG methods on tetrahedral meshes. Extensive one-dimensional (run as three-dimensional problems on tetrahedral meshes) and three-dimensional tests are performed to demonstrate the good performance of the RKDG methods with new multi-resolution WENO limiters.     

A Hermite WENO Method with Modified Ghost Fluid Method for Compressible Two-Medium Flow Problems

In this paper, we develop a novel approach by combining a new robust finite difference Hermite weighted essentially non-oscillatory (HWENO) method [51] with the modified ghost fluid method (MGFM) [25] to simulate the compressible two-medium flow problems. The main idea is that we first use the technique of the MGFM to transform a two-medium flow problem to two single-medium cases by defining the ghost fluids status based on the predicted interface status. Then the efficient and robust HWENO finite difference method is applied for solving the single-medium flow cases. By using immediate neighbor information to deal with both the solution and its derivatives, the fifth order finite difference HWENO scheme adopted in this paper is more compact and has higher resolution than the classical fifth order finite difference WENO scheme of Jiang and Shu [14]. Furthermore, by combining the HWENO scheme with the MGFM to simulate the two-medium flow problems, less ghost point information is needed than that in using the classical WENO scheme in order to obtain the same numerical accuracy. Various one-dimensional and two-dimensional two-medium flow problems are solved to illustrate the good performances of the proposed method.     

Runge-Kutta Discontinuous Galerkin Method with a Simple and Compact Hermite WENO Limiter

In this paper, we propose a new type of weighted essentially non-oscillatory (WENO) limiter, which belongs to the class of Hermite WENO (HWENO) limiters, for the Runge-Kutta discontinuous Galerkin (RKDG) methods solving hyperbolic conservation laws. This new HWENO limiter is a modification of the simple WENO limiter proposed recently by Zhong and Shu [29]. Both limiters use information of the DG solutions only from the target cell and its immediate neighboring cells, thus maintaining the original compactness of the DG scheme. The goal of both limiters is to obtain high order accuracy and non-oscillatory properties simultaneously. The main novelty of the new HWENO limiter in this paper is to reconstruct the polynomial on the target cell in a least square fashion [8] while the simple WENO limiter [29] is to use the entire polynomial of the original DG solutions in the neighboring cells with an addition of a constant for conservation. The modification in this paper improves the robustness in the computation of problems with strong shocks or contact discontinuities, without changing the compact stencil of the DG scheme. Numerical results for both one and two dimensional equations including Euler equations of compressible gas dynamics are provided to illustrate the viability of this modified limiter.     

High-Order Gas-Kinetic Scheme in Curvilinear Coordinates for the Euler and Navier-Stokes Solutions

The high-order gas-kinetic scheme (HGKS) has achieved success in simulating compressible flows with Cartesian meshes. To study the flow problems in general geometries, such as the flow over a wing-body, the development of HGKS in general curvilinear coordinates becomes necessary. In this paper, a two-stage fourth-order gas-kinetic scheme is developed for the Euler and Navier-Stokes solutions in the curvilinear coordinates from one-dimensional to three-dimensional computations. Based on the coordinate transformation, the kinetic equation is transformed first to the computational space, and the flux function in the gas-kinetic scheme is obtained there and is transformed back to the physical domain for the update of flow variables inside each control volume. To achieve the expected order of accuracy, the dimension-by-dimension reconstruction based on the WENO scheme is adopted in the computational domain, where the reconstructed variables are the cell averaged Jacobian and the Jacobian-weighted conservative variables. In the two-stage fourth-order gas-kinetic scheme, the point values as well as the spatial derivatives of conservative variables at Gaussian quadrature points have to be used in the evaluation of the time dependent flux function. The point-wise conservative variables are obtained by ratio of the above reconstructed data, and the spatial derivatives are reconstructed through orthogonalization in physical space and chain rule. A variety of numerical examples from the accuracy tests to the solutions with strong discontinuities are presented to validate the accuracy and robustness of the current scheme for both inviscid and viscous flows. The precise satisfaction of the geometrical conservation law in non-orthogonal mesh is also demonstrated through the numerical example.     

