Kinetic theory based multi-level adaptive finite difference WENO schemes for compressible Euler equations

Abstract

In this paper we proposed the kinetic framework based fifth-order adaptive finite difference WENO schemes abbreviated as WENO-AO-K schemes to solve the compressible Euler equations, which are quasi-linear hyperbolic equations that can admit discontinuous solutions like shock and contact waves. The formulation of the proposed schemes is based on the kinetic theory where one can recover the Euler equations by applying a suitable moment method strategy to the Boltzmann equation. The kinetic flux vector splitting strategy is used in WENO-AO framework, which produces the computationally expensive error and exponential functions. Thus, to reduce the computational cost, a physically more relevant peculiar velocity based splitting strategy is used, which is more efficient than the kinetic flux vector splitting. High order of accuracy in time is achieved using the third-order total variation diminishing Runge–Kutta (TVD-RK) scheme. Several one- and two-dimensional test cases are solved for the compressible Euler equations using the proposed fifth-order WENO-AO-K schemes and the results are compared with conventional WENO-AO scheme. Proposed schemes capture the complex flow features in a smooth region accurately, and discontinuity is also well resolved. Error analysis of the proposed schemes shows optimal convergence rates in various norms.