On the Reduction of Numerical Dissipation in Central-Upwind Schemes

We study central-upwind schemes for systems of hyperbolic conservation laws, recently introduced in [13]. Similarly to staggered non-oscillatory central schemes, these schemes are central Godunov-type projection-evolution methods that enjoy the advantages of high resolution, simplicity, universality and robustness. At the same time, the central-upwind framework allows one to decrease a relatively large amount of numerical dissipation present at the staggered central schemes. In this paper, we present a modification of the one-dimensional fully- and semi-discrete central-upwind schemes, in which the numerical dissipation is reduced even further. The goal is achieved by a more accurate projection of the evolved quantities onto the original grid. In the semi-discrete case, the reduction of dissipation procedure leads to a new, less dissipative numerical flux. We also extend the new semi-discrete scheme to the two-dimensional case via the rigorous, genuinely multidimensional derivation. The new semi-discrete schemes are tested on a number of numerical examples, where one can observe an improved resolution, especially of the contact waves.