Discretization of the 2D Convection–Diffusion Equation Using ‎Discrete Exterior Calculus

Abstract

While the Discrete Exterior Calculus (DEC) discretization of the diffusive term of the Transport Equation is well understood, the DEC discretization of the convective term, as well as its stabilization, is an ongoing area of research. In this paper, we propose a local discretization for this term based on DEC and geometric arguments, considering the particle velocity field prescribed at the vertices of the primal mesh. This formulation is similar to that of the Finite Element Method with linear interpolation functions (FEML) and can be stabilized using known stabilization techniques, such as Artificial Diffusion. Using this feature, numerical tests are carried out on simple stationary and transient problems with domains discretized with coarse and fine simplicial meshes to show numerical convergence.

Keywords

• discrete exterior calculus
• finite element analysis
• transport equation
• compressible and incompressible flow
• convection
• ‎advection
• diffusion