A linear low effort stabilization method for the Euler equations using discontinuous Galerkin methods

Abstract

We present a novel and simple yet intuitive approach to the stabilization problem for the numerically solved Euler equations with gravity source term relying on a low-order nodal Discontinuous Galerkin Method (DGM). Instead of assuming isothermal or polytropic solutions, we only take a hydrostatic balance as a given property of the flow and use the hydrostatic equation to calculate a hydrostatic pressure reconstruction that replaces the gravity source term. We compare two environments that both solve the Euler equations using the DGM: deal.II and StormFlash. We utilize StormFlash as it allows for the use of the novel stabilization method. Without stabilization, StormFlash does not yield results that resemble correct physical behavior while the results with stabilization for StormFlash, as well as deal.II model the fluid flow more accurately. Convergence rates for deal.II do not match the expected order while the convergence rates for StormFlash with the stabilization scheme (with the exceptions for the L${}_2$ errors for momentum) meet the expectation. The results from StormFlash with stabilization also fit reference solutions from the literature much better than those from deal.II. We conclude that this novel scheme is a low cost approach to stabilize the Euler equations while not limiting the flow in any way other than it being in hydrostatic balance.