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A numerical solution of the Lax’s 7th-order KdV equation by pseudospectral

method and Darvishi’s preconditioning

Article · January 2007

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Int. J. Contemp. Math. Sciences, Vol. 2, 2007, no. 22, 1097 - 1106

A Numerical Solution of the Lax’s 7th -order

KdV Equation by Pseudospectral Method
and Darvishi’s Preconditioning
M. T. Darvishia,∗ , S. Kheybaria and F. Khanib

a
Department of Mathematics, Razi University
Kermanshah 67149, Iran

b
Department of Mathematics, Ilam University
P. O. Box 69315516, Ilam, Iran

Abstract
In this paper, we solve the Lax’s seventh-order Korteweg-de Vires
(KdV) equation by pseudospectral method. To enhance the accuracy in
matrix vector multiplication method we use Darvishi’s preconditioning.
We compare the numerical results with exact solution of the equation.
They are in a good agreement with each other because absolute errors
are very small.

Mathematics Subject Classification: 65N55

Keywords: Lax’s seventh-order KdV equation; Pseudospectral method;

Darvishi’s preconditioning

1 Introduction
The Lax’s seventh-order KdV equation is taken as [14]

ut +(35u4 +70(u2uxx +uu2x )+7(2uuxxxx +3u2xx +4ux uxxx)+uxxxxxx )x = 0. (1)

Equation (1) is a nonlinear problem. The study of nonlinear problems is

of crucial importance in mathematics and physics. Many authors had paid
attention to study the solution of nonlinear equations using different schemes.
Among these methods, we can point to Backlund transformation [1], inverse
scattering scheme [10], the tanh-function [13], Hirota’s bilinear method [12] and
the homogeneous method [18]. Fan [9] described an extended tanh-function
method and symbolic computation to solve the new coupled modified KdV
1098 M. T. Darvishi, S. Kheybari and F. Khani

equations. Soliman [15] by means of variational iteration method solved the

Lax’s seventh-order KdV equation.
The aim of this study is to solve the Lax’s seventh-order KdV equation
with known initial and boundary conditions by pseudospectral method using
Darvishi’s preconditioning.

2 Pseudospectral method
We can approximate the arbitrary function f (x) by polynomials in x. However,
it is well known that the Lagrange interpolation polynomial based on equally
spaced points does not give a satisfactory approximation to general smooth
f . In fact, it converges for analytic functions with poles far enough from the
interval of interpolation. This poor behavior of polynomial interpolation can
be avoided for smoothly differentiable functions by removing the restriction
to equally spaced collocation points. Good results are obtained by relating
the collocation points to the structure of classical orthogonal polynomials, like
Chebyshev and Legendre polynomials. In the most common pseudospectral
Chebyshev method, the interpolation points in the interval [−1, 1] are the
Chebyshev-Gauss-Lobatto collocation points xj = cos( jπ N
) for j = 0, · · · , N,
which are the extreme of the Nth order Chebyshev polynomials TN (x) =
cos(Ncos−1 x). In order to construct the interpolant of f (x) at the point x the
following polynomials are defined

(−1)j+1 (1 − x2 )TN (x)

gj (x) = , j = 0, · · · , N, (2)
cj N 2 (x − xj )

where c0 = cN = 2 and cj = 1 for j = 1, 2, . . . , N − 1. The interpolation

polynomial, PN (x), to f (x) is given by


N
PN (x) = f (xj )gj (x). (3)
j=0

Then to obtain a pseudospectral approximation we have to express the deriva-

tives of PN (x) in terms of f (x) at collocation points xj . This can be done by
differentiating (3), that is

dr PN (x)  N
(r)
r
= f (xj )gj (x), (4)
dx j=0

so that
dr PN (xk )  N
(r)
= f (xj )dkj , (5)
dxr j=0
Numerical solution of the Lax’s 7th -order KdV equation 1099

where
(r) (r)
dkj = gj (xk ), (6)
are the elements of differentiation matrix Dr . The elements of Dr can be
obtained analytically. For example if r = 1 and j, k = 0, · · · , N elements of D
are [11]
⎧ j+k
⎪ (−1)
⎪
⎪ dkj = cckj (xk −xj )
, k = j
⎪
⎪
⎨ 1 xk
dkk = − 2 (1−x2 ) , k =  0, N
k (7)
⎪
⎪
2
d00 = 2N6 +1 ,
⎪
⎪
⎪
⎩ 2
dN N = − 2N 6 +1 .
One of the basic steps in pseudospectral methods involves finding an approx-
imation for the differential operator in terms of the grid point values of uN .
The derivative of u(x) at collocation points xj can be computed using the
matrix-vector multiplication method.

