Order of Difference Expressions in Curvilinear Coordinate Systems

Abstract

The order of finite difference representations on general curvilinear coordinate systems is considered in some detail. It is shown that the uniform grid order is formally preserved on the nonuniform, nonorthogonal grid in the sense of the error behavior with an increase in the number of points. However, the coefficients in the series expansion may become quite large for some point distributions. Several specific distributions are evaluated.