Residual-based variational multiscale modeling in a discontinuous Galerkin framework

Abstract: We develop the general form of the variational multiscale method in a discontinuous Galerkin framework. Our method is based on the decomposition of the true solution into discontinuous coarse-scale and discontinuous fine-scale parts. The obtained coarse-scale weak formulation includes two types of fine-scale contributions. The first type corresponds to a fine-scale volumetric term, which we formulate in terms of a residual-based model that also takes into account fine-scale effects at element interfaces. The second type consists of independent fine-scale terms at element interfaces, which we formulate in terms of a new fine-scale "interface model". We demonstrate for the one-dimensional Poisson problem that existing discontinuous Galerkin formulations, such as the interior penalty method, can be rederived by choosing particular fine-scale interface models. The multiscale formulation thus opens the door for a new perspective on discontinuous Galerkin methods and their numerical properties. This is demonstrated for the one-dimensional advection-diffusion problem, where we show that upwind numerical fluxes can be interpreted as an ad hoc remedy for missing volumetric fine-scale terms.