High order summation-by-parts methods in time and space

Abstract: This thesis develops the methodology for solving initial boundary value problems with the use of summation-by-parts discretizations. The combination of high orders of accuracy and a systematic approach to construct provably stable boundary and interface procedures makes this methodology especially suitable for scientific computations with high demands on efficiency and robustness. Most classes of high order methods can be applied in a way that satisfies a summation-by-parts rule. These include, but are not limited to, finite difference, spectral and nodal discontinuous Galerkin methods.In the first part of this thesis, the summation-by-parts methodology is extended to the time domain, enabling fully discrete formulations with superior stability properties. The resulting time discretization technique is closely related to fully implicit Runge-Kutta methods, and may alternatively be formulated as either a global method or as a family of multi-stage methods. Both first and second order derivatives in time are considered. In the latter case also including mixed initial and boundary conditions (i.e. conditions involving derivatives in both space and time).The second part of the thesis deals with summation-by-parts discretizations on multi-block and hybrid meshes. A new formulation of general multi-block couplings in several dimensions is presented and analyzed. It collects all multi-block, multi-element and  hybrid summation-by-parts schemes into a single compact framework. The new framework includes a generalized description of non-conforming interfaces based on so called summation-by-parts preserving interpolation operators, for which a new theoretical accuracy result is presented.