Brief Explanation of Integration Schemes

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Brief Explanation of Integration Schemes

John T. Foster

Explicit Integration
Lets use a simple example to frame our investigation of explicit integration. Take a look
at Equation 1
x = f (x, t)
(1)
If we discretize t as we would in any numerical scheme t = t0 , t0 + t, t0 + 2t, . . . , t0 + nt
we can transform Equation 1 into the discrete time equivalent shown in Equation 2.
x n = f (xn , tn )

(2)

Now lets approximate the derivative at a given step n as follows.


x n =

(xn+1 xn )
t

(3)

Now substituting Equation 3 into Equation 1 we have the following.


(xn+1 xn )
= f (tn , xn )
t
xn+1 = xn + tf (tn , xn )

(4)

Using this formulation we can explicitly write down the solution for each consecutive step
in time given initial conditions. (i.e. x0 = c)
x1 = tf (t0 , c) + c
x2 = tf (t1 , x1 ) + x1
..
.

The particular method is known as Eulers method which is the simplest explicit integration
scheme. It allows for the calculation of xn+1 in terms of xn in a straightforward manner
at each time step, but is sensitive to stability issues (like all explicit methods) which will
be discussed next.
1

Stability of Explicit Integration


Lets attempt to solve the equation below using Eulers method.
x = x(t)

(5)

If we assume x(0) = c we know Equation 5 has the exact solution as follows


x(t) = cet

(6)

We also know that Equation 5 is only bounded (stable) when <() 0. Lets keep this in
mind as we investigate the stability of the numerical method. Discretize Equation 5 and
plug into Eulers formula.
xn+1 = txn + xn
= (1 + t)xn
= (1 + t)2 xn1
..
.
= (1 + t)n+1 x0

(7)

Equation 7 shows us that as n increases the only way xn+1 will not grow indefinitely is for
the following to hold true.
|1 + t| 1
(8)
Solving Equation 8 shows us that we must choose at time step that satisfies Equation 9
for the solution to be stable.
2
t
(9)
||
Therefore, even though the calculation of xn+1 at each step is simple in an explicit scheme
the time step must be small enough to ensure stability.

Implicit Integration
We will now use a Backward Euler method to demonstrate an implicit integration scheme.
We will only make a slight change to how we approximate the derivative.
x n =

(xn xn1 )
t

Substitute Equation 10 into Equation 2


(xn xn1 )
= f (xn , tn )
t
xn = tf (xn , tn ) + xn1
2

(10)

If we reindex n, we have the equation.


xn+1 = tf (xn+1 , tn+1 ) + xn

(11)

Since xn+1 appears on both sides of the Equation 11 it is said to be implicit in xn+1 .
This sometimes requires unique solution techniques to solve for xn+1 at each time step. So
each time step is computationally more expensive than an explicit method, but implicit
methods have advantages in stability.

Stability of Implicit Integration


Discretizing Equation 5 and plugging into the Backward Euler equation we have the following.
xn+1 = txn+1 + xn
xn+1 txn+1 = xn
(1 t)xn+1 = xn
xn
1 t
xn1
=
(1 t)2

xn+1 =

x0
(1 t)n+1

(12)

Equation 12 is stable as long as the following inequality holds true.


|1 t| 1

(13)

Because of the stability criterion on that requires <() 0, Equation 13 is always


true. This is said to be unconditionally stable. Herein lies the advantages of implicit
schemes.

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