AND

We consider the use of software for the direct solution of sparse linear equations within a stiff integration package which uses extrapolation techniques. We discuss the effect of varying the frequency of matrix decompositions and of altering the pivoting strategy. We compare the use of two sparse matrix packages, NSPFAC (Sherman, 1978) and MA28 (Duff, 1977), within the chemical kinetics package LARKIN (Deuflhard et al., 1983). 1