High-order compact difference methods for solving two-dimensional nonlinear wave equations

Abstract

Nonlinear wave equations are widely used in many areas of science and engineering. This paper proposes two high-order compact (HOC) difference schemes with convergence orders of $ O\left({{\tau ^4} + h_x^4 + h_y^4} \right) $ that can be used to solve nonlinear wave equations. The first scheme is a nonlinear compact difference scheme with three temporal levels. After calculating the second-order spatial derivatives of the previous time level using the Padé scheme, numerical solutions of the next time level are obtained through repeated iterations. The second scheme is a three-level linearized compact difference scheme. Unlike the first scheme, iterations are not required and it obtains numerical solutions through an explicit calculation. The two proposed schemes are applied to solutions of the coupled sine-Gordon equations. Finally, some numerical experiments are presented to confirm the effectiveness and accuracy of the proposed schemes.

Keywords

• nonlinear wave equation
• nonlinear compact difference scheme
• three-level linearized compact difference scheme
• coupled sine-gordon equations