Truncation of scales by time relaxation ✩

We study a time relaxation regularization of flow problems proposed and tested extensively by Stolz and Adams. The aim of the relaxation term is to drive the unresolved fluctuations in a computational simulation to zero exponentially fast by an appropriate and often problem dependent choice of its coefficient; this relaxation term is thus intermediate between a tunable numerical stabilization and a continuum modeling term. Our aim herein is to understand how this term, by itself, acts to truncate solution scales and to use this understanding to give insight into parameter selection. © 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.