From electrostatics to almost optimal nodal sets for polynomial interpolation in a simplex

The electrostatic interpretation of the Jacobi-Gauss quadrature points is exploited to obtain interpolation points suitable for approximation of smooth functions defined on a simplex. Moreover, several new estimates, based on extensive numerical studies, for approximation along the line using Jacobi-Gauss-Lobatto quadrature points as the nodal sets are presented. The electrostatic analogy is extended to the two-dimensional case, with the emphasis being on nodal sets inside a triangle for which two very good matrices of nodal sets are presented. The matrices are evaluated by computing the Lebesgue constants and they share the property that the nodes along the edges of the simplex are the Gauss-Lobatto quadrature points of the Chebyshev and Legendre polynomials, respectively. This makes the resulting nodal sets particularly well suited for integration with conventional spectral methods and supplies a new nodal basis for h - p finite element methods

GPU-accelerated discontinuous Galerkin methods on hybrid meshes

We present a time-explicit discontinuous Galerkin (DG) solver for the time-domain acoustic wave equation on hybrid meshes containing vertex-mapped hexahedral, wedge, pyramidal and tetrahedral elements. Discretely energy-stable formulations are presented for both Gauss-Legendre and Gauss-Legendre-Lobatto (Spectral Element) nodal bases for the hexahedron. Stable timestep restrictions for hybrid meshes are derived by bounding the spectral radius of the DG operator using order-dependent constants in trace and Markov inequalities. Computational efficiency is achieved under a combination of element-specific kernels (including new quadrature-free operators for the pyramid), multi-rate timestepping, and acceleration using Graphics Processing Units.Comment: Submitted to CMAM

Dealiasing techniques for high-order spectral element methods on regular and irregular grids

High-order methods are becoming increasingly attractive in both academia and industry, especially in the context of computational fluid dynamics. However, before they can be more widely adopted, issues such as lack of robustness in terms of numerical stability need to be addressed, particularly when treating industrial-type problems where challenging geometries and a wide range of physical scales, typically due to high Reynolds numbers, need to be taken into account. One source of instability is aliasing effects which arise from the nonlinearity of the underlying problem. In this work we detail two dealiasing strategies based on the concept of consistent integration. The first uses a localised approach, which is useful when the nonlinearities only arise in parts of the problem. The second is based on the more traditional approach of using a higher quadrature. The main goal of both dealiasing techniques is to improve the robustness of high order spectral element methods, thereby reducing aliasing-driven instabilities. We demonstrate how these two strategies can be effectively applied to both continuous and discontinuous discretisations, where, in the latter, both volumetric and interface approximations must be considered. We show the key features of each dealiasing technique applied to the scalar conservation law with numerical examples and we highlight the main differences in terms of implementation between continuous and discontinuous spatial discretisations