ANALYSIS OF THE WAVE EQUATION ON THE UNIT DISK

COLIN EHR
Problem
Analyze the following IBVP for u(t, r, ) dened on [0, ) [0, 1] [, ]:
(1)
_

2
u
t
2
= u,
u(t, 1, ) = 0,
Nice at r = 0,
u(t, r, ) = u(t, r, );
du
dt
(t, r, ) =
du
dt
(t, r, ),
u(0, r, ) = u
0
(r, );
du
dt
(0, r, ) = v
0
(r, ).
Solution
Separation of Variables. Since u = u(t, r, ),
u =

2
u
r
2
+
1
r
u
r
+
1
r
2

2
u

2
.
Let u(t, r, ) = w(t)(r, ). Then the dierential equation becomes
d
2
dt
2
[w] =

2
r
2
[w] +
1
r

r
[w] +
1
r
2

2
[w]

d
2
w
dt
2
= w

r
2
+
w
r

r
+
w
r
2

2
1
w
d
2
w
dt
2
=
1

r
2
+
1
r

r
+
1
r
2

2
=
for some constant . Thus we have an ordinary dierential equation for w:
d
2
w
dt
2
= w.
But we know from the rotationally-symmetric case that < 0, so we can set
=
2
.
We also have a dierential equation for :
r
2

r
2
+r

r
+

2

2
+
2
r
2
= 0.
Perform a change of variables = r, so that r

r
=

r
=

, and
similarly r
2
2

r
2
=
2
2

2
. Then the equation becomes

2
+

+

2

2
+
2
= 0.
Date: April 17, 2013.
1
2 COLIN EHR
Now let (r, ) = v()(). Then

2

2

2
[v] +

[v] +

2

2
[v] +
2
[v] = 0

2
v

2
+
v

+
2
[v] = v

2
v

2
v

2
+

v
v

+
2
=
1

2
=
for some constant .
Now we have an ODE for ():

2
= .
Multiplying each side by and integrating gives us
_

d
2

d
2
d =
_

2
d

d
d

+
_

_
d
d
_
2
d =
_

2
d.
But by imposing periodic boundary conditions it follows that () = () and
d
d
() =
d
d
(). Thus the rst term vanishes and
_

_
d
d
_
2
d =
_

2
d.
Since each integral is always positive, > 0 and we can write = n
2
.
Now we can write our dierential equation for v as

2
v

2
+
v

+
2
v = n
2
v

2
v

2
+
v

+ (
2
n
2
)v = 0
which is the Bessel equation.
Hence we have the ODE
(2)
d
2
w
dt
2
+
2
w = 0,
and the BVPs
(3)
_

2
2
v

2
+
v

+ (
2
n
2
)v = 0,
v(1, ) = 0,
Nice at r = 0
and
(4)
_

2
+n
2
= 0
() = ();
d
d
() =
d
d
().
ANALYSIS OF THE WAVE EQUATION ON THE UNIT DISK 3
General Solution. Solutions of (2) are of the form
w(t) = cos(t), w(t) = sin(t)
and solutions to (4) are of the form
() = cos(n), () = sin(n).
Since (3) is Bessels equation, it is solved by the Bessels function of the rst
kind
J
n
() =

k=0
(1)
k
k!(n +k)!
_

2
_
n+2k
.
But = r, so v(r) = J
n
(r). Enforcing the boundary condition w(1) = 0 implies
J
n
() = 0, so that is a root of J
n
. Let the th root of J
n
be denoted
n,k
. Then
each solution to the IBVP has the form
u
n,k
(t, r, ) = (Acos(
n,k
t) +Bsin(
n,k
t))(C cos(n) +Dsin(n))J
n
(
n,k
r)
with constants A, B, C, D. Thus by the Superposition Principle the general solution
of the IBVP is
u(t, r, ) =

n=0,k=1
_
A
n,k
cos(
n,k
t) cos(n)
+B
n,k
cos(
n,k
t) sin(n)
+C
n,k
sin(
n,k
t) cos(n)
+D
n,k
sin(
n,k
t) sin(n)
_
J
n
(
n,k
r)
(5)
for constants A
n,k
, B
n,k
, C
n,k
, D
n,k
, k = 1, 2, 3, . . . , n = 0, 1, 2, . . . .
Solution in Terms of Initial Conditions. If we specify the initial shape of u,
that is, if u(0, r, ) = u
0
(r, ) for a known funcion u
0
, then at t = 0 the general
solution becomes
u
0
(r, ) = u(0, r, ) =

