A class of fully third-order accurate projection methods for solving the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations

In this paper, a fully third-order accurate projection method for solving the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations is proposed. To construct the scheme, a continuous projection procedure is firstly presented. We then derive a sufficient condition for the continuous projection equations to be temporally third-order accurate approximations of the original Navier-Stokes equations by means of the local- truncation-error-analysis technique. The continuous projection equations are discretized temporally and spatially to third-order accuracy on the staggered grids, resulting in a fully third-order discrete projection scheme. The possibility to design higher-order projection methods is thus demonstrated in the present paper. A heuristic stability analysis is performed on this projection method showing the probability of its being stable. The stability of the present scheme is further verified through numerical tests. The third-order accuracy of the present projection method is validated by several numerical test cases.