Zero-stability is the basic property of numerical methods of ordinary differential equations (ODEs). Little work on zero-stability is obtained for the waveform relaxation (WR) methods, although it is an important numerical method of ODEs. In this paper we present a definition of zero-stability of WR methods and prove that several classes of WR methods are zero-stable under the Lipschitz conditions. Also, some numerical examples are given to outline the effectiveness of the developed results.

Stability properties of discrete time waveform relaxation (DWR) methods based on Euler schemes are analyzed by applying them to two dissipative systems. Some sufficient conditions for stability of the considered methods are obtained; at the same time two examples of instability are given. To investigate the influence of the splitting functions and underlying numerical methods on stability of DWR methods, DWR methods based on different splittings and different numerical schemes are considered. The obtained results show that the stabilities of waveform relaxation methods based on an implicit Euler scheme are better than those based on explicit Euler scheme, and that the stabilities of waveform relaxation methods based on the classical splittings such as Gauss-Jacobi and Gauss-Seidel splittings are worse than those based on the eigenvalue splitting presented in this paper. Finally, numerical examples that confirm the theoretical results are presented.