Mathcad Tutorial on Solution of Ordinary Differential Equations

Vibration of a Mass-Spring-Damper System

d2 d
m x  c x  k x = f ( t) = sin ( 5 t)
2
dt dt

tf  40 m  1 c  0.3 k  4 ω  5

Given

d2 d
m x ( t)  c x ( t)  k x ( t) = sin ( ω t)
2
dt dt

x ( 0) = 0.1 x' ( 0) = 0.05

x  Odesolve t tf  
0.2

0.1

x ( t) 0

 0.1

 0.2
0 10 20 30 40
t
Other Solvers can as well be used such as

Adams, rkfixed, Rkadapt, Bulstoer, Radau

ODEs should be first order
d
Let x = y1 x ( t) = y2
dt
d
y1 ( t) = y2
dt

 
d 1
y2 ( t) =  sin ( ω t)  c y2 ( t)  k y1 ( t)
dt m

Middle East Technical University, METU, Ankara/TURKEY 1 Dr. Ender CİĞEROĞLU

 Mathcad Tutorial on Solution of Ordinary Differential Equations

0.1   x ( 0) = y1 ( 0) 
Initial Conditions IC     
 0.05   x' ( 0) = y2 ( 0) 
 
 y1 
Set of ODEs 
D ( t y)  1 
   sin ( ω t)  c y1  k y0 
m 
ts  0 tf  40 NN  500 The integer number of discretization intervals
(NN-1) used to interpolate the solution function.


S  Adams IC ts tf NN D 
X  S1 T  S0 X'  S2 t  ts ts  0.01  tf

0.2

0.1

X
0
x ( t)

 0.1

 0.2
0 10 20 30 40
T t

0.2

0.1

X
0
x ( t)

 0.1

 0.2
0 1 2 3 4 5
T t

Middle East Technical University, METU, Ankara/TURKEY 2 Dr. Ender CİĞEROĞLU

 Mathcad Tutorial on Solution of Ordinary Differential Equations

For Stiff Problems the Following Solvers can be Used

BDF, Radau, Stiffb, Stiffr

AdamsBDF : is a hybrid solver. It uses Adams for non-stiff problems and BDF for
stiff problems. It automatically determines whether a system is stiff or
non-stiff.

d f ( t)  
f ( t) = k  u ( t)   atanh 
d 1
Friction element given below can be represented by 
dt  dt α  μ N  
where f(t) is the friction force and u(t) is the input motion (x) to the friction element.

NN  1000

k  103 μ  1 N  600 u ( t)  1 sin ( t) α  104 Nn  103

d π f 
F ( t f )  k  u ( t)   tan  
1
 t0  0 f0  0 t1  15
 dt α  2 μ N  
d π f 
D ( t f )  k  u ( t)   tan  
1
 IC  0 ts  0 tf  15
 dt α  2 μ N  

S  rkfixed IC ts tf NN D  
S2  BDF IC ts tf NN D 
Y1  S1 T1  S0 Y2  S21 T2  S20

Middle East Technical University, METU, Ankara/TURKEY 3 Dr. Ender CİĞEROĞLU

 Mathcad Tutorial on Solution of Ordinary Differential Equations

3
110
Non-stiff Solver
Stiff Solver
Force

0 IC

 1103
0 5 10 15

Time

3
110
Non-stiff Solver
Stiff Solver
Force

0 IC

3
 110
1  0.5 0 0.5 1

Displacement
As can be seen from the solutions, the non-stiff solver "rkfixed" cannot detect the stick slip
transitions correctly. Therefore, one should use a stiff solver such as "BDF" in order to
obtain the correct solution of a stiff problem. For stiff problems, non-stiff solvers require
very small time steps which are not practical in most situations.

Middle East Technical University, METU, Ankara/TURKEY 4 Dr. Ender CİĞEROĞLU