On the optimal CFL number of SSP methods for hyperbolic problems

We show that the theory for strong stability preserving (SSP) time stepping methods employed with the method of lines-type discretizations of hyperbolic conservation laws may result in overly stringent time step restrictions. We analyze a fully discrete finite volume method with slope reconstruction and a second order SSP Runge–Kutta time integrator to show that the maximum stable time step can be increased over the SSP limit. Numerical examples indicate that this result extends to two-dimensional problems on triangular meshes.