A generalized framework for nodal first derivative summation-by-parts operators

A generalized framework is presented that extends the classical theory of finite-difference summation-by-parts (SBP) operators to include a wide range of operators, where the main extensions are (i) non-repeating interior point operators, (ii) nonuniform nodal distribution in the computational domain, (iii) operators that do not include one or both boundary nodes. Necessary and sufficient conditions are proven for the existence of nodal approximations to the first derivative with the SBP property. It is proven that the positive-definite norm matrix of each SBP operator must be associated with a quadrature rule; moreover, given a quadrature rule there exists a corresponding SBP operator, where for diagonal-norm SBP operators the weights of the quadrature rule must be positive. The generalized framework gives a straightforward means of posing many known approximations to the first derivative as SBP operators; several are surveyed, such as discontinuous Galerkin discretizations based on the Legendre–Gauss quadrature points, and shown to be SBP operators. Moreover, the new framework provides a method for constructing SBP operators by starting from quadrature rules; this is illustrated by constructing novel SBP operators from known quadrature rules. To demonstrate the utility of the generalization, the Legendre–Gauss and Legendre–Gauss–Radau quadrature points are used to construct SBP operators that do not include one or both boundary nodes.