On the spectral and conservation properties of nonlinear discretization operators

Following the study of Pirozzoli [1], the objective of the present work is to provide a detailed theoretical analysis of the spectral properties and the conservation properties of nonlinear finite difference discretizations. First, a Nonlinear Spectral Analysis (NSA) is proposed in order to study the statistical behavior of the modified wavenumber of a nonlinear finite difference operator, for a large set of synthetic scalar fields with prescribed energy spectrum and random phase. Second, the necessary conditions for local and global conservation of momentum and kinetic energy are derived and verified for nonlinear discretizations. Because the nonlinear mechanisms result in a violation of the energy conservation conditions, the NSA is used to quantify the energy imbalance. Third, the effect of aliasing errors due to the nonlinearity is analyzed. Finally, the theoretical observations are verified for two simple, thought relevant, numerical simulations.