Optimal numerical parameterization of discontinuous Galerkin method applied to wave propagation problems

This paper deals with the high-order discontinuous Galerkin (DG) method for solving wave propagation problems. First, we develop a one-dimensional DG scheme and numerically compute dissipation and dispersion errors for various polynomial orders. An optimal combination of time stepping scheme together with the high-order DG spatial scheme is presented. It is shown that using a time stepping scheme with the same formal accuracy as the DG scheme is too expensive for the range of wave numbers that is relevant for practical applications. An efficient implementation of a high-order DG method in three dimensions is presented. Using ID convergence results, we further show how to adequately choose elementary polynomial orders in order to equi-distribute a priori the discretization error. We also show a straightforward manner to allow variable polynomial orders in a DG scheme. We finally propose some numerical examples in the field of aero-acoustics. (c) 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.