Solving System of Second Order Ordinary Differential Equation in Matlab - matlab

Question

Introduction
I am using Matlab to simulate some dynamic systems through numerically solving systems of Second Order Ordinary Differential Equations using ODE45. I found a great tutorial from Mathworks (link for tutorial at end) on how to do this.
In the tutorial the system of equations is explicit in x and y as shown below:
x''=-D(y) * x' * sqrt(x'^2 + y'^2)
y''=-D(y) * y' * sqrt(x'^2 + y'^2) + g(y)
Both equations above have form y'' = f(x, x', y, y')
Question
However, I am coming across systems of equations where the variables can not be solved for explicitly as shown in the example. For example one of the systems has the following set of 3 second order ordinary differential equations:
y double prime equation
y'' - .5*L*(x''*sin(x) + x'^2*cos(x) + (k/m)*y - g = 0
x double prime equation
.33*L^2*x'' - .5*L*y''sin(x) - .33*L^2*C*cos(x) + .5*g*L*sin(x) = 0
A single prime is first derivative
A double prime is second derivative
L, g, m, k, and C are given parameters.
How can Matlab be used to numerically solve a set of second order ordinary differential equations where second order can not be explicitly solved for?
Thanks!

Answer 1

Your second system has the form
a11*x'' + a12*y'' = f1(x,y,x',y')
a21*x'' + a22*y'' = f2(x,y,x',y')
which you can solve as a linear system
[x'', y''] = A\f
or in this case explicitly using Cramer's rule
x'' = ( a22*f1 - a12*f2 ) / (a11*a22 - a12*a21)
y'' accordingly.
I would strongly recommend leaving the intermediate variables in the code to reduce chances for typing errors and avoid multiple computation of the same expressions.
Code could look like this (untested)
function dz = odefunc(t,z)
x=z(1); dx=z(2); y=z(3); dy=z(4);
A = [ [-.5*L*sin(x), 1] ; [.33*L^2, -0.5*L*sin(x)] ]
b = [ [dx^2*cos(x) + (k/m)*y-g]; [-.33*L^2*C*cos(x) + .5*g*L*sin(x)] ]
d2 = A\b
dz = [ dx, d2(1), dy, d2(2) ]
end

Answer 2

Yes your method is correct!
I post the following code below:
%Rotating Pendulum Sym Main
clc
clear all;
%Define parameters
global M K L g C;
M = 1;
K = 25.6;
L = 1;
C = 1;
g = 9.8;
% define initial values for theta, thetad, del, deld
e_0 = 1;
ed_0 = 0;
theta_0 = 0;
thetad_0 = .5;
initialValues = [e_0, ed_0, theta_0, thetad_0];
% Set a timespan
t_initial = 0;
t_final = 36;
dt = .01;
N = (t_final - t_initial)/dt;
timeSpan = linspace(t_final, t_initial, N);
% Run ode45 to get z (theta, thetad, del, deld)
[t, z] = ode45(#RotSpngHndl, timeSpan, initialValues);
%initialize variables
e = zeros(N,1);
ed = zeros(N,1);
theta = zeros(N,1);
thetad = zeros(N,1);
T = zeros(N,1);
V = zeros(N,1);
x = zeros(N,1);
y = zeros(N,1);
for i = 1:N
e(i) = z(i, 1);
ed(i) = z(i, 2);
theta(i) = z(i, 3);
thetad(i) = z(i, 4);
T(i) = .5*M*(ed(i)^2 + (1/3)*L^2*C*sin(theta(i)) + (1/3)*L^2*thetad(i)^2 - L*ed(i)*thetad(i)*sin(theta(i)));
V(i) = -M*g*(e(i) + .5*L*cos(theta(i)));
E(i) = T(i) + V(i);
end
figure(1)
plot(t, T,'r');
hold on;
plot(t, V,'b');
plot(t,E,'y');
title('Energy');
xlabel('time(sec)');
legend('Kinetic Energy', 'Potential Energy', 'Total Energy');
Here is function handle file for ode45:
function dz = RotSpngHndl(~, z)
% Define Global Parameters
global M K L g C
A = [1, -.5*L*sin(z(3));
-.5*L*sin(z(3)), (1/3)*L^2];
b = [.5*L*z(4)^2*cos(z(3)) - (K/M)*z(1) + g;
(1/3)*L^2*C*cos(z(3)) + .5*g*L*sin(z(3))];
X = A\b;
% return column vector [ed; edd; ed; edd]
dz = [z(2);
X(1);
z(4);
X(2)];