A block Krylov subspace time-exact solution method for linear ODE systems

We propose a time-exact Krylov-subspace-based method for solving linear ODE (ordinary differential equation) systems of the form $y'=-Ay + g(t)$ and $y''=-Ay + g(t)$, where $y(t)$ is the unknown function. The method consists of two stages. The first stage is an accurate piecewise polynomial approximation of the source term $g(t)$, constructed with the help of the truncated SVD (singular value decomposition). The second stage is a special residual-based block Krylov subspace method. The accuracy of the method is only restricted by the accuracy of the piecewise polynomial approximation and by the error of the block Krylov process. Since both errors can, in principle, be made arbitrarily small, this yields, at some costs, a time-exact method. Numerical experiments are presented to demonstrate efficiency of the new method, as compared to an exponential time integrator with Krylov subspace matrix function evaluations

Integrating-factor-based 2-additive Runge-Kutta methods for advection-reaction-diffusion equations

There are three distinct processes that are predominant in models of flowing media with interacting components: advection, reaction, and diffusion. Collectively, these processes are typically modelled with partial differential equations (PDEs) known as advection-reaction-diffusion (ARD) equations. To solve most PDEs in practice, approximation methods known as numerical methods are used. The method of lines is used to approximate PDEs with systems of ordinary differential equations (ODEs) by a process known as semi-discretization. ODEs are more readily analysed and benefit from well-developed numerical methods and software. Each term of an ODE that corresponds to one of the processes of an ARD equation benefits from particular mathematical properties in a numerical method. These properties are often mutually exclusive for many basic numerical methods. A limitation to the widespread use of more complex numerical methods is that the development of the appropriate software to provide comparisons to existing numerical methods is not straightforward. Scientific and numerical software is often inflexible, motivating the development of a class of software known as problem-solving environments (PSEs). Many existing PSEs such as Matlab have solvers for ODEs and PDEs but lack specific features, beyond a scripting language, to readily experiment with novel or existing solution methods. The PSE developed during the course of this thesis solves ODEs known as initial-value problems, where only the initial state is fully known. The PSE is used to assess the performance of new numerical methods for ODEs that integrate each term of a semi-discretized ARD equation. This PSE is part of the PSE pythODE that uses object-oriented and software-engineering techniques to allow implementations of many existing and novel solution methods for ODEs with minimal effort spent on code modification and integration. The new numerical methods use a commutator-free exponential Runge-Kutta (CFERK) method to solve the advection term of an ARD equation. A matrix exponential is used as the exponential function, but CFERK methods can use other numerical methods that model the flowing medium. The reaction term is solved separately using an explicit Runge-Kutta method because solving it along with the diffusion term can result in stepsize restrictions and hence inefficiency. The diffusion term is solved using a Runge-Kutta-Chebyshev method that takes advantage of the spatially symmetric nature of the diffusion process to avoid stepsize restrictions from a property known as stiffness. The resulting methods, known as Integrating-factor-based 2-additive Runge-Kutta methods, are shown to be able to find higher-accuracy solutions in less computational time than competing methods for certain challenging semi-discretized ARD equations. This demonstrates the practical viability both of using CFERK methods for advection and a 3-splitting in general

Approximation of matrix operators applied to multiple vectors

In this paper we propose a numerical method for approximating the product of a matrix function with multiple vectors by Krylov subspace methods combined with a QR decomposition of these vectors. This problem arises in the implementation of exponential integrators for semilinear parabolic problems. We will derive reliable stopping criteria and we suggest variants using up- and downdating techniques. Moreover, we show how Ritz vectors can be included in order to speed up the computation even further. By a number of numerical examples, we will illustrate that the proposed method will reduce the total number of Krylov steps significantly compared to a standard implementation if the vectors correspond to the evaluation of a smooth function at certain quadrature points. Key words: Krylov subspace methods, shift and invert Lanczos process, projection method, matrix exponential function, matrix functions, restarts, erro