Optimal error estimates of ultra-weak discontinuous Galerkin methods with generalized numerical fluxes for multi-dimensional convection-diffusion and biharmonic equations

Abstract

In this paper, we study ultra-weak discontinuous Galerkin methods with generalized numerical fluxes for multi-dimensional high order partial differential equations on both unstructured simplex and Cartesian meshes. The equations we consider as examples are the nonlinear convection-diffusion equation and the biharmonic equation. Optimal error estimates are obtained for both equations under certain conditions, and the key step is to carefully design global projections to eliminate numerical errors on the cell interface terms of ultra-weak schemes on general dimensions. The well-posedness and approximation capability of these global projections are obtained for arbitrary order polynomial space based on a wide class of generalized numerical fluxes on regular meshes. These projections can serve as general analytical tools to be naturally applied to a wide class of high order equations. Numerical experiments are conducted to demonstrate these theoretical results.