Globally constraint-preserving FR/DG scheme for Maxwell's equations at all orders

TL;DR

This paper develops high-order, globally constraint-preserving discontinuous Galerkin schemes for Maxwell's equations that maintain accuracy and energy conservation even with strong spatial variations in material properties.

Contribution

The paper introduces 5th order DGTD schemes for Maxwell's equations that preserve constraints and achieve optimal accuracy without limiting, even with large permittivity and permeability variations.

Findings

Constraint preservation achieved by face and zone-centered modes.

Optimal accuracy retained without limiting despite large material variations.

Electromagnetic energy conserved well in zero conductivity scenarios.

Abstract

Computational electrodynamics (CED), the numerical solution of Maxwell's equations, plays an incredibly important role in several problems in science and engineering. High accuracy solutions are desired, and the discontinuous Galerkin (DG) method is one of the better ways of delivering high accuracy in CED. Maxwell's equations have a pair of involution constraints for which mimetic schemes that globally satisfy the constraints at a discrete level are highly desirable. Balsara and Kappeli presented a von Neumann stability analysis of globally constraint-preserving DG schemes for CED up to 4'th order which was focused on developing the theory and documenting the superior dissipation and dispersion of DGTD schemes in media with constant permittivity and permeability. In this paper we present DGTD schemes for CED that go up to 5'th order of accuracy and analyze their performance when permittivity and permeability vary strongly in space. Our DGTD schemes achieve constraint preservation by collocating the electric displacement and magnetic induction as well as their higher order modes in the faces of the mesh. Our first finding is that at 4'th and higher orders, one has to evolve some zone-centered modes in addition to the face-centered modes. It is well-known that the limiting step in DG schemes causes a reduction of the optimal accuracy of the scheme. In this paper we document simulations where permittivity and permeability vary by almost an order of magnitude without requiring any limiting of the DG scheme. This very favorable finding ensures that DGTD schemes retain optimal accuracy even in the presence of large spatial variations in permittivity/permeability. Our third finding shows that the electromagnetic energy is conserved very well even when permittivity and permeability vary strongly in space; as long as the conductivity is zero.