OOF2: The Manual

Name

2nd order Runge-Kutta (RK2) — Second order Runge-Kutta time stepping.

Synopsis

RK2()

Details

Description

RK2 is a TimeStepper that implements the second order Runge-Kutta method for solving ordinary differential equations. The error on each step is of order (Δt)3 . RK2 is also referred to as the midpoint method.

Given a vector ϕn of unknowns (i.e. Field values in OOF2) at time tn , and the first order differential equation

dϕdt=f(ϕ,t)
(6.156)

the second order Runge-Kutta estimate for ϕn+1 is given by

k1 =Δtf(ϕn,tn)
k2 =Δtf(ϕn+k12,tn+Δt2)
ϕn+1 =ϕn+k2
(6.157)

where Δt=tn+1tn .

RK2 can be applied to second order equations by using equation (6.142).

Because the method is explicit (ϕn+1 doesn't appear as an argument to f ), equation (6.157) doesn't require a nonlinear solver even if f is nonlinear.

See Also