Error Propagation in the RK5GL3 Method

The RK5GL3 method is a numerical method for solving initial value problems in ordinary differential equations, and is based on a combination of a fifth-order Runge-Kutta method and 3-point Gauss-Legendre quadrature. In this paper we describe the propagation of local errors in this method, and show that the global order of RK5GL3 is expected to be six, one better than the underlying Runge- Kutta method.

Local Error Control in the RK5GL3 Method

The RK5GL3 method is a numerical method for solving initial value problems in ordinary differential equations, and is based on a combination of a fifth-order Runge-Kutta method and 3-point Gauss-Legendre quadrature. In this paper we describe an effective local error control algorithm for RK5GL3, which uses local extrapolation with an eighth-order Runge-Kutta method in tandem with RK5GL3, and a Hermite interpolating polynomial for solution estimation at the Gauss-Legendre quadrature nodes.