A positive splitting method for mixed hyperbolic-parabolic systems

In this article we present a method of lines approach to the numerical solution of a system of coupled hyperbolic—parabolic partial differential equations (PDEs). Special attention is paid to preserving the positivity of the solution of the PDEs when this solution is approximated numerically. This is achieved by using a flux-limited spatial discretization for the hyperbolic equation. We use splitting techniques for the solution of the resulting large system of stiff ordinary differential equations. The performance of the approach applied to a biomathematical model is compared with the performance of standard methods. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 17: 152–168, 2001