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Abstract

The special relativistic hydrodynamic equations are more complicated than the classical ones due to the nonlinear and implicit relations that exist between conservative and primitive variables. In this article, a space–time conservation element and solution element (CESE) method is proposed for solving these equations in one and two space dimensions. The CESE method has capability to capture sharp propagating wavefront of the relativistic fluids without excessive numerical diffusion or spurious oscillations. In contrast to the existing upwind finite volume schemes, the Riemann solver and reconstruction procedure are not the building blocks of the suggested method. The method differs from previous techniques because of global and local flux conservation in a space–time domain without resorting to interpolation or extrapolation. The scheme is efficient, robust, and gives results comparable to those obtained with more sophisticated algorithms, even in highly relativistic two-dimensional test problems. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. [accessed June 12th 2012]