This paper discusses the importance of artificial viscosity in analyzing transonic potential flows in terms of:
•convergence characteristics of a relaxation scheme, and
•accuracy of the obtained solutions.
In this first part of the paper, two types of relaxation schemes are discussed where different types of damping terms are employed. The utilization of artificial viscosity for these different procedures are studied. In the second part, the accuracy of solutions obtained by employing artificial viscosity is investigated, in particular for the solution around a shock. Finally, it is suggested that comparison of solutions with different levels of artificial viscosity may be an efficient tool in determining the accuracy of the obtained solution.