Entropy Stable Scheme on Two-Dimensional Unstructured Grids for Euler Equations

We propose an entropy stable high-resolution finite volume scheme to approximate systems of two-dimensional symmetrizable conservation laws on unstructured grids. In particular we consider Euler equations governing compressible flows. The scheme is constructed using a combination of entropy conservative fluxes and entropy-stable numerical dissipation operators. High resolution is achieved based on a linear reconstruction procedure satisfying a suitable sign property that helps to maintain entropy stability. The proposed scheme is demonstrated to robustly approximate complex flow features by a series of benchmark numerical experiments.     

An Explicit MUSCL Scheme on Staggered Grids with Kinetic-Like Fluxes for the Barotropic and Full Euler System

We present a second order scheme for the barotropic and full Euler equations. The scheme works on staggered grids, with numerical unknowns stored at dual locations, while the numerical fluxes are derived in the spirit of kinetic schemes. We identify stability conditions ensuring the positivity of the discrete density and energy. We illustrate the ability of the scheme to capture the structure of complex flows with 1D and 2D simulations on MAC grids.     

Numerical Entropy and Adaptivity for Finite Volume Schemes

We propose an a-posteriori error/smoothness indicator for standard semi-discrete finite volume schemes for systems of conservation laws, based on the numerical production of entropy. This idea extends previous work by the first author limited to central finite volume schemes on staggered grids. We prove that the indicator converges to zero with the same rate of the error of the underlying numerical scheme on smooth flows under grid refinement. We construct and test an adaptive scheme for systems of equations in which the mesh is driven by the entropy indicator. The adaptive scheme uses a single nonuniform grid with a variable timestep. We show how to implement a second order scheme on such a space-time non uniform grid, preserving accuracy and conservation properties. We also give an example of a p-adaptive strategy.     

Local Discontinuous-Galerkin Schemes for Model Problems in Phase Transition Theory

Local Discontinuous Galerkin (LDG) schemes in the sense of [5] are a flexible numerical tool to approximate solutions of nonlinear convection problems with complicated dissipative terms. Such terms frequently appear in evolution equations which describe the dynamics of phase changes in e.g. liquid-vapour mixtures or in elastic solids. We report on results for one-dimensional model problems with dissipative terms including third-order and convolution operators. Cell entropy inequalities and L²-stability results are proved for those model problems. As is common in phase transition theory the solution structure sensitively depends on the coupling parameter between viscosity and capillarity. To avoid spurious solutions due to the counteracting effect of artificial dissipation by the numerical flux and the actual dissipation terms we introduce Tadmors' entropy conservative fluxes. Various numerical experiments underline the reliability of our approach and also illustrate interesting and (partly) new phase transition phenomena.     

IMEX Large Time Step Finite Volume Methods for Low Froude Number Shallow Water Flows

We present new large time step methods for the shallow water flows in the low Froude number limit. In order to take into account multiscale phenomena that typically appear in geophysical flows nonlinear fluxes are split into a linear part governing the gravitational waves and the nonlinear advection. We propose to approximate fast linear waves implicitly in time and in space by means of a genuinely multidimensional evolution operator. On the other hand, we approximate nonlinear advection part explicitly in time and in space by means of the method of characteristics or some standard numerical flux function. Time integration is realized by the implicit-explicit (IMEX) method. We apply the IMEX Euler scheme, two step Runge Kutta Cranck Nicolson scheme, as well as the semi-implicit BDF scheme and prove their asymptotic preserving property in the low Froude number limit. Numerical experiments demonstrate stability, accuracy and robustness of these new large time step finite volume schemes with respect to small Froude number.     

