Shooting Method
Major: All Engineering Majors
Authors: Autar Kaw, Charlie Barker
http://numericalmethods.eng.usf.edu
Transforming Numerical Methods Education for STEM
Undergraduates
7/13/2017
http://numericalmethods.eng.usf.edu
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Shooting Method
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Shooting Method
The shooting method uses the methods used in solving initial value problems.
This is done by assuming initial values that would have been given if the
ordinary differential equation were a initial value problem. The boundary
value obtained is compared with the actual boundary value. Using trial and
error or some scientific approach, one tries to get as close to the boundary
value as possible.
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Example
d 2u 1 du u

 2  0,
2
dr
r dr r
u 5  0.0038731,
u 8  0.0030770
r
a
b
Let
du
w
dr
Then
Where
and
a=5
b=8
dw 1
u
 w 2  0
dr r
r
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Solution
Two first order differential equations are given as
du
 w, u 5  0.0038371
dr
dw
w u
   2 , w5  not known
dr
r r
Let us assume
w5 
du
5  u 8  u 5  0.00026538
dr
85
To set up initial value problem
du
 w  f1 r , u, w, u 5  0.0038371
dr
dw
w u
   2  f 2 r , u, w, w5  0.00026538
dr
r r
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Solution Cont
Using Euler’s method,
ui 1  ui  f1ri , ui , wi h
wi 1  wi  f 2 ri , ui , wi h
Let us consider 4 segments between the two boundaries, r  5
and r  8 then,
85
h
 0.75
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Solution Cont
For
i  0, r0  5, u0  0.0038371, w0  0.00026538
u1  u0  f1 r0 , u0 , w0 h
 0.0038371  f1 5,0.0038371,0.000265380.75
 0.0038371   0.000265380.75
 0.0036741
w1  w0  f 2 r0 , u0 , w0 h
 0.00026538  f 2 (5,0.0038371,0.00026538)0.75
  0.00026538 0.0038371 
 0.00026538   

0.75
2
5
5


 0.00010938
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Solution Cont
For
i  1, r1  r0  h  5  0.75  5.75, u1  0.0036741, w1  0.00010940
u 2  u1  f1 r1 , u1 , w1 h
 0.0036741  f1 5.75,0.0036741,0.000109380.75
 0.0036741   0.000109380.75
 0.0035920
w2  w1  f 2 r1 , u1 , w1 h
 0.00010938  f 2 5.75,0.0036741,0.000109380.75
 0.00010938  0.000130150.75
 0.000011769
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Solution Cont
For i  2, r2  r1  h  5.75  0.75  6.5
u2  0.0035920, w2  0.000011785
u3  u 2  f1 r2 , u 2 , w2 h
 0.0035920  f1 6.5,0.0035920,0.000011769 0.75
 0.0035920   0.000011769 0.75
 0.0035832
w3  w2  f 2 r2 , u 2 , w2 h
 0.000011769  f 2 6.5,0.0035920,0.000011769 0.75
 0.000011769  0.000086829 0.75
 0.000053352
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Solution Cont
For
i  3, r3  r2  h  6.50  0.75  7.25 u3  0.0035832, w3  0.000053332
u 4  u3  f1 r3 , u3 , w3 h
 0.0035832  f1 7.25,0.0035832,0.0000533520.75
 0.0035832  0.0000533520.75
 0.0036232
w4  w3  f 2 r3 , u3 , w3 h
 0.000011785  f 2 5.75,0.0035832,0.000053352 0.75
 0.000053352  0.0000608110.75
 0.000098961
So at r  r4  r3  h  7.25  0.75  8
u8  u4  0.0036232
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Solution Cont
Let us assume a new value for
w5  2
du
5
dr
du
5  2 u 8  u 5  2 0.00026538  0.00053076
dr
85
Using h  0.75 and Euler’s method, we get
u8  u4  0.0029665"
While the given value of this boundary condition is
u8  u4  0.0030770
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Solution Cont
Using linear interpolation on the obtained data for the two assumed values of
du
5
dr
we get
u8  0.00030770
du
5   0.00053076   0.00026538 0.0030770  0.0036232   0.00026538
dr
0.0029645  0.0036232
 0.00048611
Using h  0.75 and repeating the Euler’s method with w(5)  0.00048611
u8  u4  0.0030769
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Solution Cont
Using linear interpolation to refine the value of u4
till one gets close to the actual value of u8 which gives you,
u1  u5  0.0038731
u5.75  u2  0.0035085
u6.50  u3  0.0032858
u7.25  u4  0.0031518
u8.00  u5  0.0030770
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Comparisons of different initial
guesses
4.0E-03
du/dr = -0.00026538
Radial Displacement, u (in)
3.8E-03
3.6E-03
Exact
3.4E-03
du/d r= -0.00048611
3.2E-03
du/dr = -0.00053076
3.0E-03
5
6
7
8
Radial Location, r (in)
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Comparison of Euler and RungeKutta Results with exact results
Table 1 Comparison of Euler and Runge-Kutta results with exact results.
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r (in)
Exact (in)
5
5.75
6.5
7.25
8
3.8731×10−3
3.5567×10−3
3.3366×10−3
3.1829×10−3
3.0770×10−3
Euler (in)
t %
3.8731×10−3
0.0000
3.5085×10−3
1.3731
3.2858×10−3
1.5482
3.1518×10−3 9.8967×10−1
3.0770×10−3 1.9500×10−3
Runge-Kutta
(in)
t %
3.8731×10−3
3.5554×10−3
3.3341×10−3
3.1792×10−3
3.0723×10−3
0.0000
3.5824×10−2
7.4037×10−2
1.1612×10−1
1.5168×10−1
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Additional Resources
For all resources on this topic such as digital audiovisual
lectures, primers, textbook chapters, multiple-choice
tests, worksheets in MATLAB, MATHEMATICA, MathCad
and MAPLE, blogs, related physical problems, please
visit
http://numericalmethods.eng.usf.edu/topics/shooting_
method.html
THE END
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