Numerical investigation of a modified family of centered schemes applied to multiphase equations with nonconservative sources

Systems of hyperbolic partial differential equations are frequently used to model the flow of multiphase mixtures. These equations often contain sources, referred to as nozzling terms, that cannot be posed in divergence form, and have proven to be particularly challenging in the development of finite-volume methods. Upwind schemes have recently shown promise in properly resolving the steady wave solution of the associated multiphase Riemann problem. However, these methods require a full characteristic decomposition of the system eigenstructure, which may be either unavailable or computationally expensive. Central schemes, such as the Kurganov-Tadmor (KT) family of methods, require minimal characteristic information, which makes them easily applicable to systems with an arbitrary number of phases. However, the proper implementation of nozzling terms in these schemes has been mathematically ambiguous. The primary objectives of this work are twofold: first, an extension of the KT family of schemes is proposed that formally accounts for the nonconservative nozzling sources. This modification results in a semidiscrete form that retains the simplicity of its predecessor and introduces little additional computational expense. Second, this modified method is applied to multiple, but equivalent, forms of the multiphase equations to perform a numerical study by solving several one-dimensional test problems. Both ideal and Mie-Grüneisen equations of state are used, with the results compared to an analytical solution. This study demonstrates that the magnitudes of the resulting numerical errors are sensitive to the form of the equations considered, and suggests an optimal form to minimize these errors. Finally, a separate modification of the wave propagation speeds used in the KT family is also suggested that can reduce the extent of numerical diffusion in multiphase flows.