Convergence and error estimates of a penalization finite volume method for the compressible Navier-Stokes system

In numerical simulations a smooth domain occupied by a fluid has to be approximated by a computational domain that typically does not coincide with a physical domain. Consequently, in order to study convergence and error estimates of a numerical method domain-related discretization errors, the so-called variational crimes, need to be taken into account. In this paper we present an elegant alternative to a direct, but rather technical, analysis of variational crimes by means of the penalty approach. We embed the physical domain into a large enough cubed domain and study the convergence of a finite volume method for the corresponding domain-penalized problem. We show that numerical solutions of the penalized problem converge to a generalized, the so-called dissipative weak, solution of the original problem. If a strong solution exists, the dissipative weak solution emanating from the same initial data coincides with the strong solution. In this case, we apply a novel tool of the relative energy and derive the error estimates between the numerical solution and the strong solution. Extensive numerical experiments that confirm theoretical results are presented.