MATTHEW
WEST
Control and Dynamical Systems
California Institute of Technology
Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
http://www.cds.caltech.edu/~mwest
mwest@cds.caltech.edu
Abstract:
We combine recent work on variational integrators with the
multisymplectic framework for elasticity to show that the standard
finite element method time-stepped with the Newmark algorithm is a
multisymplectic discretization.
The principle behind these derivations is to discretize the
variational principle rather than attempting to discretize the PDE
directly. This has many advantages in the preservation of structure,
as discrete analogues of continuous quantities and relations are
naturally conserved. Some insights into this will be presented.