High Order Finite Difference WENO Schemes for Nonlinear Degenerate Parabolic Equations

High order accurate weighted essentially nonoscillatory (WENO) schemes are usually designed to solve hyperbolic conservation laws or to discretize the first derivative convection terms in convection dominated partial differential equations. In this paper we discuss a high order WENO finite difference discretization for nonlinear degenerate parabolic equations which may contain discontinuous solutions. A porous medium equation (PME) is used as an example to demonstrate the algorithm structure and performance. By directly approximating the second derivative term using a conservative flux difference, the sixth order and eighth order finite difference WENO schemes are constructed. Numerical examples are provided to demonstrate the accuracy and nonoscillatory performance of these schemes.