Application of a discontinuous Galerkin finite element method to special relativistic hydrodynamic models

A Runge–Kutta discontinuous Galerkin (RKDG) finite element method is proposed for solving the special relativistic hydrodynamic (SRHD) equations and as a limiting case the ultra-relativistic hydrodynamic (URHD) equations. The latter model is obtained by ignoring the rest-mass energy when the internal energy of fluid particles is sufficiently large. Several test problems of SRHD and URHD models are carried out. For validation, the results of DG-method are compared with the staggered central scheme. The numerical results verify the accuracy of the proposed method qualitatively and quantitatively.