Semiconservative reduced speed of sound technique for low Mach number flows with large density variations

Abstract

Context. The reduced speed of sound technique (RSST) has been used for efficient simulation of low Mach number flows in solar and stellar convection zones. The basic RSST equations are hyperbolic and are suitable for parallel computation by domain decomposition. The application of RSST is limited to cases in which density perturbations are much smaller than the background density. In addition, nonconservative variables are required to be evolved using this method, which is not suitable in cases where discontinuities such as shock waves coexist in a single numerical domain. Aims. In this study, we suggest a new semiconservative formulation of the RSST that can be applied to low Mach number flows with large density variations. Methods. We derive the wave speed of the original and newly suggested methods to clarify that these methods can reduce the speed of sound without affecting the entropy wave. The equations are implemented using the finite volume method. Several numerical tests are carried out to verify the suggested methods. Results. The analysis and numerical results show that the original RSST is not applicable when mass density variations are large. In contrast, the newly suggested methods are found to be efficient in such cases. We also suggest variants of the RSST that conserve momentum in the machine precision. The newly suggested variants are formulated as semiconservative equations, which reduce to the conservative form of the Euler equations when the speed of sound is not reduced. This property is advantageous when both high and low Mach number regions are included in the numerical domain. Conclusions. The newly suggested forms of RSST can be applied to a wider range of low Mach number flows.