Compact difference schemes for heat equation with Neumann boundary conditions

In this article, two recent proposed compact schemes for the heat conduction problem with Neumann boundary conditions are analyzed. The first difference scheme was proposed by Zhao, Dai, and Niu (Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 23, (2007), 949–959). The unconditional stability and convergence are proved by the energy methods. The convergence order is O(τ² + h^2.5) in a discrete maximum norm. Numerical examples demonstrate that the convergence order of the scheme can not exceeds O(τ² + h³). An improved compact scheme is presented, by which the approximate values at the boundary points can be obtained directly. The second scheme was given by Liao, Zhu, and Khaliq (Methods Partial Differential Eq 22, (2006), 600–616). The unconditional stability and convergence are also shown. By the way, it is reported how to avoid computing the values at the fictitious points. Some numerical examples are presented to show the theoretical results. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq, 2009