timo-asif/animated-pdes

Solving coupled PDEs in C using a finite difference scheme then animating the solution via Python.

Animated Solutions to Coupled PDEs

Motivation

During my formulation of a solution of a large Scientific Computing assignment in C, I realised that it would be very difficult to analyse my results without a nice way to visualise them.

To tackle this, I first looked at MATLAB to try quickly plot my results using 3D scatter plots. This worked well for its purpose, but it felt a bit incomplete as the true behaviour of the solutions arise when viewed as a pair of functions changing in time.

Since I had more experience creating visualisations within Python, I looked into creating some animated GIFs. I found that the matplotlib.Animation was a very good fit for my problem as I could control what goes into each frame of my animation due to how my output files are set up.

Full problem formulation located on the Animation.ipynb Jupyter Notebook. Open on Google Colab to ensure full LaTeX rendering of formulas. I have included example input and output files to create a quick 20s animation.

Examples

Low Gamma Solution

High Gamma Solution

Slow Transport Solution

Fast Transport Solution