Maximum principle preserving time implicit DGSEM for linear scalar hyperbolic conservation laws

The properties of the high-order discontinuous Galerkin spectral element method (DGSEM) with implicit backward Euler time stepping are investigated for the approximation of hyperbolic linear scalar conservation equation in multiple space dimensions. We first prove that the DGSEM scheme in one space dimension preserves a maximum principle for the cell-averaged solution when the time step is large enough. This property however no longer holds in multiple space dimensions and we propose to use the flux-corrected transport (FCT) limiting [5] based on a low-order approximation using graph viscosity to impose a maximum principle on the cell-averaged solution. These results allow us to use a linear scaling limiter [58] in order to impose a maximum principle at nodal values within elements, while limiting the cell average with the FCT limiter improves the accuracy of the limited solution. Then, we investigate the inversion of the linear systems resulting from the time implicit discretization at each time step. We prove that the diagonal blocks are invertible and provide efficient algorithms for their inversion. Numerical experiments in one and two space dimensions are presented to illustrate the conclusions of the present analyses.