Symmetric mixed discontinuous Galerkin methods for linear viscoelasticity

Abstract: We propose and rigorously analyse semi- and fully discrete discontinuous Galerkin methods for an initial and boundary value problem describing inertial viscoelasticity in terms of elastic and viscoelastic stress components, and with mixed boundary conditions. The arbitrary-order spatial discretisation imposes strongly the symmetry of the stress tensor, and it is combined with a Newmark trapezoidal rule as time-advancing scheme. We establish stability and convergence properties, and the theoretical findings are further confirmed via illustrative numerical simulations in 2D and 3D.