A One-Dimensional Second-Order Cell-Centered Lagrangian Scheme Satisfying the Entropy Condition

The numerical solutions of gas dynamics equations have to be consistent with the second law of thermodynamics, which is termed entropy condition. However, most cell-centered Lagrangian (CL) schemes do not satisfy the entropy condition. Until 2020, for one-dimensional gas dynamics equations, the first-order CL scheme with the hybridized flux developed by combining the acoustic approximate (AA) flux and the entropy conservative (EC) flux developed by Maire et al. was used. This hybridized CL scheme satisfies the entropy condition; however, it is under-entropic in the part zones of rarefaction waves. Moreover, the EC flux may result in nonphysical numerical oscillations in simulating strong rarefaction waves. Another disadvantage of this scheme is that it is of only first-order accuracy. In this paper, we firstly construct a modified entropy conservative (MEC) flux which can damp effectively numerical oscillations in simulating strong rarefaction waves. Then we design a new hybridized CL scheme satisfying the entropy condition for one-dimensional complex flows. This new hybridized CL scheme is a combination of the AA flux and the MEC flux.In order to prevent the specific entropy of the hybridized CL scheme from being under-entropic, we propose using the third-order TVD-type Runge-Kutta time discretization method. Based on the new hybridized flux, we develop the second-order CL scheme that satisfies the entropy condition.Finally, the characteristics of our new CL scheme using the improved hybridized flux are demonstrated through several numerical examples.     

Improving the High Order Spectral Volume Formulation Using a Diffusion Regulator

The concept of diffusion regulation (DR) was originally proposed by Jaisankar for traditional second order finite volume Euler solvers. This was used to decrease the inherent dissipation associated with using approximate Riemann solvers. In this paper, the above concept is extended to the high order spectral volume (SV) method. The DR formulation was used in conjunction with the Rusanov flux to handle the inviscid flux terms. Numerical experiments were conducted to compare and contrast the original and the DR formulations. These experiments demonstrated (i) retention of high order accuracy for the new formulation, (ii) higher fidelity of the DR formulation, when compared to the original scheme for all orders and (iii) straightforward extension to Navier Stokes equations, since the DR does not interfere with the discretization of the viscous fluxes. In general, the 2D numerical results are very promising and indicate that the approach has a great potential for 3D flow problems.     

An All Speed Second Order IMEX Relaxation Scheme for the Euler Equations

We present an implicit-explicit finite volume scheme for the Euler equations. We start from the non-dimensionalised Euler equations where we split the pressure in a slow and a fast acoustic part. We use a Suliciu type relaxation model which we split in an explicit part, solved using a Godunov-type scheme based on an approximate Riemann solver, and an implicit part where we solve an elliptic equation for the fast pressure. The relaxation source terms are treated projecting the solution on the equilibrium manifold. The proposed scheme is positivity preserving with respect to the density and internal energy and asymptotic preserving towards the incompressible Euler equations. For this first order scheme we give a second order extension which maintains the positivity property. We perform numerical experiments in 1D and 2D to show the applicability of the proposed splitting and give convergence results for the second order extension.     

A Godunov-Type Solver for the Numerical Approximation of Gravitational Flows

We present a new numerical method to approximate the solutions of an Euler-Poisson model, which is inherent to astrophysical flows where gravity plays an important role. We propose a discretization of gravity which ensures adequate coupling of the Poisson and Euler equations, paying particular attention to the gravity source term involved in the latter equations. In order to approximate this source term, its discretization is introduced into the approximate Riemann solver used for the Euler equations. A relaxation scheme is involved and its robustness is established. The method has been implemented in the software HERACLES [29] and several numerical experiments involving gravitational flows for astrophysics highlight the scheme.     

A High Order Sharp-Interface Method with Local Time Stepping for Compressible Multiphase Flows

