Based on the total Lagrangian kinematical description, a discontinuous Galerkin (DG) discretization of the gas dynamics equations is developed for two-dimensional fluid flows on general unstructured grids. Contrary to the updated Lagrangian formulation, which refers to the current moving configuration of the flow, the total Lagrangian formulation refers to the reference fixed configuration, which is usually the initial one. In this framework, the Lagrangian and Eulerian descriptions of the kinematical and the physical variables are related by means of the Piola transformation. Here, we describe a cell-centered high-order DG discretization of the physical conservation laws. The geometrical conservation law, which governs the time evolution of the deformation gradient, is solved by means of a finite element discretization. This approach allows to satisfy exactly the Piola compatibility condition. Regarding the DG approach, it relies on the use of a polynomial space approximation which is spanned by a Taylor basis. The main advantage in using this type of basis relies on its adaptability regardless the shape of the cell. The numerical fluxes at the cell interfaces are computed employing a node-based solver which can be viewed as an approximate Riemann solver. We present numerical results to illustrate the robustness and the accuracy up to third-order of our DG method. First, we show its ability to accurately capture geometrical features of a flow region employing curvilinear grids. Second, we demonstrate the dramatic improvement in symmetry preservation for radial flows.
