Scientific Computing Group Report - Detail view

Identifier: 2008-13

Author(s): D Gottlieb and D Xiu

Title: Galerkin method for wave equations with uncertain coefficients

Page count: 17 pp.

Abstract:

Polynomial chaos methods (and generalized polynomial chaos meth- ods) have been extensively applied to analyze PDEs that contain un- certainties. However this approach is rarely applied to hyperbolic systems. In this paper we analyze the properties of the resulting deterministic system of equations obtained by stochastic Galerkin pro jection. We consider a simple model of a scalar wave equation with random wave speed. We show that when uncertainty causes the change of characteristic directions, the resulting deterministic system of equations is a symmetric hyperbolic system with both positive and negative eigenvalues. A consistent method of imposing the boundary conditions is proposed and its convergence is established. Numerical examples are presented to support the analysis.