In this paper, a new sharp-interface approach to simulate compressible multiphase flows is proposed. The new scheme consists of a high order WENO finite volume scheme for solving the Euler equations coupled with a high order path-conservative discontinuous Galerkin finite element scheme to evolve an indicator function that tracks the material interface. At the interface our method applies ghost cells to compute the numerical flux, as the ghost fluid method. However, unlike the original ghost fluid scheme of Fedkiw et al. [15], the state of the ghost fluid is derived from an approximate-state Riemann solver, similar to the approach proposed in [25], but based on a much simpler formulation. Our formulation leads only to one single scalar nonlinear algebraic equation that has to be solved at the interface, instead of the system used in [25]. Away from the interface, we use the new general Osher-type flux recently proposed by Dumbser and Toro [13], which is a simple but complete Riemann solver, applicable to general hyperbolic conservation laws. The time integration is performed using a fully-discrete one-step scheme, based on the approaches recently proposed in [5, 7]. This allows us to evolve the system also with time-accurate local time stepping. Due to the sub-cell resolution and the subsequent more restrictive time-step constraint of the DG scheme, a local evolution for the indicator function is applied, which is matched with the finite volume scheme for the solution of the Euler equations that runs with a larger time step. The use of a locally optimal time step avoids the introduction of excessive numerical diffusion in the finite volume scheme. Two different fluids have been used, namely an ideal gas and a weakly compressible fluid modeled by the Tait equation. Several tests have been computed to assess the accuracy and the performance of the new high order scheme. A verification of our algorithm has been carefully carried out using exact solutions as well as a comparison with other numerical reference solutions. The material interface is resolved sharply and accurately without spurious oscillations in the pressure field.     

A Hybrid WENO Scheme for Steady Euler Equations in Curved Geometries on Cartesian Grids

For steady Euler equations in complex boundary domains, high-order shockcapturing schemes usually suffer not only from the difficulty of steady-state convergence but also from the problem of dealing with physical boundaries on Cartesian grids to achieve uniform high-order accuracy. In this paper, we utilize a fifth-order finite difference hybrid WENO scheme to simulate steady Euler equations, and the same fifth-order WENO extrapolation methods are developed to handle the curved boundary. The values of the ghost points outside the physical boundary can be obtained by applying WENO extrapolation near the boundary, involving normal derivatives acquired by the simplified inverse Lax-Wendroff procedure. Both equivalent expressions involving curvature and numerical differentiation are utilized to transform the tangential derivatives along the curved solid wall boundary. This hybrid WENO scheme is robust for steady-state convergence and maintains high-order accuracy in the smooth region even with the solid wall boundary condition. Besides, the essentially non-oscillation property is achieved. The numerical spectral analysis also shows that this hybrid WENO scheme has low dispersion and dissipation errors. Numerical examples are presented to validate the high-order accuracy and robust performance of the hybrid scheme for steady Euler equations in curved domains with Cartesian grids.     

Constraint Preserving Schemes Using Potential-Based Fluxes I Multidimensional Transport Equations

We consider constraint preserving multidimensional evolution equations. A prototypical example is provided by the magnetic induction equation of plasma physics. The constraint of interest is the divergence of the magnetic field. We design finite volume schemes which approximate these equations in a stable manner and preserve a discrete version of the constraint. The schemes are based on reformulating standard edge centered finite volume fluxes in terms of vertex centered potentials. The potential-based approach provides a general framework for faithful discretizations of constraint transport and we apply it to both divergence preserving as well as curl preserving equations. We present benchmark numerical tests which confirm that our potential-based schemes achieve high resolution, while being constraint preserving.     

Comparison of Fifth-Order WENO Scheme and Finite Volume WENO-Gas-Kinetic Scheme for Inviscid and Viscous Flow Simulation

