The Ramshaw-Mesina Hybrid Algorithm applied to the Navier Stokes Equations

In 1991, Ramshaw and Mesina proposed a novel synthesis of penalty methods and artificial compression methods. When the two were balanced they found the combination was 3-4 orders more accurate than either alone. This report begins the study of their interesting method applied to the Navier-Stokes equations. We perform stability analysis, semi-discrete error analysis, and tests of the algorithm. Although most of the results for implicit time discretizations of our numerical tests comply with theirs for explicit time discretizations, the behavior in damping pressure oscillations and violations of incompressibility are different from their findings and our heuristic analysis.