A study of numerical methods for hyperbolic conservation laws with stiff source terms

Abstract

In the present study of the behavior of typical numerical methods in the case of a model advection equation having a parameter-dependent source term, two approaches to the incorporation of the source terms are used: MacCormack-type predictor-corrector methods with flux limiters, and splitting methods in which the fluid dynamics and chemistry are handled in separate steps. The latter are found to perform slightly better. The model scalar equation is used to show that the incorrectness of the propagation speeds of discontinuities observed in the stiff case is due to the introduction of nonequilibrium values through numerical dissipation in the advection step.