For linear initial boundary value problems (IBVPs), the number and type of boundary conditions are independent of the solution. For nonlinear IBVPs, the number and type of boundary conditions varies depending on the particular diagonalization of the boundary term. This raises a number of questions that are addressed in this note. We consider the compressible Euler equations, take the derived boundary term and reformulate it using congruence matrix analysis. This reformulation ensures that the number and placement of boundary conditions for the nonlinear Euler equations are consistent with the ones from the corresponding linearized equations.

We present a strategy for interpreting nonlinear, characteristic-type penalty terms as numerical boundary flux functions that provide provable bounds for solutions to nonlinear hyperbolic initial boundary value problems with open boundaries. This approach is enabled by recent work that found how to express the entropy flux as a quadratic form defined by a symmetric boundary matrix. The matrix formulation provides additional information for how to systematically design characteristic-based penalty terms for the weak enforcement of boundary conditions. A special decomposition of the boundary matrix is required to define an appropriate set of characteristic-type variables. The new boundary fluxes are directly compatible with high-order accurate split form discontinuous Galerkin spectral element and similar methods and guarantee that the solution is entropy stable and bounded solely by external data. We derive inflow-outflow boundary fluxes specifically for the Burgers equation and the two-dimensional shallow water equations, which are also energy stable. Numerical experiments demonstrate that the new nonlinear fluxes do not fail in situations where standard boundary treatments based on linear analysis do.

We show that even though the Discontinuous Galerkin Spectral Element Method is stable for hyperbolic boundary-value problems, and the overset domain problem is well-posed in an appropriate norm, the energy of the approximation of the latter is bounded by data only for fixed polynomial order, mesh, and time. In the absence of dissipation, coupling of the overlapping domains is destabilizing by allowing positive eigenvalues in the system to be integrated in time. This coupling can be stabilized in one space dimension by using the upwind numerical flux. To help provide additional dissipation, we introduce a novel penalty method that applies dissipation at arbitrary points within the overlap region and depends only on the difference between the solutions. We present numerical experiments in one space dimension to illustrate the implementation of the well-posed penalty formulation, and show spectral convergence of the approximations when sufficient dissipation is applied.

In this work, we develop a new hydrostatic reconstruction procedure to construct well-balanced schemes for one and multilayer shallow water flows, including wetting and drying. Initially, we derive the method for a path-conservative finite volume scheme and combine it with entropy conservative fluxes and suitable numerical dissipation to preserve an entropy inequality in the semi-discrete case. We then combine the novel hydrostatic reconstruction with a collocated nodal split-form discontinuous Galerkin spectral element method, extending the method to high-order and curvilinear meshes. The high-order method incorporates an additional positivity-limiter and is blended with a compatible subcell finite volume method to maintain well-balancedness at wet/dry fronts. We prove entropy stability, well-balancedness, and positivity-preservation for both methods. Numerical results for the high-order method validate the theoretical findings and demonstrate the robustness of the scheme.

High-order numerical methods for conservation laws are highly sought after due to their potential efficiency. However, it is challenging to ensure their robustness, particularly for under-resolved flows. Baseline high-order methods often incorporate stabilization techniques that must be applied judiciously—sufficient to ensure simulation stability but restrained enough to prevent excessive dissipation and loss of resolution. Recent studies have demonstrated that combining upwind summation-by-parts (USBP) operators with flux vector splitting can increase the robustness of finite difference (FD) schemes without introducing excessive artificial dissipation. This work investigates whether the same approach can be applied to nodal discontinuous Galerkin (DG) methods. To this end, we demonstrate the existence of USBP operators on arbitrary grid points and provide a straightforward procedure for their construction. Our discussion encompasses a broad class of USBP operators, not limited to equidistant grid points, and enables the development of novel USBP operators on Legendre–Gauss–Lobatto (LGL) points that are well-suited for nodal DG methods. We then examine the robustness properties of the resulting DG-USBP methods for challenging examples of the compressible Euler equations, such as the Kelvin–Helmholtz instability. Similar to high-order FD-USBP schemes, we find that combining flux vector splitting techniques with DG-USBP operators does not lead to excessive artificial dissipation. Furthermore, we find that combining lower-order DG-USBP operators on three LGL points with flux vector splitting indeed increases the robustness of nodal DG methods. However, we also observe that higher-order USBP operators offer less improvement in robustness for DG methods compared to FD schemes. We provide evidence that this can be attributed to USBP methods adding dissipation only to unresolved modes, as FD schemes typically have more unresolved modes than nodal DG methods.

