Duhamel’s Principle for 1-D Wave Equation

Consider
utt = c2 uxx + F (x, t), x ∈ R, t > 0 (1)
u(x, 0) = ut (x, 0) = 0, x∈R (2)
Let v(x, t, τ ), for t > τ , satisfy

vtt = c2 vxx , x ∈ R, t > 0 (3)

with the conditions (t ≥ τ > 0)

v(x, τ, τ ) = 0, vt (x, τ, τ ) = F (x, τ ), x∈R (4)

The solution of (3) and (4) is

Z x+c(t−τ )
1
v(x, t, τ ) = F (s, τ ) ds (5)
2c x−c(t−τ )

Define: Z t
u(x, t) = v(x, t, τ ) dτ (6)
0
Now Z t Z t
ut = v(x, t, t) + vt (x, t, τ ) dτ = vt (x, t, τ ) dτ [since v(x, t, t) = 0]
0 0
Similarly, Z t
utt = vt (x, t, t) + vtt (x, t, τ ) dτ
0
or Z t
utt = F (x, t) + vtt (x, t, τ ) dτ (7)
0
We also have Z t
uxx = vxx (x, t, τ ) dτ (8)
0

From (7) and (8), we get

Z t
2
utt − c uxx = F (x, t) + [vtt − c2 vxx ] dτ = F (x, t) (9)
0

Now let us consider

utt = c2 uxx + F (x, t), x ∈ R, t > 0 (10)
u(x, 0) = f (x), ut (x, 0) = g(x), x∈R (11)
Let u1 be the solution of (10) with

u(x, 0) = ut (x, 0) = 0, x∈R (12)

1
and u2 be the solution of
utt = c2 uxx , x ∈ R, t > 0 (13)
with initial conditions (11).
Then u = u1 + u2 is the solution of (10) and (11) (easy verification) and hence
x+ct Z tZ x+c(t−τ )
f (x + ct) + f (x − ct)
Z
1 1
u(x, t) = + g(s) ds + F (s, τ ) ds dτ (14)
2 2c x−ct 2c 0 x−c(t−τ )

Thus u given by (14) solves (10) and (11).