Application of Computer Algebra Systems for Stability Analysis of Difference Schemes on Curvilinear Grids

Abstract

The paper deals with problems arising in the application of the computer algebra systems for the symbolic–numeric stability analysis of difference schemes and schemes of the finite-volume method approximating the two-dimensional Euler equations for compressible fluid flows on curvilinear spatial grids. We carry out a detailed comparison of the REDUCE 3.6 and Mathematica(Versions 2.2 and 3.0) from the point of view of their applicability to the solution of the above problems. We draw a conclusion that a preference should be given for Mathematica from the viewpoint of the execution of symbolic–numeric computations. We also describe in detail our new symbolic–numeric algorithm for stability investigation, which was implemented with the aid of Mathematica. The proposed method enables us to reduce the needed computer storage at the symbolic stages by a factor of about 20 as compared with the previous algorithms. A feature of the numerical stages is the use of the arithmetic of rational numbers, which enables us to avoid the accumulation of the roundoff errors. We present the examples of the application of the proposed symbolic–numeric method for stability analysis of very complex schemes of the finite-volume method on curvilinear grids, which are widely used in computational fluid dynamics.