Constructing relaxation systems for lattice Boltzmann methods

Abstract: We present the first top-down ansatz for constructing lattice Boltzmann methods (LBM) in d dimensions. In particular, we construct a relaxation system (RS) for a given scalar, linear, d-dimensional advection-diffusion equation. Subsequently, the RS is linked to a d-dimensional discrete velocity Boltzmann model (DVBM) on the zeroth and first energy shell. Algebraic characterizations of the equilibrium, the moment space, and the collision operator are carried out. Further, a closed equation form of the RS expresses the added relaxation terms as prefactored higher order derivatives of the conserved quantity. Here, a generalized (2d+1)x(2d+1) RS is linked to a DdQ(2d+1) DVBM which, upon complete discretization, yields an LBM with second order accuracy in space and time. A rigorous convergence result for arbitrary scaling of the RS, the DVBM and conclusively also for the final LBM is proven. The top-down constructed LBM is numerically tested on multiple GPUs with smooth and non-smooth initial data in d=3 dimensions for several grid-normalized non-dimensional numbers.