Bulk viscosity damping for accelerating convergence of low Mach number Euler solvers

In solution of the Euler equations in the steady state external flows, error or residual waves are blamed for decelerating the convergence. These waves may be damped by adding a bulk viscosity term to the momentum equations. We analyse effects of this term on the linearized differential equations, and study its explicit and implicit implementation in one and two space dimensions. Optimum values of the bulk viscosity damping (BVD) are discussed. After generalization to two space dimensions, its performance both alone and in combination with a soft wall boundary condition and residual smoothing in central differencing codes is reviewed. It is shown that BVD is complementary to them, and acts independently of them. Finally, application of BVD in solution of low Mach number flows is considered, to show how it can strongly stabilize and accelerate these low Mach number computations.