A smoothed particle hydrodynamics numerical scheme with a consistent diffusion term for the continuity equation

A novel formulation for the diffusive term in the continuity equation is proposed to improve the stability of smoothed particle hydrodynamics weakly compressible scheme avoiding the introduction of empirical parameters. Densities at particle-particle interface have been computed by means of a first-order consistent total variational diminishing reconstruction and a one-dimensional Roe's approximate Riemann solver is applied to add the correct amount of diffusion. Results of numerical tests also demonstrate that the proposed method is able to guarantee consistency both inside the fluid and close to the free surface. Furthermore, a numerical analysis of several flux limiter functions has been conducted, finding that the choice of this function is a critical point to guarantee the accuracy of the method. It has been assessed, through the monitoring of the internal energy, that the van Albada limiter is more effective in dissipating spurious density fluctuations.