Internal wave reflections and transmissions arising from a non-uniform mesh. Part III: The occurrence of evanescent waves in the Crank-Nicolson linear finite element scheme

The numerical scheme upon which this paper is based is the 1D Crank–Nicolson linear finite element scheme. In Part I of this series it was shown that for a certain range of incident wavelengths impinging on the interface of an expansion in nodal spacing, an evanescent (or spatially damped) wave results in the downstream region. Here in Part III an analysis is carried out to predict the wavelength and the spatial rate of damping for this wave. The results of the analysis are verified quantitatively with seven ‘hot-start’ numerical experiments and qualitatively with seven ‘cold-start’ experiments. Weare has shown that evanescent waves occur whenever the frequency of a disturbance at a boundary exceeds the maximum frequency given by the dispersion relation. In these circumstances the ‘extended dispersion’ relation can be used to determine the rate of spatial decay. In the context of a domain consisting of two regions with different nodal spacings, the use of the group velocity concept shows that evanescent waves have no energy flux associated with them when energy is conserved.