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I'm trying to understand what a correct procedure is for solving the following wave equation on a semi-infinite plane $-\infty < x < \infty$, $0 \le z < \infty$: $$ \begin{cases} \nabla^2 \Psi(x,z,t) - \dfrac{1}{c^2}\dfrac{\partial^2 \Psi(x,z,t)}{\partial t^2}=f(z,t)H(t)\sin (q_0x)\\ \dfrac{\partial^2 \Psi(x,0,t)}{\partial x\partial z} = 0\\ \dfrac{\partial^2 \Psi(x,0,t)}{\partial x^2}-\dfrac{\partial^2 \Psi(x,0,t)}{\partial z^2}=0\\ \Psi(x,z,0)=\dfrac{\partial \Psi(x,z,0)}{\partial t}=0 \end{cases}$$

where $H(t)$ is a Heaviside step function.

I started by separating the variables which leads to the solution:

$$\Psi(x,z,t)=T(t)(A\sin (kz)+B\cos(kz))(C\sin(qx)+D\cos(qx))$$

The first boundary conditions leads to $A=0$ and the second to $k=q$. To deal with the inhomogeneous part, one would generally do the expansion

$$\iint T_{qk}(t)\cos(kz)(C\sin(qx)+D\cos(qx))dqdk = \iint (C_s\sin(qx)+C_c\cos(qx))\cos(kz)$$

where $C_s$ and $C_c$ are the sine and cosine series coefficients of the source term. Now I'm struggling how to handle the fact that $k=q$. Moreover, I think that the inhomogeneous part of the equation implies that $q=q_0$, which if true, makes things much worse, since then we can't do any series expansion at all. I'm assuming I made an error somewhere in my reasoning and I would appreciate some help trying to figure this out.

Additionally, I can actually find the particular solution using the Fourier transform technique. If a take the Fourier transform of $\Psi$ and the source term with respect to $x$ and $t$, the PDE becomes an ODE with $z$ the only independent variable. Since the source term is well behaved in the Fourier space, I can find the solution as a sum of the homogeneous and particular solution, $\hat{\Psi} = \hat{\Psi}_{hom}+\hat{\Psi}_{par}$. To get the complete solution in real space, I need to take the inverse Fourier transform, but that can only be analytically solved for the particular term, since the integral for the homogeneous term is to complicated. Is there any way knowing the particular solution can help me figure out the complete solution?

Edit: As requested in the comments, I’m writing down the entire problem. I’m trying to solve the thermoelastic equations for the material displacement $\textbf{u}=(u_x(x,z,t),u_z(x,z,t))$

$$ \begin{cases} v_{44}^2\nabla^2\textbf{u}+(v_{11}^2-v_{44}^2)\nabla(\nabla\cdot\textbf{u})-\frac{\partial^2\textbf{u}}{\partial t^2}=\gamma\nabla T(x,z,t)\\ \frac{\partial u_x(x,0,t)}{\partial z}+\frac{\partial u_z(x,0,t)}{\partial x} = 0\\ 2v_{44}^2\frac{\partial u_z(x,0,t)}{\partial z}+(v_{11}^2-2v_{44}^2)(\nabla\cdot\textbf{u}(x,0,t))-\gamma T = 0 \end{cases} $$

First I made these boundary conditions homogeneous by taking $\textbf{u}=\textbf{v}+\textbf{w}$ where $\textbf{w}$ is chosen such that it satisfies the $-\gamma T$ part of the second boundary condition, so that $\textbf{v}$ only has to satisfy the homogeneous boundary conditions.

