How to properly solve a system of four first order ODEs
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2Lindsay2
on 26 Jul 2018
Commented: David Goodmanson
on 29 Jul 2018
(Just for some background) Using the equations for the velocity of point vortices in a fluid, you obtain 2*N first order ODEs that describe the position. I'm trying to get the solution of the positions for just 2 point vortices to start off with, but can't see my error, but the result is in fact wrong right now. Any help would be awesome!
code is below, as well as the formula I am using
![](https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/uploaded_files/192600/image.jpeg)
if true
%gamma is the strength of the vortices
gamma1 = 2;
gamma2 = 1;
%y1 and y2 become x(1) and x(2)
%x1 and x2 become x(3) and x(4)
f = @(t,x) [gamma2/2/pi*(-(x(1)-x(2)) / ((x(3)-x(4))^2 + (x(1)-x(2))^2));
gamma1/2/pi*(-(x(2)-x(1)) / ((x(4)-x(3))^2 + (x(2)-x(1))^2));
gamma2/2/pi*((x(3)-x(4)) / ((x(3)-x(4))^2 + (x(1)-x(2))^2));
gamma1/2/pi*((x(4)-x(3)) / ((x(4)-x(3))^2 + (x(2)-x(1))^2))];
%Initial conditions are the initial positions
[t,x] = ode45(f, [0 10], [3 1 3 1]);
subplot(1,2,1)
plot(x(:,3),x(:,1))
xlabel("x1")
ylabel("y1")
subplot(1,2,2)
plot(x(:,4),x(:,2))
xlabel("x2")
ylabel("y2")
end
7 Comments
Star Strider
on 28 Jul 2018
Please copy and paste your entire ODE function code and your calling script with the ode45 call, including the initial conditions. Also include all constants you may use.
What should the figure look like?
Accepted Answer
David Goodmanson
on 28 Jul 2018
Hi 2L2,
I don't think you are doing yourself any favors with the notation
%y1 and y2 become x(1) and x(2)
%x1 and x2 become x(3) and x(4)
In your function, try swapping the first two rows with the second two rows, to obtain
f = @(t,x) [gamma2/2/pi*((x(3)-x(4)) / ((x(3)-x(4))^2 + (x(1)-x(2))^2));
gamma1/2/pi*((x(4)-x(3)) / ((x(4)-x(3))^2 + (x(2)-x(1))^2));
gamma2/2/pi*(-(x(1)-x(2)) / ((x(3)-x(4))^2 + (x(1)-x(2))^2));
gamma1/2/pi*(-(x(2)-x(1)) / ((x(4)-x(3))^2 + (x(2)-x(1))^2));];
%Initial conditions are the initial positions
[t,x] = ode45(f, [0 100], [3 1 3 1]);
Running the final time out to 100 shows each pair going almost all the way around a circle.
2 Comments
David Goodmanson
on 29 Jul 2018
That's because your code did not correctly represent the formulas, and the corrected code happens to be the same as swapping the rows in the code you had.
The formulas don't say so, but u is a vector of x velocities v is a vector y velocities. Your basic setup has a four element vector [y1; y2; x1; x2] so the corresponding velocity vector is [vel_y1; vel_y2; vel_x1; vel_x2]; in terms of the formulas that is [v1; v2; u1; u2]. If you write new code with this starting point, it's the same as swapping the rows in what you had.
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