2.1 Matrix-Vector multiplication method

If u = {u(xi )} is the vector consisting of values of u(x) at the N +1 collocation
points and u = {u(xi )} consists of values of the derivative at the collocation
points, then the collocation derivative matrix D is the matrix mapping u → u .
Two matrix multiplications yield u , where u is the vector containing the sec-
ond derivatives evaluated at the collocation points. More efficiently, the matrix
D 2 = D2 maps u → u , and so on. Collocation matrix methods are asymptot-
ically less efficient than the Chebyshev transform method (see [16]), because it
needs O(N 2 ) operations. It can be shown that the Chebyshev derivative, when
computing the derivative using the matrix vector multiplication method, is a
rather ill-conditioned operator, and inaccuracies in the function can be magni-
fied by as much as O(N 4 ) where N is the number of collocation points. Hence
attempts have been made to improve the method. These studies have concen-
trated on the problem of the roundoff error in Chebyshev collocation methods
and various algorithms have been suggested to reduce it. The best result for
the matrix vector multiplication algorithm managed to reduce the roundoff
error from O(N 4 ε) to O(N 3 ε), where ε is the machine precision [7, 8].
Some researchers have studied the problem of reducing roundoff errors in
Chebyshev collocation derivative methods. Baltensperger and Trummer [3]
demonstrated that naive algorithms for computing these matrices suffer from
severe loss of accuracy due to roundoff errors. Breuer and Everson [5] intro-
duced a preconditioning to reduce roundoff error by making the value of the
function on the boundaries vanish. Tang and Trummer [17] used trigonometric
identities and a flipping trick to reduce roundoff errors. A different approach
was suggested in [2, 4].
1100 M. T. Darvishi, S. Kheybari and F. Khani

Don and Solomonoff attempted to reduce the roundoff error using trigono-
metric identities for rewriting components of the derivative matrix as follows
[7]:
⎧ j+k
(−1)
⎪
⎪
⎪ dkj = − 12 cckj sin[ π (k+j)] π
sin[ 2N (k−j)]
, k = j,
⎪
⎪ 2N
⎨ 1
dkk = − 2 sin2 ( kπ ) ,
xk
k = 0, N,
⎪ 2
N (8)
⎪
⎪
⎪ d00 = 2N6 +1 ,
⎪
⎩ 2
dN N = − 2N6 +1 ·
Formula (8), which avoids the differencing of nearly equal numbers was intro-
duced to reduce this source of error from O(N 4 ε) to O(N 3 ε).
Preconditioning. From (8) for k = j we have

ck 1
|dkj | = (9)
2cj | sin((k + j) 2N ) sin((k − j) 2N
π π
)|

since the value of sin((k − j) 2N

π
) is near zero when k is near j, hence this causes
|dkj | to become large for k near j. This means that the entries of derivative
matrix D with large absolute values are on a band near the main diagonal.
That is, large values of |dkj | correspond to values of k near j. Therefore, the
matrix vector multiplication method causes large roundoff errors. In [6], to
reduce roundoff error in the kth node, Darvishi and Ghoreishi defined hk (x)
as follows:
hk (x) = u(x) − u(xk ), (10)
where xk = cos( kπ
N
). We can interpolate hk (x) as


N
hk (x) = gj (x)hk (xj ) (11)
j=0

hence from (4)-(6) the derivative of hk at xk is


N
hk (xk ) = dkj hk (xj ) (12)
j=0

or as hk = u we have


N
u(xk ) = dkj (u(xj ) − u(xk )). (13)
j=0
j=k

Therefore, using this preconditioning, we can vanish the influence of large

values of |dkj |, that is |dkk | for all k in the matrix vector multiplication method.
Numerical solution of the Lax’s 7th -order KdV equation 1101

3 Governing equation
The Lax’s seventh-order equation is defined as
ut + (35u4 + 70(u2uxx + uu2x ) + 7(2uuxxxx + 3u2xx + 4ux uxxx ) + uxxxxxx )x = 0,
a ≤ x ≤ b ,t ≥ 0
(14)
where a and b are real numbers. The initial and boundary conditions of equa-
tion (14) are taken as

u(x, 0) = 2k 2 sech2 (kx) = H(x) (15)

u(a, t) = 2k 2 sech2 (k(a − 64k 6 t)) = g1 (t) (16)

and
u(b, t) = 2k 2 sech2 (k(b − 64k 6 t)) = g2 (t). (17)
The exact solution of equation (14) is taken as

u(x, t) = 2k 2 sech2 (k(x − 64k 6 t)), (18)

where k is a known constant [15]. To solve equation (14) by pseudospectral

method we discretize the equation in space
∂u
∂t
= −(70D 3 u(D 2 u + u2 ) + 140uDu(2D 2u + u2 )+
(19)
42DuD 4u + 70(Du)3 + 14uD 5u + D 7 u)

where D is the differentiation matrix and if Dr is the matrix mapping u → u(r) ,

then we have Dr = D r , [11]. From equation (19) in the kth collocation point
we have

