How to solve the following second order ODE?

71 Views Asked by At

I have tried to solve the following problem and got a solution in terms of the complementary error function, but it doesn't satisfy the first boundary condition.

$$\frac{d^2 y(x)}{dx^2} - a y(x) = b \frac{dg(x)}{dx}$$

where

$$g(x) = \delta(x - c), \qquad \lim_{x\to\infty} {y(x)} = 0, \qquad y'(0)=0, \qquad a>0$$

1

There are 1 best solutions below

8
On

Rephrasing,

$$\ddot x (t) - a \, x (t) = b \, \dot\delta (t - c)$$

Taking the Laplace transform of both sides,

$$\big( s^2 - a \big) \, \hat x (s) = \underbrace{\dot x_0}_{=0} + x_0 s + b \,s \, e^{-cs} = x_0 s + b \,s \, e^{-cs}$$

and, thus,

$$\hat x (s) = x_0 \left(\frac{s}{s^2 - a}\right) + b \left(\frac{s}{s^2 - a} \right) e^{-cs}$$

Taking the inverse Laplace transform,

$$x (t) = \begin{cases} x_0 \cosh \big(\sqrt{a} \, t \big) & \text{ if } 0 \le t \le c^-\\\\ x_0 \cosh \big(\sqrt{a} \, t \big) + b \cosh \big( \sqrt{a} \, (t-c) \big) & \text{ if } t \ge c^+\end{cases}$$

Note that $x$ is discontinuous, as it "jumps" $b$ at time $t=c$.