Message Boards Message Boards

How to solve Wave Equation numerically?

Posted 11 years ago
I'm trying a wave equation with NDSolve, but I'm having problems with the boundary conditions. This is the equation I want to solve:
D[y[x, t],t, t] == D[y[x, t], x, x]
How do I enter the boundary conditions in form of a function? E.g a sine wave or a Gaussian wave package?
POSTED BY: Matthias Redies
2 Replies
Excellent reply Nasser! We just wanted to bring to everyone's attention that there is a very detailed tutorial on this topic in a related discussion:  Solve a simple wave equation with System Modeler: Equation-based Approach
POSTED BY: Moderation Team
Just need to make sure the B.C. and the I.C.'s are consistent. Here is an example with boundary condition at x=0 which is sin function.
eq = D[y[x, t], t, t] == D[y[x, t], x, x];
bc = {y[0, t] == t Sin[t], y[2 Pi, t] == 0};
ic = {y[x, 0] == Sin[x], (D[y[x, t], t] /. t -> 0) == 0};
sol = NDSolve[Flatten@{eq, ic, bc}, y, {x, 0, 2 Pi }, {t, 0, 10}]
which gives
{{y->InterpolatingFunction[{{0.,6.28318530717959},{0.,10.}},<>]}}
Now you can plot the solution
Plot3D[Evaluate[y[x, t] /. sol], {t, 0, 10}, {x, 0, 2 Pi },
PlotRange -> All, AxesLabel -> {"t", "x", "y(x,t)"}]


Or you can animate the solution in time:
Animate[Grid[{{"t=", i, " seconds"},
   {Plot[Evaluate[y[x, t] /. sol /. t -> i], {x, 0, 2 Pi },
     PlotRange -> {{0, 2 Pi}, {-8, 8}}, AxesLabel -> {"x", "y(x,t)"},
     ImageSize -> 300, PlotStyle -> Red], SpanFromLeft}}], {i, 0,10, .001}]

POSTED BY: Nasser M. Abbasi
Reply to this discussion
Community posts can be styled and formatted using the Markdown syntax.
Reply Preview
Attachments
Remove
or Discard

Group Abstract Group Abstract