Dinshaw S. Balsara

Michael Dumbser, Dinshaw S. Balsara, Maurizio Tavelli et al.

In this paper we present a novel pressure-based semi-implicit finite volume solver for the equations of compressible ideal, viscous and resistive magnetohydrodynamics (MHD). The new method is conservative for mass, momentum and total energy and in multiple space dimensions it is constructed in such a way as to respect the divergence-free condition of the magnetic field exactly, also in the presence of resistive effects. This is possible via the use of multi-dimensional Riemann solvers on an appropriately staggered grid for the time evolution of the magnetic field and a double curl formulation of the resistive terms. The new semi-implicit method for the MHD equations proposed here discretizes all terms related to the pressure in the momentum equation and the total energy equation implicitly, making again use of a properly staggered grid for pressure and velocity. The time step of the scheme is restricted by a CFL condition based only on the fluid velocity and the Alfvén wave speed and is not based on the speed of the magnetosonic waves. Our new method is particularly well-suited for low Mach number flows and for the incompressible limit of the MHD equations, for which it is well-known that explicit density-based Godunov-type finite volume solvers become increasingly inefficient and inaccurate due to the increasingly stringent CFL condition and the wrong scaling of the numerical viscosity in the incompressible limit. We show a relevant MHD test problem in the low Mach number regime where the new semi-implicit algorithm is a factor of 50 faster than a traditional explicit finite volume method, which is a very significant gain in terms of computational efficiency. However, our numerical results confirm that our new method performs well also for classical MHD test cases with strong shocks. In this sense our new scheme is a true all Mach number flow solver.

Dinshaw S. Balsara, Jiequan Li, Gino I. Montecinos

The Riemann problem, and the associated generalized Riemann problem, are increasingly seen as the important building blocks for modern higher order Godunov-type schemes. In the past, building a generalized Riemann problem solver was seen as an intricately mathematical task for complicated physical or engineering problems because the associated Riemann problem is different for each hyperbolic system of interest. This paper changes that situation. The HLLI Riemann solver is a recently-proposed Riemann solver that is universal in that it is applicable to any hyperbolic system, whether in conservation form or with non-conservative products. The HLLI Riemann solver is also complete in the sense that if it is given a complete set of eigenvectors, it represents all waves with minimal dissipation. It is, therefore, very attractive to build a generalized Riemann problem solver version of the HLLI Riemann solver. This is the task that is accomplished in the present paper. We show that at second order, the generalized Riemann problem version of the HLLI Riemann solver is easy to design. Our GRP solver is also complete and universal because it inherits those good properties from original HLLI Riemann solver. We also show how our GRP solver can be adapted to the solution of hyperbolic systems with stiff source terms. Our generalized HLLI Riemann solver is easy to implement and performs robustly and well over a range of test problems. All implementation-related details are presented. Results from several stringent test problems are shown. These test problems are drawn from many different hyperbolic systems, and include hyperbolic systems in conservation form; with non-conservative products; and with stiff source terms. The present generalized Riemann problem solver performs well on all of them.

Arijit Hazra, Praveen Chandrashekar, Dinshaw S. Balsara

Computational electrodynamics (CED), the numerical solution of Maxwell's equations, plays an incredibly important role in several problems in science and engineering. High accuracy solutions are desired, and the discontinuous Galerkin (DG) method is one of the better ways of delivering high accuracy in CED. Maxwell's equations have a pair of involution constraints for which mimetic schemes that globally satisfy the constraints at a discrete level are highly desirable. Balsara and Kappeli presented a von Neumann stability analysis of globally constraint-preserving DG schemes for CED up to 4'th order which was focused on developing the theory and documenting the superior dissipation and dispersion of DGTD schemes in media with constant permittivity and permeability. In this paper we present DGTD schemes for CED that go up to 5'th order of accuracy and analyze their performance when permittivity and permeability vary strongly in space. Our DGTD schemes achieve constraint preservation by collocating the electric displacement and magnetic induction as well as their higher order modes in the faces of the mesh. Our first finding is that at 4'th and higher orders, one has to evolve some zone-centered modes in addition to the face-centered modes. It is well-known that the limiting step in DG schemes causes a reduction of the optimal accuracy of the scheme. In this paper we document simulations where permittivity and permeability vary by almost an order of magnitude without requiring any limiting of the DG scheme. This very favorable finding ensures that DGTD schemes retain optimal accuracy even in the presence of large spatial variations in permittivity/permeability. Our third finding shows that the electromagnetic energy is conserved very well even when permittivity and permeability vary strongly in space; as long as the conductivity is zero.