A high-order weighted essentially nonoscillatory scheme based on exponential polynomials for nonlinear degenerate parabolic equations

In this research the numerical solution of nonlinear degenerate parabolic equations is investigated by a new sixth-order finite difference weighted essentially nonoscillatory (WENO) based on exponential polynomials. In smooth regions, the new scheme, named as EPWENO6, can achieve the maximal approximation order while in critical points it does not lose its accuracy. In order to better approximation near steep gradients without spurious oscillations, the EPWENO6 scheme is designed by the exponential polynomials that are incorporated into the WENO reconstruction. In design of nonlinear weights that play a very important role in WENO reconstructions, a global smoothness indicator using generalized undivided differences is introduced. To analyze the convergence order of the EPWENO6 method in full detail, the Lagrange-type exponential functions have been used. By comparing the EPWENO6 scheme and other existing WENO schemes for solving degenerate parabolic equations, it can be seen that the new scheme offers better results while its computational cost is less. To illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed scheme, a number of numerical experiments are considered.