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Partial Differential
Equations
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Partial Differential
Equations
Analytical and Numerical Methods

Mark S. Gockenbach
Michigan Technological University
Houghton, Michigan

siam
Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics
Philadelphia
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Copyright © 2002 by the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics.

1098765432 1

All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may
be reproduced, stored, or transmitted in any manner without the written permission of
the publisher. For information, write to the Society for Industrial and Applied
Mathematics, 3600 University City Science Center, Philadelphia, PA 19104-2688.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Gockenbach, Mark S.
Partial differential equations : analytical and numerical methods / Mark S.
Gockenbach.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-89871-518-0
1. Differential equations, Partial. I. Title.

QA377 .G63 2002

515'.353-dc21
2002029411

MATLAB is a registered trademark of The MathWorks, Inc.

Maple is a registered trademark of Waterloo Maple, Inc.
Mathematica is a registered trademark of Wolfram Research, Inc.

0-89871-518-0

siam is a registered trademark.

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Dedicated to my mother, Joy Gockenbach, and to the

memory of my father, LeRoy Gockenbach.
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Contents

Foreword xiii

Preface xvii

1 Classification of differential equations 1

2 Models in one dimension 9

2.1 Heat flow in a bar; Fourier's law 9
2.1.1 Boundary and initial conditions for the heat equation 13
2.1.2 Steady-state heatfk 14
2.1.3 Diffusion 16
2.2 The hanging bar 21
2.2.1 Boundary conditions for the hanging bar 24
2.3 The wave equation for a vibrating string 27
2.4 Suggestions for further reading 30

3 Essential linear algebra 31

3.1 Linear systems as linear operator equations 31
3.2 Existence and uniqueness of solutions to Ax = b 38
3.2.1 Existence 38
3.2.2 Uniqueness 42
3.2.3 The Fredholm alternative 45
3.3 Basis and dimension 50
3.4 Orthogonal bases and projections 55
3.4.1 The L2 inner product 58
3.4.2 The projection theorem 61
3.5 Eigenvalues and eigenvectors of a symmetric matrix 68
3.5.1 The transpose of a matrix and the dot product ... 71
3.5.2 Special properties of symmetric matrices 72
3.5.3 The spectral method for solving Ax = b 74
3.6 Preview of methods for solving ODEs and PDEs 77
3.7 Suggestions for further reading 78

VII
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viii Contents

4 Essential ordinary differential equations 79

4.1 Converting a higher-order equation to a first-order system ... 79
4.2 Solutions to some simple ODEs 82
4.2.1 The general solution of a second-order homogeneous
ODE with constant coefficients 82
4.2.2 A special inhomogeneous second-order linear ODE . 85
4.2.3 First-order linear ODEs 87
4.3 Linear systems with constant coefficients 91
4.3.1 Homogeneous systems 92
4.3.2 Inhomogeneous systems and variation of parameters 96
4.4 Numerical methods for initial value problems 101
4.4.1 Euler's method 102
4.4.2 Improving on Euler's method: Runge-Kutta methods 104
4.4.3 Numerical methods for systems of ODEs 108
4.4.4 Automatic step control and Runge-Kutta-Fehlberg
methods 110
4.5 Stiff systems of ODEs 115
4.5.1 A simple example of a stiff system 117
4.5.2 The backward Euler method 118
4.6 Green's functions 123
4.6.1 The Green's function for a first-order linear ODE . . 123
4.6.2 The Dirac delta function 125
4.6.3 The Green's function for a second-order IVP . . . . 126
4.6.4 Green's functions for PDEs 127
4.7 Suggestions for further reading 128

5 Boundary value problems in statics 131

5.1 The analogy between BVPs and linear algebraic systems . . . . 131
5.1.1 A note about direct integration 141
5.2 Introduction to the spectral method; eigenfunctions 144
5.2.1 Eigenpairs of — -j^ under Dirichlet conditions . . . . 144
5.2.2 Representing functions in terms of eigenfunctions . . 146
5.2.3 Eigenfunctions under other boundary conditions; other
Fourier series 150
5.3 Solving the BVP using Fourier series 155
5.3.1 A special case 155
5.3.2 The general case 156
5.3.3 Other boundary conditions 161
5.3.4 Inhomogeneous boundary conditions 164
5.3.5 Summary 166
5.4 Finite element methods for BVPs 172
5.4.1 The principle of virtual work and the weak form of
a BVP 173
5.4.2 The equivalence of the strong and weak forms of the
BVP 177
5.5 The Galerkin method 180
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Contents ix

5.6 Piecewise polynomials and the finite element method 188

5.6.1 Examples using piecewise linear finite elements . . . 193
5.6.2 Inhomogeneous Dirichlet conditions 197
5.7 Green's functions for BVPs 202
5.7.1 The Green's function and the inverse of a differential
operator 207
5.8 Suggestions for further reading 210