 (3)  (2)2
∂u
∂t
= −(70 N
(xk , t) N
j=0 dkj u(xj , t){ j=0 dkj u(xj , t) + u (xk , t)}
N N (2)
+140u(xk , t) j=0 dkj u(xj , t){2 j=0 dkj u(xj , t) + u2 (xk , t)}
 N (4) N 3
(20)
+42 Nj=0 dkj u(xj , t) j=0 dkj u(xj , t) + 70{ j=0 dkj u(xj , t)}
 (5) N (7)
+14u(xk , t) Nj=0 dkj u(xj , t) + j=0 dkj u(xj , t))

(r)
where D r = (dkj ) for r = 2, 3, . . . , 7 and D = D1 . For simplicity we set
u(xk , t) = vk (t), k = 0, . . . , N. Hence vk (t) is a function of t, where v0 (t) and
vN (t) are boundary functions, namely g1 (t) and g2 (t). Equation (20) can be
rewritten as
 (3)  (2)
vk (t) = −(70 N N 2
j=0 dkj vj (t){ j=0 dkj vj (t) + vk (t)} + 140vk (t)
N N (2) 2 N
j=0 dkj vj (t){2 j=0 dkj vj (t) + vk (t)} + 42 j=0 dkj vj (t)
N (4) N 3 N (5) (21)
j=0 dkj vj (t) + 70{ j=0 dkj vj (t)} + 14vk (t) j=0 dkj vj (t)
 (7)
+ N j=0 dkj vj (t)), k = 1, . . . , N − 1
1102 M. T. Darvishi, S. Kheybari and F. Khani

Preconditioned system. The kth row of the preconditioned system of equation

(20) by Darvishi’s preconditioning is as follows

 −1 (3)  (2)
N −1 2
d
v (t)
dt k
= −(70 N j=1 dkj (vj (t) − vk (t)){ j=1 dkj (vj (t) − vk (t)) + vk (t)}
 −1 N −1 (2) 2
+140vk (t) N j=1 dkj (vj (t) − vk (t)){2 j=1 dkj (vj (t) − vk (t)) + vk (t)}
N −1 N −1 (4) N −1
+42 j=1 dkj (vj (t) − vk (t)) j=1 dkj (vj (t) − vk (t)) + 70{ j=1 dkj (vj (t)
N −1 (5)  −1 (7)
−vk (t))}3 + 14vk (t) j=1 dkj (vj (t) − vk (t)) + N j=1 dkj (vj (t) − vk (t)))−
(3) (3) (2) (2)
(70{dk0 (g1 (t) − vk (t)) + dkN (g2 (t) − vk (t))} + {dk0 (g1 (t) − vk (t)) + dkN
(2)
(g2 (t) − vk (t))} + 140vk (t){dk0 (g1 (t) − vk (t)) + dkN (g2 (t) − vk (t))}{2dk0
(2)
(g1 (t) − vk (t)) + 2dkN (g2 (t) − vk (t)) + vk2 (t)} + 42{dk0(g1 (t) − vk (t))+
(4) (4)
dkN (g2 (t) − vk (t))}{dk0 (g1 (t) − vk (t)) + dkN (g2 (t) − vk (t))} + 70{dk0
(5)
(g1 (t) − vk (t)) + dkN (g2 (t) − vk (t))}3 + 14vk (t){dk0 (g1 (t) − vk (t))+
(5) (7) (7)
dkN (g2 (t) − vk (t))} + {dk0 (g1 (t) − vk (t)) + dkN (g2 (t) − vk (t))})
k = 1, . . . , N − 1.
(22)
Note that system (22) is a system of ordinary differential equations (ODEs).
Hence we can use any ODE solver to solve it. In this paper we use the standard
fourth-order Runge-Kutta method.

4 Numerical results
In this section we solve equation (14) for different values of a and b. Note that
as Chebyshev-Gauss-Lobatto collocation points are in interval [−1, 1], therefore
we have to map interval [a, b] to [−1, 1] by a linear mapping. To demonstrate
the efficiency of our method we report the absolute errors in some arbitrary
points in tables 1 and 2. To obtain the numerical results we used MATLAB
7.0 software.