Performance Enhancement for High-Order Gas-Kinetic Scheme Based on WENO-Adaptive-Order Reconstruction

High-order gas-kinetic scheme (HGKS) has been well-developed in the past years. Abundant numerical tests including hypersonic flow, turbulence, and aeroacoustic problems, have been used to validate its accuracy, efficiency, and robustness. However, there is still room for its further improvement. Firstly, the reconstruction in the previous scheme mainly achieves a fifth-order accuracy for the point-wise values at a cell interface due to the use of standard WENO reconstruction, and the slopes of the initial non-equilibrium states have to be reconstructed from the cell interface values and cell averages again. The same order of accuracy for slopes as the original WENO scheme cannot be achieved. At the same time, the equilibrium state in space and time in HGKS has to be reconstructed separately. Secondly, it is complicated to get reconstructed data at Gaussian points from the WENO-type method in high dimensions. For HGKS, besides the point-wise values at the Gaussian points it also requires the slopes in both normal and tangential directions of a cell interface. Thirdly, there exists visible spurious overshoot/undershoot at weak discontinuities from the previous HGKS with the standard WENO reconstruction. In order to overcome these difficulties, in this paper we use an improved reconstruction for HGKS. The WENO with adaptive order (WENO-AO) [2] method is implemented for reconstruction. Equipped with WENO-AO reconstruction, the performance enhancement of HGKS is fully explored. WENO-AO not only provides the interface values, but also the slopes. In other words, a whole polynomial inside each cell is provided by the WENO-AO reconstruction. The available polynomial may not benefit to the high-order schemes based on the Riemann solver, where only points-wise values at the cell interface are needed. But, it can be fully utilized in the HGKS. As a result, the HGKS becomes simpler than the previous one with the direct implementation of cell interface values and their slopes from WENO-AO. The additional reconstruction of equilibrium state at the beginning of each time step can be avoided as well by dynamically merging the reconstructed non-equilibrium slopes. The new HGKS essentially releases or totally removes the above existing problems in the previous HGKS. The accuracy of the scheme from 1D to 3D from the new HGKS can recover the theoretical order of accuracy of the WENO reconstruction. In the two- and three-dimensional simulations, the new HGKS shows better robustness and efficiency than the previous scheme in all test cases.     

A Positivity-Preserving Scheme for the Simulation of Streamer Discharges in Non-Attaching and Attaching Gases

Assumed having axial symmetry, the streamer discharge is often described by a fluid model in cylindrical coordinate system, which consists of convection dominated (diffusion) equations with source terms, coupled with a Poisson's equation. Without additional care for a stricter CFL condition or special treatment to the negative source term, popular methods used in streamer discharge simulations, e.g., FEM-FCT, FVM, cannot ensure the positivity of the particle densities for the cases in attaching gases. By introducing the positivity-preserving limiter proposed by Zhang and Shu [15] and Strang operator splitting, this paper proposes a finite difference scheme with a provable positivity-preserving property in cylindrical coordinate system, for the numerical simulation of streamer discharges in non-attaching and attaching gases. Numerical examples in non-attaching gas (N₂) and attaching gas (SF₆) are given to illustrate the effectiveness of the scheme.     

Arbitrarily High-Order (Weighted) Essentially Non-Oscillatory Finite Difference Schemes for Anelastic Flows on Staggered Meshes

We propose a WENO finite difference scheme to approximate anelastic flows, and scalars advected by them, on staggered grids. In contrast to existing WENO schemes on staggered grids, the proposed scheme is designed to be arbitrarily high-order accurate as it judiciously combines ENO interpolations of velocities with WENO reconstructions of spatial derivatives. A set of numerical experiments are presented to demonstrate the increase in accuracy and robustness with the proposed scheme, when compared to existing WENO schemes and state-of-the-art central finite difference schemes.     

A New Mapped WENO Scheme Using Order-Preserving Mapping

Existing mapped WENO schemes can hardly prevent spurious oscillations while preserving high resolutions at long output times. We reveal in this paper the essential reason of such phenomena. It is actually caused by that the mapping function in these schemes can not preserve the order of the nonlinear weights of the stencils. The nonlinear weights may be increased for non-smooth stencils and be decreased for smooth stencils. It is then indicated to require the set of mapping functions to be order-preserving in mapped WENO schemes. Therefore, we propose a new mapped WENO scheme with a set of mapping functions to be order-preserving which exhibits a remarkable advantage over the mapped WENO schemes in references. For long output time simulations of the one-dimensional linear advection equation, the new scheme has the capacity to attain high resolutions and avoid spurious oscillations near discontinuities meanwhile. In addition, for the two-dimensional Euler problems with strong shock waves, the new scheme can significantly reduce the numerical oscillations.     

