On the fourth-order accurate compact ADI scheme for solving the unsteady Nonlinear Coupled Burgers' Equations

The two-dimensional unsteady coupled Burgers' equations with moderate to severe gradients, are solved numerically using higher-order accurate finite difference schemes; namely the fourth-order accurate compact ADI scheme, and the fourth-order accurate Du Fort Frankel scheme. The question of numerical stability and convergence are presented. Comparisons are made between the present schemes in terms of accuracy and computational efficiency for solving problems with severe internal and boundary gradients. The present study shows that the fourth-order compact ADI scheme is stable and efficient

High-order numerical method for the nonlinear Helmholtz equation with material discontinuities in one space dimension

The nonlinear Helmholtz equation (NLH) models the propagation of electromagnetic waves in Kerr media, and describes a range of important phenomena in nonlinear optics and in other areas. In our previous work, we developed a fourth order method for its numerical solution that involved an iterative solver based on freezing the nonlinearity. The method enabled a direct simulation of nonlinear self-focusing in the nonparaxial regime, and a quantitative prediction of backscattering. However, our simulations showed that there is a threshold value for the magnitude of the nonlinearity, above which the iterations diverge. In this study, we numerically solve the one-dimensional NLH using a Newton-type nonlinear solver. Because the Kerr nonlinearity contains absolute values of the field, the NLH has to be recast as a system of two real equations in order to apply Newton's method. Our numerical simulations show that Newton's method converges rapidly and, in contradistinction with the iterations based on freezing the nonlinearity, enables computations for very high levels of nonlinearity. In addition, we introduce a novel compact finite-volume fourth order discretization for the NLH with material discontinuities.The one-dimensional results of the current paper create a foundation for the analysis of multi-dimensional problems in the future.Comment: 47 pages, 8 figure

Multi-patch discontinuous Galerkin isogeometric analysis for wave propagation: explicit time-stepping and efficient mass matrix inversion

We present a class of spline finite element methods for time-domain wave propagation which are particularly amenable to explicit time-stepping. The proposed methods utilize a discontinuous Galerkin discretization to enforce continuity of the solution field across geometric patches in a multi-patch setting, which yields a mass matrix with convenient block diagonal structure. Over each patch, we show how to accurately and efficiently invert mass matrices in the presence of curved geometries by using a weight-adjusted approximation of the mass matrix inverse. This approximation restores a tensor product structure while retaining provable high order accuracy and semi-discrete energy stability. We also estimate the maximum stable timestep for spline-based finite elements and show that the use of spline spaces result in less stringent CFL restrictions than equivalent piecewise continuous or discontinuous finite element spaces. Finally, we explore the use of optimal knot vectors based on L2 n-widths. We show how the use of optimal knot vectors can improve both approximation properties and the maximum stable timestep, and present a simple heuristic method for approximating optimal knot positions. Numerical experiments confirm the accuracy and stability of the proposed methods