Higher-order accurate implicit time integration schemes for transport problems

The present paper is concerned with the numerical solution of transient transport problems by means of spatial and temporal discretization methods. The generalized initial boundary value problem of various nonlinear transport phenomena like heat transfer or mass transport is discretized in space by p-finite elements. After finite element discretization, the resulting first-order semidiscrete balance has to be solved with respect to time. Next to the classical generalized-α integration method predicated on the Newmark approach and the evaluation at a generalized midpoint also implicit Runge–Kutta time integration schemes, are presented. Both families of finite difference-based integration schemes are derived for general first-order problems. In contrast to the above-mentioned algorithms, temporal discontinuous and continuous Galerkin methods evaluate the balance equation not at a selected time instant within the timestep, but in an integral sense over the whole time step interval. Therefore, the underlying semidiscrete balance and the continuity of the primary variables are weakly formulated within time steps and between time steps, respectively. Continuous Galerkin methods are obtained by the strong enforcement of the continuity condition as special cases. The introduction of a natural time coordinate allows for the application of standard higher-order temporal shape functions of the p-Lagrange type and the well-known Gau?–Legendre quadrature of associated time integrals. It is shown that arbitrary order accurate integration schemes can be developed within the framework of the proposed temporal p-Galerkin methods. Selected benchmark analyses of calcium diffusion demonstrate the properties of all three methods with respect to non-smooth initial or boundary conditions. Furthermore, the robustness of the present time integration schemes is also demonstrated for the highly nonlinear reaction–diffusion problem of calcium leaching, including the pronounced changes of the reaction term and non-smooth changes of Dirichlet boundary conditions of calcium dissolution.