A Higher Order Interpolation Scheme of Finite Volume Method for Compressible Flow on Curvilinear Grids

A higher order interpolation scheme based on a multi-stage BVD (Boundary Variation Diminishing) algorithm is developed for the FV (Finite Volume) method on non-uniform, curvilinear structured grids to simulate the compressible turbulent flows. The designed scheme utilizes two types of candidate interpolants including a higher order linear-weight polynomial as high as eleven and a THINC (Tangent of Hyperbola for INterface Capturing) function with the adaptive steepness. We investigate not only the accuracy but also the efficiency of the methodology through the cost efficiency analysis in comparison with well-designed mapped WENO (Weighted Essentially Non-Oscillatory) scheme. Numerical experimentation including benchmark broadband turbulence problem as well as real-life wall-bounded turbulent flows has been carried out to demonstrate the potential implementation of the present higher order interpolation scheme especially in the ILES (Implicit Large Eddy Simulation) of compressible turbulence.     

Finite-Volume-Particle Methods for the Two-Component Camassa-Holm System

We study the two-component Camassa-Holm (2CH) equations as a model for the long time water wave propagation. Compared with the classical Saint-Venant system, it has the advantage of preserving the waves amplitude and shape for a long time. We present two different numerical methods—finite volume (FV) and hybrid finite-volume-particle (FVP) ones. In the FV setup, we rewrite the 2CH equations in a conservative form and numerically solve it by the central-upwind scheme, while in the FVP method, we apply the central-upwind scheme to the density equation only while solving the momentum and velocity equations by a deterministic particle method. Numerical examples are shown to verify the accuracy of both FV and FVP methods. The obtained results demonstrate that the FVP method outperforms the FV method and achieves a superior resolution thanks to a low-diffusive nature of a particle approximation.     

An Adaptive Moving Mesh Method for Two-Dimensional Relativistic Hydrodynamics

This paper extends the adaptive moving mesh method developed by Tang and Tang [36] to two-dimensional (2D) relativistic hydrodynamic (RHD) equations. The algorithm consists of two "independent" parts: the time evolution of the RHD equations and the (static) mesh iteration redistribution. In the first part, the RHD equations are discretized by using a high resolution finite volume scheme on the fixed but nonuniform meshes without the full characteristic decomposition of the governing equations. The second part is an iterative procedure. In each iteration, the mesh points are first redistributed, and then the cell averages of the conservative variables are remapped onto the new mesh in a conservative way. Several numerical examples are given to demonstrate the accuracy and effectiveness of the proposed method.     

Numerical Simulation of Free Surface by an Area-Preserving Level Set Method

We apply in this study an area preserving level set method to simulate gas/water interface flow. For the sake of accuracy, the spatial derivative terms in the equations of motion for an incompressible fluid flow are approximated by the fifth-order accurate upwinding combined compact difference (UCCD) scheme. This scheme development employs two coupled equations to calculate the first- and second-order derivative terms in the momentum equations. For accurately predicting the level set value, the interface tracking scheme is also developed to minimize phase error of the first-order derivative term shown in the pure advection equation. For the purpose of retaining the long-term accurate Hamiltonian in the advection equation for the level set function, the time derivative term is discretized by the sixth-order accurate symplectic Runge-Kutta scheme. Also, to keep as a distance function for ensuring the front having a finite thickness for all time, the re-initialization equation is used. For the verification of the optimized UCCD scheme for the pure advection equation, two benchmark problems have been chosen to investigate in this study. The level set method with excellent area conservation property proposed for capturing the interface in incompressible fluid flows is also verified by solving the dam-break, Rayleigh-Taylor instability, two-bubble rising in water, and droplet falling problems.     

Comparative Study of Three High Order Schemes for LES of Temporally Evolving Mixing Layers

Three high order shock-capturing schemes are compared for large eddy simulations (LES) of temporally evolving mixing layers for different convective Mach numbers ranging from the quasi-incompressible regime to highly compressible supersonic regime. The considered high order schemes are fifth-order WENO (WENO5), seventh-order WENO (WENO7) and the associated eighth-order central spatial base scheme with the dissipative portion of WENO7 as a nonlinear post-processing filter step (WENO7fi). This high order nonlinear filter method of Yee & Sjogreen is designed for accurate and efficient simulations of shock-free compressible turbulence, turbulence with shocklets and turbulence with strong shocks with minimum tuning of scheme parameters. The LES results by WENO7fi using the same scheme parameter agree well with experimental results compiled by Barone et al., and published direct numerical simulations (DNS) work of Rogers & Moser and Pantano & Sarkar, whereas results by WENO5 and WENO7 compare poorly with experimental data and DNS computations.     

