Divergence formulation of source term

Abstract

In this paper, we propose to write a source term in the divergence form. A conservation law with a source term can then be written as a single divergence form. We demonstrate that it enables to discretize both the conservation law and the source term in the same framework, and thus greatly simplifies the construction of numerical schemes. To illustrate the advantage of the divergence formulation, we apply the new formulation to construct a uniformly third-order accurate edge-based finite-volume scheme for conservation laws with a source term. Third-order accuracy is demonstrated for regular and irregular triangular grids for the linear advection and Burgers’ equations with a source term.