A vertex-based hierarchical slope limiter for p-adaptive discontinuous Galerkin methods

A new approach to slope limiting for discontinuous Galerkin methods on arbitrary meshes is introduced. A local Taylor basis is employed to express the approximate solution in terms of cell averages and derivatives at cell centroids. In contrast to traditional slope limiting techniques, the upper and lower bounds for admissible variations are defined using the maxima/minima of centroid values over the set of elements meeting at a vertex. The correction factors are determined by a vertex-based counterpart of the Barth-Jespersen limiter. The coefficients in the Taylor series expansion are limited in a hierarchical manner, starting with the highest-order derivatives. The loss of accuracy at smooth extrema is avoided by taking the maximum of correction factors for derivatives of order p >= 1 and higher. No free parameters, oscillation detectors, or troubled cell markers are involved. Numerical examples are presented for 2D transport problems discretized using a DG method. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.