Positivity for convective semi-discretizations (Q1703058)

In this paper positivite of the numerical scheme is investigated. A generalization of the technique for investigating stability properties like positivity and forward invariance of an interval for method-of-lines discretizations is proposed. This technique is applied in order to study positivity preservation for a class of TVD semi-discretizations of 1D scalar hyperbolic conservation laws. The generalization allows more relaxed conditions on the time-step for positivity preservation for slope-limited semi-discretizations integrated in time with explicit Runge-Kutta methods. It is shown, that many higher-order explicit Runge-Kutta methods as e.g. the classical 4th-order method cannot generally maintain positivity for these semi-discretizations under any positive step size. The proposed technique is also applied to centered finite difference discretizations of scalar hyperbolic and parabolic problems.