Splitting based finite volume schemes for ideal MHD equations

Abstract

We design finite volume schemes for the equations of ideal magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) and based on splitting these equations into a fluid part and a magnetic induction part. The fluid part leads to an extended Euler system with magnetic forces as source terms. This set of equations are approximated by suitable two- and three-wave HLL solvers. The magnetic part is modeled by the magnetic induction equations which are approximated using stable upwind schemes devised in a recent paper [F. Fuchs, K.H. Karlsen, S. Mishra, N.H. Risebro, Stable upwind schemes for the Magnetic Induction equation. Math. Model. Num. Anal., Available on conservation laws preprint server, submitted for publication, URL: <http://www.math.ntnu.no/conservation/2007/029.html>]. These two sets of schemes can be combined either component by component, or by using an operator splitting procedure to obtain a finite volume scheme for the MHD equations. The resulting schemes are simple to design and implement. These schemes are compared with existing HLL type and Roe type schemes for MHD equations in a series of numerical experiments. These tests reveal that the proposed schemes are robust and have a greater numerical resolution than HLL type solvers, particularly in several space dimensions. In fact, the numerical resolution is comparable to that of the Roe scheme on most test problems with the computational cost being at the level of a HLL type solver. Furthermore, the schemes are remarkably stable even at very fine mesh resolutions and handle the divergence constraint efficiently with low divergence errors.