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Runge-Kutta 2nd Order Method For Ordinary Differential Equations
Runge-Kutta 2nd Order Method For Ordinary Differential Equations
03
Runge-Kutta 2nd Order Method for
Ordinary Differential Equations
1. understand the Runge-Kutta 2nd order method for ordinary differential equations and
how to use it to solve problems.
Example 1
Rewrite
dy
2 y 1.3e x , y 0 5
dx
in
dy
f ( x, y ), y (0) y 0 form.
dx
Solution
dy
2 y 1.3e x , y 0 5
dx
dy
1.3e x 2 y, y 0 5
dx
In this case
f x, y 1.3e x 2 y
08.03.1
08.03.2 Chapter 08.03
Example 2
Rewrite
dy
ey x 2 y 2 2 sin(3x ), y 0 5
dx
in
dy
f ( x, y ), y (0) y 0 form.
dx
Solution
dy
ey x 2 y 2 2 sin(3x ), y 0 5
dx
dy 2 sin(3 x) x 2 y 2
, y 0 5
dx ey
In this case
2 sin(3 x) x 2 y 2
f x, y
ey
1 1
y i f ( xi , y i ) xi 1 xi f ' ( xi , y i ) xi 1 xi f ' ' ( xi , y i ) xi 1 xi ... (2)
2 3
2! 3!
As you can see the first two terms of the Taylor series
yi 1 y i f xi , y i h
are Eulers method and hence can be considered to be the Runge-Kutta 1st order method.
The true error in the approximation is given by
f xi , y i 2 f xi , y i 3
Et h h ... (3)
2! 3!
So what would a 2nd order method formula look like. It would include one more term of the
Taylor series as follows.
1
y i 1 y i f xi , y i h f xi , y i h 2 (4)
2!
Let us take a generic example of a first order ordinary differential equation
Runge-Kutta 2nd Order Method 08.03.3
dy
e 2 x 3 y, y 0 5
dx
f x, y e 2 x 3 y
Now since y is a function of x,
f x, y f x, y dy
f x, y
x y dx
(5)
x
e 2 x 3 y
y
e 2 x
3y e 2 x
3y
2e 2 x ( 3) e 2 x 3 y
2 x
5e 9y
The 2nd order formula for the above example would be
1
y i 1 y i f xi , y i h f xi , y i h 2
2!
yi e 2 xi
3 yi h
1
2!
5e 2 xi 9 yi h 2
However, we already see the difficulty of having to find f x, y in the above method. What
Runge and Kutta did was write the 2nd order method as
y i 1 y i a1 k1 a 2 k 2 h (6)
where
k1 f x i , y i
k 2 f xi p1 h, yi q11 k1 h (7)
This form allows one to take advantage of the 2nd order method without having to calculate
f x, y .
So how do we find the unknowns a1 , a 2 , p1 and q11 . Without proof (see
Appendix for proof), equating Equation (4) and (6) , gives three equations.
a1 a 2 1
1
a 2 p1
2
1
a 2 q11
2
Since we have 3 equations and 4 unknowns, we can assume the value of one of the
unknowns. The other three will then be determined from the three equations. Generally the
value of a 2 is chosen to evaluate the other three constants. The three values generally used
1 2
for a 2 are , 1 and , and are known as Heuns Method, the midpoint method and
2 3
Ralstons method, respectively.
Heuns Method
1
Here a 2 is chosen, giving
2
1
a1
2
p1 1
08.03.4 Chapter 08.03
q11 1
resulting in
1 1
y i 1 y i k1 k 2 h (8)
2 2
where
k1 f x i , y i (9a)
k 2 f xi h, y i k1 h (9b)
This method is graphically explained in Figure 1.
y Slope f xi h, y i k1 h
Slope f xi , yi predicted
1
Average Slope f x i h , y i k1 h f x i , y i
2
yi
xi xi+1 x
Midpoint Method
Here a 2 1 is chosen, giving
a1 0
1
p1
2
1
q11
2
resulting in
y i 1 y i k 2 h (10)
where
k1 f x i , y i (11a)
1 1
k 2 f x i h, y i k 1 h (11b)
2 2
Ralstons Method
2
Here a 2 is chosen, giving
3
1
a1
3
Runge-Kutta 2nd Order Method 08.03.5
3
p1
4
3
q11
4
resulting in
1 2
y i 1 y i k1 k 2 h (12)
3 3
where
k1 f x i , y i (13a)
3 3
k 2 f xi h, y i k1 h (13b)
4 4
Example 3
A ball at 1200 K is allowed to cool down in air at an ambient temperature of 300 K.
