High-efficiency implicit scheme for solving first-order partial differential equations

Abstract

We present three new approaches for solving first-order quasi-linear partial differential equations (PDEs) with iterative methods of high stability and low cost. The first is a new numerical version of the method of characteristics that converges efficiently, under certain conditions. The next two approaches initially apply the unconditionally stable Crank–Nicolson method, which induces a system of nonlinear equations. In one of them, we solve this system by using the first optimal schemes for systems of order four (Ermakov’s Hyperfamily). In the other approach, using a new technique called JARM decoupling, we perform a modification that significantly reduces the complexity of the scheme, which we solve with scalar versions of the aforementioned iterative methods. This is a substantial improvement over the conventional way of solving the system. The high numerical performance of the three approaches is checked when analyzing the resolution of some examples of nonlinear PDEs.

Keywords

• Quasi-linear PDEs
• Trapezoidal rule
• Crank–Nicolson method
• Iterative methods
• Nonlinear systems