Piecewise Polynomial Mapping Method and Corresponding WENO Scheme with Improved Resolution

The method of mapping function was first proposed by Henrick et al. [J. Comput. Phys. 207:542-547 (2005)] to adjust nonlinear weights in [0,1] for the fifth-order WENO scheme, and through which the requirement of convergence order is satisfied and the performance of the scheme is improved. Different from Henrick's method, a concept of piecewise polynomial function is proposed in this study and corresponding WENO schemes are obtained. The advantage of the new method is that the function can have a gentle profile at the location of the linear weight (or the mapped nonlinear weight can be close to its linear counterpart), and therefore is favorable for the resolution enhancement. Besides, the function also has the flexibility of quick convergence to identity mapping near two endpoints of [0,1], which is favorable for improved numerical stability. The fourth-, fifth- and sixth-order polynomial functions are constructed correspondingly with different emphasis on aforementioned flatness and convergence. Among them, the fifth-order version has the flattest profile. To check the performance of the methods, the 1-D Shu-Osher problem, the 2-D Riemann problem and the double Mach reflection are tested with the comparison of WENO-M, WENO-Z and WENO-NS. The proposed new methods show the best resolution for describing shear-layer instability of the Riemann problem, and they also indicate high resolution in computations of double Mach reflection, where only these proposed schemes successfully resolved the vortex-pairing phenomenon. Other investigations have shown that the single polynomial mapping function has no advantage over the proposed piecewise one, and it is of no evident benefit to use the proposed method for the symmetric fifth-order WENO. Overall, the fifth-order piecewise polynomial and corresponding WENO scheme are suggested for resolution improvement.     

A Multi-Domain Hybrid DG and WENO Method for Hyperbolic Conservation Laws on Hybrid Meshes

In [SIAM J. Sci. Comput., 35(2)(2013), A1049–A1072], a class of multi-domain hybrid DG and WENO methods for conservation laws was introduced. Recent applications of this method showed that numerical instability may encounter if the DG flux with Lagrangian interpolation is applied as the interface flux during the moment of conservative coupling. In this continuation paper, we present a more robust approach in the construction of DG flux at the coupling interface by using WENO procedures of reconstruction. Based on this approach, such numerical instability is overcome very well. In addition, the procedure of coupling a DG method with a WENO-FD scheme on hybrid meshes is disclosed in detail. Typical testing cases are employed to demonstrate the accuracy of this approach and the stability under the flexibility of using either WENO-FD flux or DG flux at the moment of requiring conservative coupling.     

An Efficient DDG/FV Hybrid Method for 3D Viscous Flow Simulations on Tetrahedral Grids

A new hybrid reconstruction scheme DDG/FV is developed in this work by combining the DDG method and DG/FV hybrid scheme developed in the authors' previous work [1–4] to simulate three-dimensional compressible viscous flow on tetrahedral grids. The extended von Neumann stencils are used in the reconstruction process to ensure the linear stability, and the L₂ projection and the least-squares method are adopted to reconstruct higher order distributions for higher accuracy and robustness. In addition, a quadrature-free L₂ projection based on orthogonal basis functions is implemented to improve the efficiency of reconstruction. Three typical test cases, including the 3D Couette flow, laminar flows over an analytical 3D body of revolution and over a sphere, are simulated to validate the accuracy and efficiency of DDG/FV method. The numerical results demonstrate that the DDG scheme can accelerate the convergence history compared with widely-used BR2 scheme. More attractively, the new DDG/FV hybrid method can deliver the same accuracy as BR2-DG method with more than 2 times of efficiency improvement in solving 3D Navier-Stokes equations on tetrahedral grids, and even one-order of magnitude faster in some cases, which shows good potential in future realistic applications.     

A Third Order Conservative Lagrangian Type Scheme on Curvilinear Meshes for the Compressible Euler Equations

Based on the high order essentially non-oscillatory (ENO) Lagrangian type scheme on quadrilateral meshes presented in our earlier work [3], in this paper we develop a third order conservative Lagrangian type scheme on curvilinear meshes for solving the Euler equations of compressible gas dynamics. The main purpose of this work is to demonstrate our claim in [3] that the accuracy degeneracy phenomenon observed for the high order Lagrangian type scheme is due to the error from the quadrilateral mesh with straight-line edges, which restricts the accuracy of the resulting scheme to at most second order. The accuracy test given in this paper shows that the third order Lagrangian type scheme can actually obtain uniformly third order accuracy even on distorted meshes by using curvilinear meshes. Numerical examples are also presented to verify the performance of the third order scheme on curvilinear meshes in terms of resolution for discontinuities and non-oscillatory properties.