A treatment of discontinuities for finite difference methods in the two- dimensional case (Q1209861)

An algorithm of discontinuities treatment is developed on the basis of conservation laws on solving numerically hyperbolic problems on a regular rectangular non-moving grid. The discontinuity treatment for the one-dimensional case is as follows. First a ``critical'' difference interval containing a solution discontinuity point with known coordinates is determined. In the grid cells on both sides of the discontinuity the numerical solution is obtained from an explicit TVD scheme with second-order approximation and then, by extrapolation, limiting values of the sought functions to the left and to the right of the discontinuity. From the obtained limiting values making use of Hugoniot conditions the value of the front velocity is found and, consequently, the discontinuity's position in a ``critical'' interval on the next time layer. If during a timestep the discontinuity exceeds the ``critical'' interval, then the numerical solution is updated by extrapolational formulae. The calculation results are corrected by the predictor-corrector method. The paper also treats a conservative variant of the algorithm when the limiting values of the solution on the discontinuity are obtained from the integrated conservation laws in the calculated cell. The generalization of the algorithm to the two-dimensional case makes it possible to treat not only isolated discontinuity lines but also their triple configurations. The employment of the algorithm is illustrated by the numerical solution of Cauchy problems for the scalar conservation law with piecewise continuous initial data and of the gas dynamics problems of a shock wave diffraction on a wedge.