Discrete kinetic schemes for multidimensional systems of conservation laws

We present here some numerical schemes for general multidimensional systems of conservation laws based on a class of discrete kinetic approximations, which includes the relaxation schemes by S. Jin and Z. Xin. These schemes have a simple formulation even in the multidimensional case and do not need the solution of the local Riemann problems. For these approximations we give a suitable multidimensional generalization of the Whitham's stability subcharacteristic condition. In the scalar multidimensional case we establish the rigorous convergence of the approximated solutions to the unique entropy solution of the equilibrium Cauchy problem.