We use the framework of upwind summation-by-parts (SBP) operators developed by Mattsson (2017) and study different flux vector splittings in this context. To do so, we introduce discontinuous-Galerkin-like interface terms for multi-block upwind SBP methods applied to nonlinear conservation laws. We investigate the behavior of the upwind SBP methods for flux vector splittings of varying complexity on Cartesian as well as unstructured curvilinear multi-block meshes. Moreover, we analyze the local linear/energy stability of these methods following Gassner, Svärd, and Hindenlang (2022). Finally, we investigate the robustness of upwind SBP methods for challenging examples of shock-free flows of the compressible Euler equations such as a Kelvin-Helmholtz instability and the inviscid Taylor-Green vortex.

We present an entropy stable nodal discontinuous Galerkin spectral element method (DGSEM) for the two-layer shallow water equations on two dimensional curvilinear meshes. We mimic the continuous entropy analysis on the semi-discrete level with the DGSEM constructed on Legendre–Gauss–Lobatto (LGL) nodes. The use of LGL nodes endows the collocated nodal DGSEM with the summation-by-parts property that is key in the discrete analysis. The approximation exploits an equivalent flux differencing formulation for the volume contributions, which generate an entropy conservative split-form of the governing equations. A specific combination of a numerical surface flux and discretization of the nonconservative terms is then applied to obtain a high-order path-conservative scheme that is entropy conservative. Furthermore, we find that this combination yields an analogous discretization for the pressure and nonconservative terms such that the numerical method is well-balanced for discontinuous bathymetry on curvilinear domains. Dissipation is added at the interfaces to create an entropy stable approximation that satisfies the second law of thermodynamics in the discrete case, while maintaining the well-balanced property. We conclude with verification of the theoretical findings through numerical tests and demonstrate results about convergence, entropy stability and well-balancedness of the scheme.

We extend the construction of so-called encapsulated global summation-by-parts operators to the general case of a mesh which is not boundary conforming. Owing to this development, energy stable discretizations of nonlinear and variable coefficient initial boundary value problems can be formulated in simple and straightforward ways using high-order accurate operators of generalized summation-by-parts type. Encapsulated features on a single computational block or element may include polynomial bases, tensor products as well as curvilinear coordinate transformations. Moreover, through the use of inner product preserving interpolation or projection, the global summation-by-parts property is extended to arbitrary multi-block or multi-element meshes with non-conforming nodal interfaces.

HOHQMesh generates unstructured all-quadrilateral and hexahedral meshes with high order boundaryinformation for use with spectral element solvers. Model input by the user requires only anoptional outer boundary curve plus any number of inner boundary curves that are built aschains of simple geometric entities (lines and circles), user defined equations, and cubic splines.Inner boundary curves can be designated as interface boundaries to force element edges alongthem. Quadrilateral meshes are generated automatically with the mesh sizes guided by abackground grid and the model, without additional input by the user. Hexahedral meshesare generated by extrusions of a quadrilateral mesh, including sweeping along a curve, andcan follow bottom topography. The mesh files that HOHQMesh generates include high orderpolynomial interpolation points of arbitrary order.

Many modern discontinuous Galerkin (DG) methods for conservation laws make use of summation by parts operators and flux differencing to achieve kinetic energy preservation or entropy stability. While these techniques increase the robustness of DG methods significantly, they are also computationally more demanding than standard weak form nodal DG methods. We present several implementation techniques to improve the efficiency of flux differencing DG methods that use tensor product quadrilateral or hexahedral elements, in 2D or 3D respectively. Focus is mostly given to CPUs and DG methods for the compressible Euler equations, although these techniques are generally also useful for other physical systems including the compressible Navier-Stokes and magnetohydrodynamics equations. We present results using two open source codes, Trixi.jl written in Julia and FLUXO written in Fortran, to demonstrate that our proposed implementation techniques are applicable to different code bases and programming languages.