A variant of the discrete gradient method for the solution of the semilinear wave equation under different boundary conditions

Abstract

In this paper, energy-preserving schemes based upon the discrete gradient are used to numerically solve the semilinear wave equation under periodic boundary conditions, Dirichlet boundary conditions and Neumann boundary conditions. Both the integral form and the evolutionary behaviour of the energy depend on the associated boundary conditions. The wave equations are semi-discretized in different manners for different boundary conditions such that the Hamiltonian functions of the resulting semi-discrete Hamiltonian systems are the discrete analogue of the original energy. Furthermore, the Hamiltonian functions of the resulting semi-discrete systems have similar evolutionary behaviours as the original energy. It is noted that the semi-discrete system exhibits an oscillatory structure. Subsequently, the semi-discrete approximation of the energy evolution as well as the oscillatory structure is passed to the fully-discrete problem by applying extended discrete gradient formula in the temporal direction. Numerical experiments are carried out to show the effectiveness of the new schemes.