Stability, dual consistency and conservation of summation-by-parts formulations for multiphysics problems

Abstract: In this thesis, we consider the numerical solution of initial boundary value problems (IBVPs). Boundary and interface conditions are derived such that the IBVP under consideration is well-posed. We also study the dual problem and the related dual boundary/interface conditions. Once the continuous problem is analyzed, we use finite difference operators with the Summation- By-Parts property (SBP) and a weak boundary/interface treatment using the Simultaneous-Approximation-Terms (SAT) technique to construct high-order accurate numerical schemes. We focus in particular on stability, conservation and dual consistency. The energy method is used as our main analysis tool for both the continuous and numerical problems.The contributions of this thesis can be divided into two parts. The first part focuses on the coupling of different IBVPs. Interface conditions are derived such that the continuous problem satisfy an energy estimate and such that the discrete problem is stable. In the first paper, two hyperbolic systems of different size posed on two domains are considered. We derive the dual problem and dual interface conditions. It is also shown that a specific choice of penalty matrices leads to dual consistency. As an application, we study the coupling of the Euler and wave equations. In the fourth paper, we examine how to couple the compressible and incompressible Navier-Stokes equations. In order to obtain a sufficient number of interface conditions, the decoupled heat equation is added to the incompressible equations. The interface conditions include mass and momentum balance and two variants of heat transfer. The typical application in this case is the atmosphere-ocean coupling.The second part of the thesis focuses on the relation between the primal and dual problem and the relation between dual consistency and conservation. In the second and third paper, we show that dual consistency and conservation are equivalent concepts for linear hyperbolic conservation laws. We also show that these concepts are equivalent for symmetric or symmetrizable parabolic problems in the fifth contribution. The relation between the primal and dual boundary conditions for linear hyperbolic systems of equations is investigated in the sixth and last paper. It is shown that for given well-posed primal/dual boundary conditions, the corresponding well-posed dual/primal boundary conditions can be obtained by a simple scaling operation. It is also shown how one can proceed directly from the well-posed weak primal problem to the well-posed weak dual problem.