On some Approximation Schemes for Steady Compressible Viscous Flow

Abstract.

This paper continues our development of approximation schemes for steady compressible viscous flow based on an iteration between a Stokes like problem for the velocity and a transport equation for the density, with the aim of improving their suitability for computations. Such schemes seem attractive for computations because they offer a reduction to standard problems for which there is already highly refined software, and because of the guidance that can be drawn from an existence theory based on them. Our objective here is to modify a recent scheme of Heywood and Padula [12], to improve its convergence properties. This scheme improved upon an earlier scheme of Padula [21], [23] through the use of a special “effective pressure” in linking the Stokes and transport problems. However, its convergence is limited for several reasons. Firstly, the steady transport equation itself is only solvable for general velocity fields if they satisfy certain smallness conditions. These conditions are met here by using a rescaled variant of the steady transport equation based on a pseudo time step for the equation of continuity. Another matter limiting the convergence of the scheme in [12] is that the Stokes linearization, which is a linearization about zero, has an inevitably small range of convergence. We replace it here with an Oseen or Newton linearization, either of which has a wider range of convergence, and converges more rapidly. The simplicity of the scheme offered in [12] was conducive to a relatively simple and clearly organized proof of its convergence. The proofs of convergence for the more complicated schemes proposed here are structured along the same lines. They strengthen the theorems of existence and uniqueness in [12] by weakening the smallness conditions that are needed. The expected improvement in the computational performance of the modified schemes has been confirmed by Bause [2], in an ongoing investigation.