Numerical boundary layers of conservation laws with relaxation extension (Q1886279)

This paper is concerned with the behavior of numerical schemes applied to the Jin-Xin relaxation model in the presence of a boundary. More precisely, the scheme considered reads for \(j\geq 1\), \[ U^{n+1}_j - U^{n}_j + \frac{\Delta t}{2\Delta x} J (U^{n}_{j+1} - U^{n}_{j-1}) = \frac{a \Delta t}{2\Delta x} (U^{n}_{j+1} - 2 U^{n}_j + U^{n}_{j-1}) + \frac{\Delta t}{\varepsilon} F(U^{n+1}_j) , \] where \(U^{n}_j = (u^{n}_j , v_j^{n})\in {\mathbb R}^2\) and \(J : U=(u,v)\mapsto (v,u)\), \(F : U=(u,v)\mapsto F(U)=(0,f(u)-v)\), with either a Dirichlet boundary condition at \(j=0\), or a Neumann boundary condition, that is, \(U^{n+1}_0 = U^{n+1}_1\). The parameter \(a\) and the ratio \(\lambda=\Delta t/\Delta x\) are of course supposed to satisfy, in the range of \(u^n_j\), the subcharacteristic condition (\(a>| f'(u)| \)) and the Courant-Friedrichs-Lévy (CFL) condition (\(\lambda | f'(u)| \leq 1\)) respectively, and additionally, it is assumed that \(a\lambda\) is less than \(1\). When \(f'(u)\) is negative, the relaxed continuous equation \(\partial_t u + \partial_xf(u) = 0\) has an outgoing characteristic on the boundary \(x=0\) of \({\mathbb R}^+\). For this reason, we expect a numerical boundary layer when the Dirichlet condition is used. This is confirmed by the main results in the paper, based on matched asymptotic expansions and energy estimates. By contrast, it is also shown that the Neumann boundary condition yields no numerical boundary layer.