Numerical investigations on global error estimation for ordinary differential equations

Four techniques of global error estimation, which are Richardson extrapolation (RS), Zadunaiskyʹs technique (ZD), Solving for the Correction (SC) and Integration of Principal Error Equation (IPEE) have been compared in different integration codes (DOPRI5, DVODE, DSTEP). Theoretical aspects concerning their implementations and their orders are first given. Second, a comparison of them based on a large number of tests is presented. In terms of cost and precision, SC is a method of choice for one-step methods. It is much more precise and less costly than RS, and leads to the same precision as ZD for half its cost. IPEE can provide the order of the error for a cheap cost in codes based on one-step methods. In multistep codes, only RS and IPEE have been implemented since they are the only ones whose theoretical justification has been extended to this case. There, RS still provides a more reliable estimation than IPEE. However, as these techniques are based on variations of the global error, irrespective of the numerical method used, they fail to provide any more usefull information once the numerical method has reached its limit of accuracy due to the finite arithmetic.