The Accuracy of Shock Capturing in Two Spatial Dimensions

An assessment of the accuracy of shock capturing schemes is made for two-dimensional steady flow around a cylindrical projectile. Both a linear fourth-order method and a nonlinear third-order method are used in this study. It is shown, contrary to conventional wisdom, that captured two-dimensional shocks are asymptotically first-order, regardless of the design accuracy of the numerical method. The practical implications of this finding are discussed in the context of the efficacy of high-order numerical methods for discontinuous flows.