A high-order discontinuous Galerkin method with time-accurate local time stepping for the Maxwell equations

Abstract

We present an explicit numerical method to solve the time-dependent Maxwell equations with arbitrary high order of accuracy in space and time on three-dimensional unstructured tetrahedral meshes. The method is based on the discontinuous Galerkin finite element approach, which allows for discontinuities at grid cell interfaces. The computation of the flux between the grid cells is based on the solution of generalized Riemann problems, which provides simultaneously a high-order accurate approximation in space and time. Within our approach, we expand the solution in a Taylor series in time, where subsequently the Cauchy-Kovalevskaya procedure is used to replace the time derivatives in this series by space derivatives. The numerical solution can thus be advanced in time in one single step with high order and does not need any intermediate stages, as needed, e.g. in classical Runge-Kutta-type schemes. This locality in space and time allows the introduction of time-accurate local time stepping (LTS) for unsteady wave propagation. Each grid cell is updated with its individual and optimal time step, as given by the local Courant stability criterion. On the basis of a numerical convergence study we show that the proposed LTS scheme provides high order of accuracy in space and time on unstructured tetrahedral meshes. The application to a well-acknowledged test case and comparisons with analytical reference solutions confirm the performance of the proposed method. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.