4th order DE, NDSolve no solution, why?
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg15686] 4th order DE, NDSolve no solution, why?
- From: "Doug Webb" <D_Webb at prodigy.net>
- Date: Sun, 31 Jan 1999 03:06:08 -0500 (EST)
- Organization: Prodigy Services, Inc
- Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com
Hello, I'm trying to solve a 4th order diferential equation with NDSolve, and I get the following error, anyone know why? The equation is that for buckling of a column: GoverningEqn = modulus*inertia*w''''[x] + P[x]*w''[x] == 0 with lower order equations to support it like so: Theta[x_] := -w'[x] M[x_] := -modulus*inertia*w''[x] V[x_] := -P[x]*w'[x] - modulus*inertia*w'''[x] where w[x] is the deflection, Theta[x] is the rotation, M[x] is the moment, and V[x] is the shear. I define the applied load P[x] as a simple constant in this case: P[x_] := 1 modulus and inertia are also defined as constants for this first simple case: inertia = 5 modulus = 100 and make for simplicity this time, a column that is Pi units long: L = Pi Now, using the boundary conditions for a pinned-pinned column of w[0] = w[L] = M[0] = M[L] = 0, I try to solve using the following command: soln = NDSolve[ {GoverningEqn, w[0] == 0, w[L] == 0, M[0] == 0, M[L] == 0}, w, {x, 0, L} ] I get the following errors: NDSolve::"unsol": "Not possible to initiate boundary value problem with the chasing method" NDSolve::"unsol": "Not possible to initiate boundary value problem with the chasing method" Why? What other method can I use? Everything I try with Method->"something" gives the same result, Runge-Kutta, Gear, etc. Anyone have any idea why I can't get a solution? DSolve runs, but returns an empty rule for the solution: {} Please, anyone that knows what I'm doing wrong, let me know. Thanks! Doug D_Webb at prodigy.net