The development of high-order schemes has been mostly concentrated on the limiters and high-order reconstruction techniques. In this paper, the effect of the flux functions on the performance of high-order schemes will be studied. Based on the same WENO reconstruction, two schemes with different flux functions, i.e., the fifth-order WENO method and the WENO-Gas-Kinetic scheme (WENO-GKS), will be compared. The fifth-order finite difference WENO-SW scheme is a characteristic variable reconstruction based method which uses the Steger-Warming flux splitting for inviscid terms, the sixth-order central difference for viscous terms, and three stages Runge-Kutta time stepping for the time integration. On the other hand, the finite volume WENO-GKS is a conservative variable reconstruction based method with the same WENO reconstruction. But it evaluates a time dependent gas distribution function along a cell interface, and updates the flow variables inside each control volume by integrating the flux function along the boundary of the control volume in both space and time. In order to validate the robustness and accuracy of the schemes, both methods are tested under a wide range of flow conditions: vortex propagation, Mach 3 step problem, and the cavity flow at Reynolds number 3200. Our study shows that both WENO-SW and WENO-GKS yield quantitatively similar results and agree with each other very well provided a sufficient grid resolution is used. With the reduction of mesh points, the WENO-GKS behaves to have less numerical dissipation and present more accurate solutions than those from the WENO-SW in all test cases. For the Navier-Stokes equations, since the WENO-GKS couples inviscid and viscous terms in a single flux evaluation, and the WENO-SW uses an operator splitting technique, it appears that the WENO-SW is more sensitive to the WENO reconstruction and boundary treatment. In terms of efficiency, the finite volume WENO-GKS is about 4 times slower than the finite difference WENO-SW in two dimensional simulations. The current study clearly shows that besides high-order reconstruction, an accurate gas evolution model or flux function in a high-order scheme is also important in the capturing of physical solutions. In a physical flow, the transport, stress deformation, heat conduction, and viscous heating are all coupled in a single gas evolution process. Therefore, it is preferred to develop such a scheme with multi-dimensionality, and unified treatment of inviscid and dissipative terms. A high-order scheme does prefer a high-order gas evolution model. Even with the rapid advances of high-order reconstruction techniques, the first-order dynamics of the Riemann solution becomes the bottleneck for the further development of high-order schemes. In order to avoid the weakness of the low order flux function, the development of high-order schemes relies heavily on the weak solution of the original governing equations for the update of additional degree of freedom, such as the non-conservative gradients of flow variables, which cannot be physically valid in discontinuous regions.     

A Conservative Lagrangian Scheme for Solving Compressible Fluid Flows with Multiple Internal Energy Equations

Lagrangian methods are widely used in many fields for multi-material compressible flow simulations such as in astrophysics and inertial confinement fusion (ICF), due to their distinguished advantage in capturing material interfaces automatically. In some of these applications, multiple internal energy equations such as those for electron, ion and radiation are involved. In the past decades, several staggered-grid based Lagrangian schemes have been developed which are designed to solve the internal energy equation directly. These schemes can be easily extended to solve problems with multiple internal energy equations. However, such schemes are typically not conservative for the total energy. Recently, significant progress has been made in developing cell-centered Lagrangian schemes which have several good properties such as conservation for all the conserved variables and easiness for remapping. However, these schemes are commonly designed to solve the Euler equations in the form of the total energy, therefore they cannot be directly applied to the solution of either the single internal energy equation or the multiple internal energy equations without significant modifications. Such modifications, if not designed carefully, may lead to the loss of some of the nice properties of the original schemes such as conservation of the total energy. In this paper, we establish an equivalency relationship between the cell-centered discretizations of the Euler equations in the forms of the total energy and of the internal energy. By a carefully designed modification in the implementation, the cell-centered Lagrangian scheme can be used to solve the compressible fluid flow with one or multiple internal energy equations and meanwhile it does not lose its total energy conservation property. An advantage of this approach is that it can be easily applied to many existing large application codes which are based on the framework of solving multiple internal energy equations. Several two dimensional numerical examples for both Euler equations and three-temperature hydrodynamic equations in cylindrical coordinates are presented to demonstrate the performance of the scheme in terms of symmetry preserving, accuracy and non-oscillatory performance.     

Performance of Low-Dissipation Euler Fluxes and Preconditioned LU-SGS at Low Speeds

In low speed flow computations, compressible finite-volume solvers are known to a) fail to converge in acceptable time and b) reach unphysical solutions. These problems are known to be cured by A) preconditioning on the time-derivative term, and B) control of numerical dissipation, respectively. There have been several methods of A) and B) proposed separately. However, it is unclear which combination is the most accurate, robust, and efficient for low speed flows. We carried out a comparative study of several well-known or recently-developed low-dissipation Euler fluxes coupled with a preconditioned LU-SGS (Lower-Upper Symmetric Gauss-Seidel) implicit time integration scheme to compute steady flows. Through a series of numerical experiments, accurate, efficient, and robust methods are suggested for low speed flow computations.     

