Second order unconditionally convergent and energy stable linearized scheme for MHD equations

In this paper, we propose an efficient numerical scheme for magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) equations. This scheme is based on a second order backward difference formula for time derivative terms, extrapolated treatments in linearization for nonlinear terms. Meanwhile, the mixed finite element method is used for spatial discretization. We present that the scheme is unconditionally convergent and energy stable with second order accuracy with respect to time step. The optimal L (2) and H (1) fully discrete error estimates for velocity, magnetic variable and pressure are also demonstrated. A series of numerical tests are carried out to confirm our theoretical results. In addition, the numerical experiments also show the proposed scheme outperforms the other classic second order schemes, such as Crank-Nicolson/Adams-Bashforth scheme, linearized Crank-Nicolson's scheme and extrapolated Gear's scheme, in solving high physical parameters MHD problems.