Critical study of higher order numerical methods for solving the boundary-layer equations

A fourth order box method is presented for calculating numerical solutions to parabolic, partial differential equations in two variables or ordinary differential equations. The method, which is the natural extension of the second order box scheme to fourth order, was demonstrated with application to the incompressible, laminar and turbulent, boundary layer equations. The efficiency of the present method is compared with two point and three point higher order methods, namely, the Keller box scheme with Richardson extrapolation, the method of deferred corrections, a three point spline method, and a modified finite element method. For equivalent accuracy, numerical results show the present method to be more efficient than higher order methods for both laminar and turbulent flows.