A nonlocal convective flux limiter for upwind‐biased finite volume simulations

Finite volume methods on structured and unstructured meshes commonly use second‐order, upwind‐biased linear reconstruction schemes to approximate the convective terms. Limiters are employed to reduce the inherent variable overshoot and undershoot of these schemes in discontinuous regions; however, they also can significantly increase the numerical dissipation of a solution in smooth regions. This paper presents a novel nonlocal, nonmonotonic (NLNM) limiter developed by enforcing cell minima and maxima on dependent variable values projected to cell faces. The minimum and maximum values for a cell are determined primarily through recursive reference to the minimum and maximum values of its upwind neighbors. The new limiter has been implemented into an existing flow solver. Various test cases are presented, which highlight the ability of the NLNM limiter to eliminate nonphysical oscillations while maintaining negligible levels of limiter‐induced dissipation into the solution. Results from the new limiter are compared with those from other limited and unlimited second‐order upwind and first‐order upwind schemes. For the cases examined in the study, the NLNM limiter was found to improve accuracy without significantly decreasing overall simulation efficiency and robustness.Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.