Implicit finite element schemes for the stationary compressible Euler equations

A semi-implicit finite element scheme and a Newton-like solver are developed for the stationary compressible Euler equations. Since the Galerkin discretization of the inviscid fluxes is potentially oscillatory and unstable, the troublesome antidiffusive part is constrained within the framework of algebraic flux correction. A generalization of total variation diminishing (TVD) schemes is employed to blend the original Galerkin scheme with its nonoscillatory low-order counterpart. Unlike standard TVD limiters, the proposed limiting strategy is fully multidimensional and readily applicable to unstructured meshes. However, the nonlinearity and nondifferentiability of the limiter function makes efficient computation of stationary solutions a highly challenging task, especially in situations when the Mach number is large in some subdomains and small in other subdomains. In this paper, a semi-implicit scheme is derived via a time-lagged linearization of the Jacobian operator, and a Newton-like method is obtained in the limit of infinite CFL numbers. Special emphasis is laid on the numerical treatment of weakly imposed characteristic boundary conditions. A boundary Riemann solver is used to avoid unphysical boundary states. It is shown that the proposed approach offers unconditional stability, as well as higher accuracy and better convergence behavior than algorithms in which the boundary conditions are implemented in a strong sense. The overall spatial accuracy of the constrained scheme and the benefits of the new boundary treatment are illustrated by grid convergence studies for 2D benchmark problems. Copyright (c) 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.