Re: Help with ODE solver

[John W. Eaton]

On 12-Sep-2002, Marco Antoniotti <address@hidden> wrote:

| Pardon my obtuseness.  Do you mean that I will have to have a big 'if'
| in the RHS function like
| 
|    if (t < t_crit_1)
|       ...
|    elseif (t_crit_1 <= t && t < t_crit_2)
|       ...
|    elseif (t > t_crit_k)
|       ...
|    end
|    
| and call
| 
|     result = lsdot('RHS', intial_conditions, timesteps, [t_crit_1; t_crit_2 
... t_crit_k]);
| 
| ?

Yes, that would be one way, but then you would need to make all those
t_crit_N values global.  It might make more sense to use a vector of
values and a loop in your RHS function.  Or, you could vectorize it
depending on how your time-dependent parameter values are stored.
Perhaps someone else on the list can help you with the programming
details.

My reason for responding in this thread was to point out that using
tcrit with lsode is important if you have a discontinuity in the
derivative due to changing parameter values.  Simply breaking up the
integration into intervals may not be sufficient because if you don't
specify tcrit, lsode may integrate past your final time point and
interpolate backward to find the final state values.  If you have a
discontinuity there, then the integrator may still have trouble,
respond by reducing the step size to zero, and eventually fail.

BTW, does anyone know if Matlab's ODE solvers have a similar
capability?

jwe



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