COMPUTATIONAL ASPECTS OF THE DISCONTINUOUS GALERKIN METHOD FOR THE WAVE EQUATION

Abstract

The Discontinuous Galerkin (DG) method is a powerful tool for numerically simulating wave propagation problems. In this paper, the time-dependent wave equation is solved using the DG method for spatial discretization; and the Crank–Nicolson and fourth-order explicit, singly diagonally implicit Runge–Kutta methods, and, for reference, the explicit Runge–Kutta method, were used for time integration. These simulation methods were studied using two-dimensional numerical experiments. The aim of the experiments was to study the effect of the polynomial degree of the basis functions, grid density, and the Courant–Friedrichs–Lewy number on the accuracy of the approximation. The sensitivity of the methods to distorted finite elements was also examined. Results from the DG method were compared with those computed using a conventional finite element method. Three different model problems were considered. In the first experiment, wave propagation in a homogeneous medium was studied. In the second experiment, the scattering and propagation of waves in an inhomogeneous medium were investigated. The third experiment evaluated wave propagation in a more complicated domain involving multiple scattering waves. The results indicated that the DG method provides more accurate solutions than the conventional finite element method with a reduced computation time and a lower number of degrees of freedom.