CSC Nada DN2255 Spring 10 - Differential Equations II JOp p 1 (2)

1 About Riemann invariants

Starting from

f , A(q) = R (q)diag (i (q))R 1 q where the columns of R are the right eigenvectors of A, we obtain lik (q)qk ,t + i (q) lik (q)qk , x = 0, i =1,2,..., s; (R 1)ij = lij qt + f (q) x = qt + A(q)q x = 0, A =
In some cases, these equations admit integration. IF there is an integrating factor such that i (q) lik dqk = dRi (q)
k
k k

THEN Ri is called a Riemann invariant, and it is constant along the characteristic curve dx = i (q) dt Note that these characteristic curves are not straight, because the speeds depend on all the qk, and only Ri is constant along the curve. There remains the problem of finding the integrating factor. But one can state that Riemann invariants exist for the case s = 1 and 2 (one or two state variables). For scalar equations, the Riemann invariant is q itself. For s = 2, we need to integrate a (u , v)du + b(u , v)dv = 0, q = (u , v)T dv a(u , v) = admits a solution, at least locally, say v=H(u). Then, The scalar ODE du b(u , v) R (u , v) = v H (u ) , and hence any function f (R), is a Riemann invariant. For s = 3, it may or may not be possible to integrate the equations. Example 1 The shallow water equations ht + uhx + hu x = 0
ut + uu x + ghx = 0, have

+ = u + c, = u c, c = gh , r + = , r = , R 1 = c c hc c h Now,
g cdh + hdu = gh dh + hdu = h dh + du = hd ( 2 gh + u ) h so the two Riemann invariants are R = 2 gh u . Isothermal and isentropic gas dynamics equations admit very similar integrations, and are recommended as exercises.

1 c

Example 2 The Euler equations of perfect gas dynamics also allow closed form Riemann invariants. See L. p 293 ff. The Euler equations in primitive variables (,u,p) and quasilinear form are: 0 u u + 0 u 1 / u = 0 p 0 p u p t x

CSC Nada DN2255 Spring 10 - Differential Equations II JOp p 2 (2)

has characteristic eigenvalues 1 = u , 2 = u c, 3 = u + c, c 2 = from L.) with eigenvectors 1 / c / c 0 , 1 , 1 0 c c
and one finds the inverse of the R-matrix to be
1 0 1/ c 2 0 1 / 2 1 /( 2 c) 0 1 / 2 1 /(2 c) So we try to integrate: d dp / c 2 , du dp /( c), du + dp /( c) The first differential involves only two variables so is integrable; it has integrating factor 1/:

p (different numbering

1 1 d dp = d ln d ln( p ) = d p p
1

which shows that the entropy, say S = p / , is constant along particle paths through smooth solutions. The two other differentials involve three variables and need help to be integrated. Using constant entropy, one can express in S and p: = ( p / S )1 / and reduce the differential

to two variables, u and p, and after integration, replace S by p/ again. The final result is 2c R = u 1