Applying boundary conditions when solving the Wave Equation with the Laplace transform

260 Views Asked by At

As the title says, I'm trying to solve the wave equation with the Laplace transform (withe respect to t) so

$$u_{tt}-c^{2}u_{xx}=0$$

with the conditions $u(x,0)=u_{t}(x,0)=0$ and $u_{t}(0,t)=g(t)$ where $G(p)=L[g]$.

I can find the transforms of the differentials and substitute in the first two conditions to reach

$$p^{2}U(x,p)-c^{2}\frac{\partial^{2}U}{\partial x^{2}}=0$$

which I can then solve. I then remove the $A(p)e^{\frac{px}{c}}$ term from consideration because we do not wish for our solution to diverge as $x \to \infty$ which leaves:

$$U(x,p)=B(p)e^{\frac{-px}{c}}$$

I need to apply the last condition to this however I don't know how to do so?

1

There are 1 best solutions below

4
On BEST ANSWER

You have $u_t(0,t)=g(t)$, so this means $$L[u_t](0,p)\color{red}=pL[u](0,p)-u(0,0)=L[g](p)\\\implies pU(0,p)-0=G(p)\\\implies U(x,p)=G(p)\frac{e^{-px/c}}p$$ Given a function $g(t)$, you can then invert this to get a solution in terms of $x$ and $t$. This can be done using the convolution theorem as follows.

Note that the Laplace transform of the Heaviside Step function is $$L[\theta(t)]=\frac1p$$This means that the Laplace transform of $\theta[at-1]$ for some positive constant $a$ is $$L[\theta(at-1)]=\frac1p e^{-p/a}$$ You can use this result to compute the inverse Laplace transform of the other term in your expression of $U$. Denote this function $f(t)$. Then convolution theorem tells us $$L[f(t)*g(t)]=L[f(t)]L[g(t)]$$So $$u(x,t)=g(t)*f(t)$$The fact that there is a Heaviside function involved will likely alter the limits to give what you have there.


The $\color{red}{\text{red}}$ step was done using the property that $$L[f'(t)]=pL[f(t)]-f(0)$$