Adaptive Time-Stepping for Incompressible Flow Part I: Scalar Advection-Diffusion

Even the simplest advection-diffusion problems can exhibit multiple time scales. This means that robust variable step time integrators are a prerequisite if such problems are to be efficiently solved computationally. The performance of the second order trapezoid rule using an explicit Adams–Bashforth method for error control is assessed in this work. This combination is particularly well suited to long time integration of advection-dominated problems. Herein it is shown that a stabilized implementation of the trapezoid rule leads to a very effective integrator in other situations: specifically diffusion problems with rough initial data; and general advection-diffusion problems with different physical time scales governing the system evolution.