Holistic finite differences accurately model the dynamics of the Kuramoto-Sivashinsky equation

Abstract

We analyse the nonlinear Kuramoto-Sivashinsky equation to develop an accurate finite difference approximation to its dynamics. The analysis is based upon centre manifold theory so we are assured that the finite difference model accurately models the dynamics and may be constructed systematically. The theory is applied after dividing the physical domain into small elements by introducing insulating internal boundaries which are later removed. The Kuramoto-Sivashinsky equation is used as an example to show how holistic finite differences may be applied to fourth order, nonlinear, spatio-temporal dynamical systems. This novel centre manifold approach is holistic in the sense that it treats the dynamical equations as a whole, not just as the sum of separate terms.