| Abstract: | We study the properties of coefficient matrices arising from high‐order compact discretizations of convection‐diffusion problems. Asymptotic convergence factors of the convex hull of the spectrum and the field of values of the coefficient matrix for a one‐dimensional problem are derived, and the convergence factor of the convex hull of the spectrum is shown to be inadequate for predicting the convergence rate of GMRES. For a two‐dimensional constant‐coefficient problem, we derive the eigenvalues of the nine‐point matrix, and we show that the matrix is positive definite for all values of the cell‐Reynolds number. Using a recent technique for deriving analytic expressions for discrete solutions produced by the fourth‐order scheme, we show by analyzing the terms in the discrete solutions that they are oscillation‐free for all values of the cell Reynolds number. Our theoretical results support observations made through numerical experiments by other researchers on the non‐oscillatory nature of the discrete solution produced by fourth‐order compact approximations to the convection‐diffusion equation. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 18: 155–178, 2002; DOI 10.1002/num.1041 |
