Efficient Basis Derivatives Evaluations for High-order Discontinuous Galerkin Schemes

Abstract

Computational methods of evaluating a basis of Lagrange polynomials are developed for the purpose of implementing efficient discontinuous Galerkin conservation laws solvers. Special attention is payed to the computation of higher-order partial derivatives which may be required for certain applications. Two different approaches are considered; one involves hardcoding explicit one-line formulae into the source code in order to make it as simple as possible, whereas the other uses algorithms designed to minimize the asymptotic order of growth with respect to the order of the scheme. Timing experiments show that either approach can perform well if implemented effectively, and identify advantages and disadvantages of each.