On nonlinear artificial viscosity, discrete maximum principle and hyperbolic conservation laws (Q2465664)

A finite element method for Burgers' equation is studied. The method is analyzed using techniques from stabilized finite element methods, and convergence to entropy solutions is proven under certain hypotheses on the artificial viscosity, which is an additional term augmenting the discrete bilinear form associated with the problem. In particular, it is assumed that a discrete maximum principle holds. Subsequently, a nonlinear artificial viscosity is constructed which satisfies the assumptions used to show convergence and which can be tuned to minimize artificial viscosity away from local extrema. A numerical example illustrates the theory.