Assuming heat is lost only due to radiation, the differential equation for the temperature of
the ball is given by
d
2.2067 10-12 ( 4 81 108 )
dt
where is in K and t in seconds. Find the temperature at t 480 seconds using Runge-
Kutta 2nd order method. Assume a step size of h 240 seconds.
Solution
d
2.2067 10 12 4 81 10 8
dt
f t , 2.2067 10 12 4 81 10 8
Per Heuns method given by Equations (8) and (9)
1 1
i 1 i k1 k 2 h
2 2
k1 f t i , i
k 2 f t i h, i k 1 h
i 0, t 0 0, 0 (0) 1200
k1 f t 0 , o
f 0,1200
2.2067 10 12 1200 4 81 10 8
4.5579
k 2 f t 0 h, 0 k1h
f 0 240,1200 4.5579 240
f 240,106.09
2.2067 10 12 106.09 4 81 10 8
0.017595
1 1
1 0 k1 k 2 h
2 2
08.03.6 Chapter 08.03
1 1
1200 4.5579 0.017595 240
2 2
1200 2.2702 240
655.16 K
i 1, t1 t 0 h 0 240 240, 1 655.16K
k1 f t1 , 1
f 240,655.16
2.2067 10 12 655.16 4 81 10 8
0.38869
k 2 f t1 h, 1 k1 h
f 240 240,655.16 0.38869 240
f 480,561.87
2.2067 10 12 561.87 4 81 10 8
0.20206
1 1
2 1 k1 k 2 h
2 2
1 1
655.16 0.38869 0.20206 240
2 2
655.16 0.29538 240
584.27 K
2 480 584.27 K
The results from Heuns method are compared with exact results in Figure 2.
The exact solution of the ordinary differential equation is given by the solution of a non-
linear equation as
300
0.92593 ln 1.8519 tan 1 0.0033333 0.22067 10 3 t 2.9282
300
The solution to this nonlinear equation at t 480 s is
(480) 647.57 K
Runge-Kutta 2nd Order Method 08.03.7
Using a smaller step size would increase the accuracy of the result as given in Table 1 and
Figure 3 below.
In Table 2, Eulers method and the Runge-Kutta 2nd order method results are shown as a
function of step size,
0.96239 1.0930
t 100
0.96239
13.571%
For the same problem, the results from Eulers method and the three Runge-Kutta methods
are given in Table 3.
Appendix A
How do we get the 2nd order Runge-Kutta method equations?
We wrote the 2nd order Runge-Kutta equations without proof to solve
dy
f x, y , y 0 y 0 (A.1)
dx
as
y i 1 yi a1k1 a 2 k 2 h (A.2)
where
k1 f x i , y i (A.3a)
k 2 f xi p1h, yi q11 k1h (A.3b)
and
a1 a 2 1
1
a2 p2
2
1
a 2 q11 (A.4)
2
The advantage of using 2nd order Runge-Kutta method equations is based on not having to
find the derivative of f x, y symbolically in the ordinary differential equation
So how do we get the above three Equations (A.4)? This is the question that is answered in
this Appendix.
where
h xi 1 xi
Since
08.03.10 Chapter 08.03
dy
f x, y
dx
we can rewrite the Taylor series as
f xi , y i h 2 O h 3
1
yi 1 y i f xi , y i h (A.6)
2!
Now
f x, y f x, y dy
f x, y . (A.7)
x y dx
Hence
1 f f 2
y i 1 y i f xi , y i h
2! x xi , yi
y xi , yi
dy
dx xi , yi
h O h 3
1 f 1 f
y i f xi , y i h
2 x xi , yi
h2
2 y xi , yi
f xi , yi h 2 O h 3 (A.8)
Now the term used in the Runge-Kutta 2nd order method for k 2 can be written as a Taylor
series of two variables with the first three terms as
k 2 f xi p1h, yi q11k1h
f f
f x i , y i p1 h
x
q11 k1 h
y
O h2
xi , y i xi , y i
(A.9)
Hence
yi1 yi a1k1 a2 k 2 h
f f
y i a1 f xi , y i a 2 f xi , y i p1 h
x xi , yi
q11 k1 h
y xi , yi
O h 2 h
f f
y i a1 a 2 hf x i , y i a 2 p1 h 2 a 2 q11 f xi , y i h 2 O h 3
x x , y i i
y x , y i i
(A.10)
Equating the terms in Equation (A.8) and Equation (A.10), we get
a1 a 2 1
1
a 2 p1
2
1
a 2 q11
2