Waveform relaxation methods for implicit differential equations

We apply a Runge-Kutta-based waveform relaxation method to initial-value problems for implicit differential equations. In the implementation of such methods, a sequence of nonlinear systems has to be solved iteratively in each step of the integration process. The size of these systems increases linearly with the number of stages of the underlying Runge-Kutta method, resulting in high linear algebra costs in the iterative process for high-order Runge-Kutta methods. In our earlier investigations of iterative solvers for implicit initial value problems, we designed an iteration method in which the linear algebra costs are almost independent of the number of stages when implemented on a parallel computer system. In this paper, we use this parallel iteration process in the Runge-Kutta waveform relaxation method. In particular, we analyse the convergence of the method. The theoretical results are illustrated by a few numerical examples.