If we then express $\textbf{v}$ in terms of longitudinal ($\Phi$) and transverse ($\boldsymbol\Psi$) potentials (Helmholtz decomposition), $\textbf{v}=\nabla\Phi + \nabla\times\boldsymbol\Psi$, we can rewrite the equation as

$$\nabla(v_{11}^2\nabla^2\Phi-\frac{\partial^2 \Phi}{\partial t^2}-f(x,z,t)) + \nabla\times(v_{44}^2\nabla^2\boldsymbol\Psi-\frac{\partial^2\boldsymbol\Psi}{\partial t^2}-\textbf{g}(x,z,t))=0$$

where $\textbf{g}(x,z,t)$ only has a y component. With the additional requirement of the Helmholtz decomposition that $\nabla\cdot\mathbf{\Psi}=0$, we can assume that $\mathbf{\Psi}$ only has a y component too and can for the purpose of solving the equation be considered a scalar (here I’m following a similar derivation from a published paper where they did not justify this step in detail, so I’m not confident that it’s 100% true).

I rewrote the boundary conditions in terms of $\Phi$ and $\Psi$ and got

$$\frac{\partial^2\Phi(x,0,t)}{\partial x\partial z}+\frac{\partial^2\Psi(x,0,t)}{\partial x^2}-\frac{\partial^2\Psi(x,0,t)}{\partial z^2}=0$$

$$2v_{44}^2(\frac{\partial^2\Phi(x,0,t)}{\partial z^2}+\frac{\partial^2\Psi(x,0,t)}{\partial x\partial z})+(v_{11}^2-2v_{44}^2)(\frac{\partial^2\Phi(x,0,t)}{\partial x^2}+\frac{\partial^2\Phi(x,0,t)}{\partial z^2})=0$$

I assumed $\Phi$ and $\Psi$ will satisfy this both separately (maybe this is wrong?), so I got for $\Psi$ the condition I wrote above.

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  • $\begingroup$ (1) You are prescribing initial data, so your solution should be unique. So I am not sure what you mean about "getting the homogeneous solution". (2) Maybe it would be clearer if you provide the details of how you "found the particular solution using Fourier transform". (3) You are prescribing second order boundary conditions on $\{z = 0\}$, are you sure your problem is not overprescribed? $\endgroup$ Commented May 18, 2023 at 14:50
  • $\begingroup$ @WillieWong (1), (2) I edited the last paragraph to add details. (3) Is having second order conditions a problem, and if so, why? My math on the theory of differential equations is a bit weak. This problem is actually a part of a more complicated physical problem, where I'm solving a second order thermoelastic equations for the displacement of the material $u$. The boundary conditions for $u$ are of the first order. The equations can be simplified by taking $u=\nabla \Phi + \nabla\times \Psi$ and one gets two equation like the one above. The boundary conditions are then of the second order. $\endgroup$
    – basketas
    Commented May 18, 2023 at 17:37
  • $\begingroup$ Combining the boundary condition $\partial^2_{xx}\Psi = \partial^2_{zz} \Psi$ on $\{z = 0\}$ with the original PDE, you see that restricted to $\{z = 0\}$ the function $\Psi$ solves the PDE $$- \frac{1}{c^2} \partial^2_{tt}\Psi(x,0,t) + 2 \partial^2_{xx} \Psi(x,0,t) = f(0,t) H(t) \sin(q_0 x)$$ This means that your boundary conditions force $\Psi |_{\{z = 0\}}$ to be completely prescribed. Together with the Neumann type boundary condition $\partial^2_{xz} \Psi = 0$, you are simultaneously prescribing dirichlet and Neumann data for a wave equation, and that is overdetermined. $\endgroup$ Commented May 18, 2023 at 19:56
  • $\begingroup$ You see this already when looking at the separation of variables: as you observed, the only homogeneous solutions are of the form $$ (A \sin(\sqrt{2} q tc ) + B \cos(\sqrt{2} q c t) \cos(q z) ( C \sin(qx) + D \cos(qx) ) $$ This is too few degrees of freedom to capture arbitrary initial data. // You may wish to consider showing the original thermoielastic equations for $u$ and how you performed the reduction to something for a scalar function $\Psi$, which may provide some clues. $\endgroup$ Commented May 18, 2023 at 20:09
  • $\begingroup$ @WillieWong I added to the post the original thermoelastic equations and how I got to the equation for the potential $\Psi$. Hopefully this will make it clearer where my problem comes from. $\endgroup$
    – basketas
    Commented May 18, 2023 at 21:45

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