Stability of space-time isogeometric methods for wave propagation problems

Abstract: This thesis aims at investigating the first steps toward an unconditionally stable space-time isogeometric method, based on splines of maximal regularity, for the linear acoustic wave equation. The unconditional stability of space-time discretizations for wave propagation problems is a topic of significant interest, by virtue of the advantages of space-time methods compared with more standard time-stepping techniques. In the case of continuous finite element methods, several stabilizations have been proposed. Inspired by one of these works, we address the stability issue by studying the isogeometric method for an ordinary differential equation closely related to the wave equation. As a result, we provide a stabilized isogeometric method whose effectiveness is supported by numerical tests. Motivated by these results, we conclude by suggesting an extension of this stabilization tool to the space-time isogeometric formulation of the acoustic wave equation.