Reducing spurious oscillations in discontinuous wave propagation simulation using high-order finite elements

In this paper, a modified explicit time integration scheme is proposed for simulating the propagation of discontinuous waves. The spatial domain is discretized by the finite element method. To obtain accurate results, the standard finite element method requires a very fine mesh, which is why the computational effort can be very time consuming. The use of high-order finite element methods–such as the spectral element method based on Lagrange polynomials through Gauss–Lobatto–Legendre points or the iso-geometric analysis using non-uniform rational B-splines–can reduce the enormous computational costs significantly, compared to the standard finite element method. However, explicit time integration schemes such as the central difference method cannot eliminate the spurious oscillation near the front wave. The procedure proposed here is basically similar to the explicit method of Noh and Bathe, but the semi-discrete equation of motion is modified by introducing a damping parameter to suit the high-order FEM analysis of the discontinuous wave propagation. The performance due to this modification is tested for one-dimensional wave propagation problems using both lumped and consistent mass matrices. Then, the idea of a combination of the consistent and row sum lumped mass matrices is evaluated. The proposed method is studied also in two-dimensions by considering the Lamb problem of wave propagation. The results are promising enough to provide a better simulation of the discontinuous wave propagation problem.