Improvement on Spherical Symmetry in Two-Dimensional Cylindrical Coordinates for a Class of Control Volume Lagrangian Schemes

In [14], Maire developed a class of cell-centered Lagrangian schemes for solving Euler equations of compressible gas dynamics in cylindrical coordinates. These schemes use a node-based discretization of the numerical fluxes. The control volume version has several distinguished properties, including the conservation of mass, momentum and total energy and compatibility with the geometric conservation law (GCL). However, it also has a limitation in that it cannot preserve spherical symmetry for one-dimensional spherical flow. An alternative is also given to use the first order area-weighted approach which can ensure spherical symmetry, at the price of sacrificing conservation of momentum. In this paper, we apply the methodology proposed in our recent work [8] to the first order control volume scheme of Maire in [14] to obtain the spherical symmetry property. The modified scheme can preserve one-dimensional spherical symmetry in a two-dimensional cylindrical geometry when computed on an equal-angle-zoned initial grid, and meanwhile it maintains its original good properties such as conservation and GCL. Several two-dimensional numerical examples in cylindrical coordinates are presented to demonstrate the good performance of the scheme in terms of symmetry, non-oscillation and robustness properties.     

On Universal Osher-Type Schemes for General Nonlinear Hyperbolic Conservation Laws

This paper is concerned with a new version of the Osher-Solomon Riemann solver and is based on a numerical integration of the path-dependent dissipation matrix. The resulting scheme is much simpler than the original one and is applicable to general hyperbolic conservation laws, while retaining the attractive features of the original solver: the method is entropy-satisfying, differentiable and complete in the sense that it attributes a different numerical viscosity to each characteristic field, in particular to the intermediate ones, since the full eigenstructure of the underlying hyperbolic system is used. To illustrate the potential of the proposed scheme we show applications to the following hyperbolic conservation laws: Euler equations of compressible gasdynamics with ideal gas and real gas equation of state, classical and relativistic MHD equations as well as the equations of nonlinear elasticity. To the knowledge of the authors, apart from the Euler equations with ideal gas, an Osher-type scheme has never been devised before for any of these complicated PDE systems. Since our new general Riemann solver can be directly used as a building block of high order finite volume and discontinuous Galerkin schemes we also show the extension to higher order of accuracy and multiple space dimensions in the new framework of P_NP_M schemes on unstructured meshes recently proposed in [9].     

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 Nominally Second-Order Cell-Centered Finite Volume Scheme for Simulating Three-Dimensional Anisotropic Diffusion Equations on Unstructured Grids

We present a finite volume based cell-centered method for solving diffusion equations on three-dimensional unstructured grids with general tensor conduction. Our main motivation concerns the numerical simulation of the coupling between fluid flows and heat transfers. The corresponding numerical scheme is characterized by cell-centered unknowns and a local stencil. Namely, the scheme results in a global sparse diffusion matrix, which couples only the cell-centered unknowns. The space discretization relies on the partition of polyhedral cells into sub-cells and on the partition of cell faces into sub-faces. It is characterized by the introduction of sub-face normal fluxes and sub-face temperatures, which are auxiliary unknowns. A sub-cell-based variational formulation of the constitutive Fourier law allows to construct an explicit approximation of the sub-face normal heat fluxes in terms of the cell-centered temperature and the adjacent sub-face temperatures. The elimination of the sub-face temperatures with respect to the cell-centered temperatures is achieved locally at each node by solving a small and sparse linear system. This system is obtained by enforcing the continuity condition of the normal heat flux across each sub-cell interface impinging at the node under consideration. The parallel implementation of the numerical algorithm and its efficiency are described and analyzed. The accuracy and the robustness of the proposed finite volume method are assessed by means of various numerical test cases.