On the robustness of high-order upwind summation-by-parts methods for nonlinear conservation laws

Abstract: We use the framework of upwind summation-by-parts (SBP) operators developed by Mattsson (2017, doi:10.1016/j.jcp.2017.01.042) and study different flux vector splittings in this context. To do so, we introduce discontinuous-Galerkin-like interface terms for multi-block upwind SBP methods applied to nonlinear conservation laws. We investigate the behavior of the upwind SBP methods for flux vector splittings of varying complexity on Cartesian as well as unstructured curvilinear multi-block meshes. Moreover, we analyze the local linear/energy stability of these methods following Gassner, Sv\"ard, and Hindenlang (2022, doi:10.1007/s10915-021-01720-8). Finally, we investigate the robustness of upwind SBP methods for challenging examples of shock-free flows of the compressible Euler equations such as a Kelvin-Helmholtz instability and the inviscid Taylor-Green vortex.