Problem 1. We solve equation (14) for −a = b = 100 and N = 8 collocation

points. Numerical results are shown in Table 1.

Problem 2. We set b = −a = 200 and N = 8 collocation points. The results

are shown in Table 2.
Numerical solution of the Lax’s 7th -order KdV equation 1103

Table 1. Comparison of the exact and numerical solutions by pseudospectral

method using Darvishi’s preconditioning for the Lax’s seventh-order KdV
equation with t = 2, N = 8 and Δt = 0.0001.
t x Exact solution Numerical solution Abs. error
0.05 −92.388 9.4082083361E − 05 9.4082521546E − 05 4.38184E − 10
−38.268 1.7334939645E − 04 1.7334980144E − 04 4.04986E − 10
0.0000 1.9999999999E − 04 2.0000000000E − 04 2.04795E − 15
38.268 1.7335020642E − 04 1.7334980143E − 04 4.04983E − 10
92.388 9.4082959732E − 05 9.4082521547E − 05 4.38185E − 10
0.5 −92.388 9.4078139754E − 05 9.4082521542E − 05 4.38179E − 09
−38.268 1.7334575143E − 04 1.7334980144E − 04 4.04995E − 09
0.0000 1.9999999972E − 04 2.0000000000E − 04 2.04800E − 13
38.268 1.7335385120E − 04 1.7334980144E − 04 4.04974E − 09
92.388 9.4086903462E − 05 9.4082521551E − 05 4.38191E − 09
1 −92.388 9.4073758069E − 05 9.4082521539E − 05 8.76347E − 09
−38.268 1.7334170132E − 04 1.7334980144E − 04 8.10012E − 09
0.0000 1.9999999918E − 04 2.0000000000E − 04 8.19200E − 14
38.268 1.7335790070E − 04 1.7334980144E − 04 8.09927E − 09
92.388 9.4091285484E − 05 9.4082521555E − 05 8.76392E − 09
2 −92.388 9.4064995045E − 05 9.4082521530E − 05 1.75265E − 09
−38.268 1.7333360035E − 04 1.7334980144E − 04 1.62011E − 09
0.0000 1.9999999672E − 04 2.0000000000E − 04 3.27680E − 13
38.268 1.7336599912E − 04 1.7334980144E − 04 1.61977E − 09
92.388 9.4100049864E − 05 9.4082521563E − 05 1.75283E − 09
1104 M. T. Darvishi, S. Kheybari and F. Khani

Table 2. Comparison of the exact and numerical solutions by pseudospectral

method using Darvishi’s preconditioning for the Lax’s seventh-order KdV
equation with t = 15, N = 8 and Δt = 0.01.
t x Exact solution Numerical solution Abs. error
1 −184.78 1.8914131990, −05 1.8916435810, −05 2.30381, −09
−76.536 1.1698459384, −04 1.1699424120, −04 9.64736, −09
0.0000 1.9999999918, −04 2.0000000000, −04 8.19199, −13
76.536 1.1700388878, −04 1.1699424119, −04 9.64759, −09
184.78 1.8918739898, −05 1.8916435812, −05 2.30409, −09
5 −184.78 1.8904919365, −05 1.8916435805, −05 1.15164, −08
−76.536 1.1694600677, −04 1.1699424119, −04 4.82344, −08
0.0000 1.9999997952, −04 2.0000000000, −04 2.04800, −11
76.536 1.1704248149, −04 1.1699424119, −04 4.82403, −08
184.78 1.8927958905, −05 1.8916435817, −05 1.15231, −08
10 −184.78 1.8893409564, −05 1.8916435799, −05 2.30262, −08
−76.536 1.1689777823, −04 1.1699424119, −04 9.64630, −08
0.0000 1.9999991808, −04 2.0000000000, −04 8.19200, −11
76.536 1.1709072765, −04 1.1699424120, −04 9.64864, −08
184.78 1.8939488653, −05 1.8916435822, −05 2.30528, −08
15 −184.78 1.8881906406, −05 1.8916435793, −05 3.45294, −08
−76.536 1.1684955560, −04 1.1699424119, −04 1.44685, −07
0.0000 1.9999981568, −04 2.0000000000, −04 1.84319, −10
76.536 1.1713897965, −04 1.1699424120, −04 1.44738, −07
184.78 1.8951025056, −05 1.8916435829, −05 3.45892, −08

5 Conclusion
In this study, the Lax’s seventh-order Korteweg-de Vries equation is solved by
pseudospectral method using a preconditioning scheme. As numerical results
show, the errors are very small.

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Received: March 20, 2007

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