# zbMATH — the first resource for mathematics

An upwind differencing scheme for the equations of ideal magnetohydrodynamics. (English) Zbl 0637.76125
Summary: Recently, upwind differencing schemes have become very popular for solving hyperbolic partial differential equations, especially when discontinuities exist in the solutions. Among many upwind schemes successfully applied to the problems in gas dynamics, Roe’s method stands out for its relative simplicity and clarity of the underlying physical model. In this paper, an upwind differencing scheme of Roe-type for the MHD equations is constructed. In each computational cell, the problem is first linearized around some averaged state which preserves the flux differences. Then the solution is advanced in time by computing the wave contributions to the flux at the cell interfaces. One crucial task of the linearization procedure is the construction of a Roe matrix. For the special case $$\gamma =2$$, a Roe matrix in the form of a mean value Jacobian is found, and for the general case, a simple averaging procedure is introduced. All other necessay ingredients of the construction, which include eigenvalues, and a complete set of right eigenvectors of the Roe matrix and decomposition coefficients are presented. As a numerical example, we chose a coplanar MHD Riemann problem. The problem is solved by the newly constructed second-order upwind scheme as well as by the Lax-Friedrich, the Lax-Wendroff, and the flux-corrected transpot schemes. The results demonstrate several advantages of the upwind scheme. In this paper, we also show that the MHD equations are nonconvex. This is a contrast to the general belief that the fast and slow waves a like sound waves in the Euler equations. As a consequence, the wave structure becomes more complicated; for example, compound waves consisting of a shock and attached to it a rarefaction wave of the same family can exist in MHD.

##### MSC:
 76W05 Magnetohydrodynamics and electrohydrodynamics 76X05 Ionized gas flow in electromagnetic fields; plasmic flow 35Q30 Navier-Stokes equations 65Z05 Applications to the sciences 76M99 Basic methods in fluid mechanics
HLLE
Full Text:
##### References:
 [1] Harten, A.; Lax, P.D.; van Leer, B., SIAM rev., 25, 35, (1983) [2] Woodward, P.; Colella, P., J. comput. phys., 54, 115, (1984) [3] Roe, P.L., J. comput. phys., 43, 357, (1981) [4] Godunov, S.K., Math. sb., 47, 271, (1959) [5] Osher, S.; Solomon, F., Math. comput., 38, 339, (1982) [6] Jeffrey, A.; Taniuti, T., Non-linear wave propagation, (1964), Academic Press New York · Zbl 0117.21103 [7] Garabedian, P., Partial differential equations, (1964), Wiley New York · Zbl 0124.30501 [8] Harten, A., J. comput. phys., 49, 357, (1983) [9] Osher, S.; Chakravarthy, S., J. comput. phys., 50, 447, (1983) [10] Harten, A.; Hyman, J.M., J. comput. phys., 50, 235, (1983) [11] Brio, M., (), (unpublished) [12] Sod, G., J. comput. phys., 27, 1, (1978) [13] Lax, P.D., Comm. pure appl. math., 7, 159, (1954) [14] Lax, P.D.; Wendroff, B., Comm. pure appl. math., 13, 217, (1960) [15] Lapidus, A., J. comput. phys., 2, 154, (1967) [16] Boris, J.P.; Book, D.L., J. comput. phys., 11, 38, (1973) [17] Boris, J.P., N.R.L. memorandum report 3237, (1976), (unpublished) [18] Bazer, J.; Ericson, W.B., Astrophys. J., 129, 758, (1959) [19] Kantrowitz, A.R.; Petschek, H.E., () [20] Wu, C.C., Geophys. res. lett., 14, 668, (1987)
This reference list is based on information provided by the publisher or from digital mathematics libraries. Its items are heuristically matched to zbMATH identifiers and may contain data conversion errors. It attempts to reflect the references listed in the original paper as accurately as possible without claiming the completeness or perfect precision of the matching.