n=0,k=1
A
n,k
cos(n)J
n
(
n,k
r) +B
n,k
sin(n)J
n
(
n,k
r).
Let m and l be real constants, then multiply each side by r cos(m)J
n
(
m,l
r) and
integrate over the domains of r and so that the left side becomes
_
1
0
_

u
0
(r, ) cos(m)J
n
(
m,l
r)rddr
and the right hand side becomes
_
1
0
_

_
r cos(m)J
n
(
m,l
r)

n=0,k=1
A
n,k
cos(n)J
n
(
n,k
r)
+r cos(m)J
n
(
m,l
r)

n=0,k=1
B
n,k
sin(n)J
n
(
n,k
r)

ddr.
But sin(x) and cos(x) are orthogonal for all x; that is,
_
L
L
sin(x) cos(x)dx = 0
for all L. Similarly, if m = n then cos(m) and cos(n) are orthogonal, and
_
1
0
J
n
(
n,k
r)J
n
(
n,l
r)rdr = 0 if k = l. Thus the previous expression is simply
_
1
0
_

A
n,k
cos
2
(n)J
2
n
(
n,k
r)rddr.
4 COLIN EHR
We know that
_
1
0
J
2
n
(
n,k
r)rdr = J
2
n+1
(
n,k
)/2. (Schaums 27.96) Thus
_
1
0
_

u
0
(r, ) cos(n)J
n
(
n,k
r)r d dr = A
n,k
J
2
n+1
(
n,k
)
2
cos(n)
2
and we have an expression for the coecient
A
n,k
=
2
J
2
n+1
(
n,k
)cos(n)
2
_
1
0
_

u
0
(r, ) cos(n)J
n
(
n,k
r)r d dr.
The expression for B
n,k
follows from this argument:
B
n,k
=
2
J
2
n+1
(
n,k
)sin(n)
2
_
1
0
_

u
0
(r, ) sin(n)J
n
(
n,k
r)r d dr.
To get expressions for the other coecients, use the other initial condition
u
t
(0, r, ) = v
0
(r, ) and notice that
v
0
(r, ) =

n=0,k=1
C
n,k
cos(n)J
n
(
n,k
r) +D
n,k
sin(n)J
n
(
n,k
r).
(Note that C
n,k
and D
n,k
have absorbed a
n,k
.) Thus the expressions for the
coecients directly follow:
C
n,k
=
2
J
2
n+1
(
n,k
)cos(n)
2
_
1
0
_

v
0
(r, ) cos(n)J
n
(
n,k
r)r d dr,
D
n,k
=
2
J
2
n+1
(
n,k
)sin(n)
2
_
1
0
_

v
0
(r, ) sin(n)J
n
(
n,k
r)r d dr.
Analysis of the Individual Nodes. Each solution to this IBVP is uniquely
determined by n and k:
u
n,k
(t, r, ) =
_
A
n,k
cos(
n,k
t) cos(n)
+B
n,k
cos(
n,k
t) sin(n)
+C
n,k
sin(
n,k
t) cos(n)
+D
n,k
sin(
n,k
t) sin(n)
_
J
n
(
n,k
r).
(6)
We immediately notice the following from (6):
The n = 0 case reduces to the rotationally symmetric case;
n corresponds to the number of oscillations with respect to ;
k corresponds to the number of oscillations with respect to r.
Thus each mode has n diameters along which there is reectional symmetry. We
can see the these traits explicitly by graphing each mode.
But what exactly are we graphing? Notice that at t = 0 the equation becomes
u
n,k
(t, r, ) =
_
A
n,k
cos(n) +B
n,k
sin(n)
_
J
n
(
n,k
r)
=
_
A
2
n,k
+B
2
n,k
sin(n +)
where
=
_

_
arcsin
_
B
n,k

A
2
n,k
+B
2
n,k
_
if A
n,k
0
arcsin
_
B
n,k

A
2
n,k
+B
2
n,k
_
if A
n,k
< 0.
ANALYSIS OF THE WAVE EQUATION ON THE UNIT DISK 5
u
0,1
u
0,2
u
0,3
u
1,1
u
1,2
u
1,3
u
2,1
u
2,2
u
2,3
Figure 1. u
n,k
plotted for dierent values of n and k.
If = /2, then it is implied that A
n,k
= 0, B
n,k
= 1, and
u
n,k
(0, r, ) = sin(n +

2
)J
n
(
n,k
r) = cos(n)J
n
(
n,k
r).
Using this equation we can visualize the dierent modes of u
n,k
, as seen in Figure
1.