Stiffness characteristic and the applications of the method of lines on nonuniform grids (Q1080637)

The numerical solution of partial differential equations of evolution type by the method of lines is studied. Especially the stiffness characteristics are examined. The fact that stiffness is affected by both the grid spacing and the used space discretization is analyzed and illustrated for a linear one-dimensional diffusion equation. Results obtained by the same numerical techniques for two test problems, governed by the Navier-Stokes equations in the stream-function vorticity formulation, show the same stiffness characteristics.