Numerical solution of systems of nonlinear second-order differential equations with variable coefficients by the one-step Galerkin method

A nonlinear oscillatory system described by ordinary differential equations with variable coefficients is considered, in which terms that are linearly dependent on coordinates, velocities and accelerations are explicitly distinguished; nonlinear terms are written as implicit functions of these variables. For the numerical solution of the initial problem described by such a system of differential equations, the one-step Galerkin method is used. At the integration step, unknown functions are represented as a sum of linear functions satisfying the initial conditions and several given correction functions in the form of polynomials of the second and higher degrees with unknown coefficients. The differential equations at the step are satisfied approximately by the Galerkin method on a system of corrective functions. Algebraic equations with nonlinear terms are obtained, which are solved by iteration at each step. From the solution at the end of each step, the initial conditions for the next step are determined.
The corrective functions are taken the same for all steps. In general, 4 or 5 correction functions are used for calculations over long time intervals: in the first set — basic power functions from the 2nd to the 4th or 5th degrees; in the second set — orthogonal power polynomials formed from basic functions; in the third set — special linear-independent polynomials with finite conditions that simplify the “docking” of solutions in the following steps.
Using two examples of calculating nonlinear oscillations of systems with one and two degrees of freedom, numerical studies of the accuracy of the numerical solution of initial problems at various time intervals using the Galerkin method using the specified sets of power-law correction functions are performed. The results obtained by the Galerkin method and the Adams and Runge –Kutta methods of the fourth order are compared. It is shown that the Galerkin method can obtain reliable results at significantly longer time intervals than the Adams and Runge – Kutta methods.