6 Heat flow and diffusion 211

6.1 Fourier series methods for the heat equation 211
6.1.1 The homogeneous heat equation 214
6.1.2 Nondimensionalization 217
6.1.3 The inhomogeneous heat equation 220
6.1.4 Inhomogeneous boundary conditions 222
6.1.5 Steady-state heat flow and diffusion 224
6.1.6 Separation of variables 225
6.2 Pure Neumann conditions and the Fourier cosine series 229
6.2.1 One end insulated; mixed boundary conditions . . . 229
6.2.2 Both ends insulated; Neumann boundary conditions 231
6.2.3 Pure Neumann conditions in a steady-state BVP . . 237
6.3 Periodic boundary conditions and the full Fourier series 245
6.3.1 Eigenpairs of — -j^ under periodic boundary conditions247
6.3.2 Solving the BVP using the full Fourier series . . . . 249
6.3.3 Solving the IBVP using the full Fourier series . . . . 252
6.4 Finite element methods for the heat equation 256
6.4.1 The method of lines for the heat equation 260
6.5 Finite elements and Neumann conditions 266
6.5.1 The weak form of a BVP with Neumann conditions 266
6.5.2 Equivalence of the strong and weak forms of a BVP
with Neumann conditions 267
6.5.3 Piecewise linear finite elements with Neumann con-
ditions 269
6.5.4 Inhomogeneous Neumann conditions 273
6.5.5 The finite element method for an IBVP with Neu-
mann conditions 274
6.6 Green's functions for the heat equation 279
6.6.1 The Green's function for the one-dimensional heat
equation under Dirichlet conditions 280
6.6.2 Green's functions under other boundary conditions . 281
6.7 Suggestions for further reading 283

7 Waves 285
7.1 The homogeneous wave equation without boundaries 285
7.2 Fourier series methods for the wave equation 291
7.2.1 Fourier series solutions of the homogeneous wave
equation 293
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x Contents

7.2.2 Fourier series solutions of the inhomogeneous wave

equation 296
7.2.3 Other boundary conditions 301
7.3 Finite element methods for the wave equation 305
7.3.1 The wave equation with Dirichlet conditions . . . . 306
7.3.2 The wave equation under other boundary conditions 312
7.4 Point sources and resonance 318
7.4.1 The wave equation with a point source 318
7.4.2 Another experiment leading to resonance 321
7.5 Suggestions for further reading 324

8 Problems in multiple spatial dimensions 327

8.1 Physical models in two or three spatial dimensions 327
8.1.1 The divergence theorem 328
8.1.2 The heat equation for a three-dimensional domain . 330
8.1.3 Boundary conditions for the three-dimensional heat
equation 332
8.1.4 The heat equation in a bar 333
8.1.5 The heat equation in two dimensions 334
8.1.6 The wave equation for a three-dimensional domain . 334
8.1.7 The wave equation in two dimensions 334
8.1.8 Equilibrium problems and Laplace's equation . . . . 335
8.1.9 Green's identities and the symmetry of the Laplacian 336
8.2 Fourier series on a rectangular domain 339
8.2.1 Dirichlet boundary conditions 339
8.2.2 Solving a boundary value problem 345
8.2.3 Time-dependent problems 346
8.2.4 Other boundary conditions for the rectangle . . . . 348
8.2.5 Neumann boundary conditions 349
8.2.6 Dirichlet and Neumann problems for Laplace's equa-
tion 352
8.2.7 Fourier series methods for a rectangular box in three
dimensions 354
8.3 Fourier series on a disk 359
8.3.1 The Laplacian in polar coordinates 360
8.3.2 Separation of variables in polar coordinates 362
8.3.3 Bessel's equation 363
8.3.4 Properties of the Bessel functions 366
8.3.5 The eigenfunctions of the negative Laplacian on the
disk 368
8.3.6 Solving PDEs on a disk 372
8.4 Finite elements in two dimensions 377
8.4.1 The weak form of a BVP in multiple dimensions . . 377
8.4.2 Galerkin's method 378
8.4.3 Piecewise linear finite elements in two dimensions . 379
8.4.4 Finite elements and Neumann conditions 388
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Contents xi

8.4.5 Inhomogeneous boundary conditions 389

8.5 Suggestions for further reading 392

9 More about Fourier series 393

9.1 The complex Fourier series 394
9.1.1 Complex inner products 395
9.1.2 Orthogonality of the complex exponentials 396
9.1.3 Representing functions with complex Fourier series . 397
9.1.4 The complex Fourier series of a real-valued function 398
9.2 Fourier series and the FFT 401
9.2.1 Using the trapezoidal rule to estimate Fourier coef-
ficients . 402
9.2.2 The discrete Fourier transform 404
9.2.3 A note about using packaged FFT routines 409
9.2.4 Fast transforms and other boundary conditions; the
discrete sine transform 410
9.2.5 Computing the DST using the FFT 411
9.3 Relationship of sine and cosine series to the full Fourier series . 415
9.4 Pointwise convergence of Fourier series 419
9.4.1 Modes of convergence for sequences of functions . . 419
9.4.2 Pointwise convergence of the complex Fourier series 422
9.5 Uniform convergence of Fourier series 436
9.5.1 Rate of decay of Fourier coefficients 436
9.5.2 Uniform convergence 439
9.5.3 A note about Gibbs's phenomenon 443
9.6 Mean-square convergence of Fourier series 444
9.6.1 The space L2(-l,l) 445
9.6.2 Mean-square convergence of Fourier series 448
9.6.3 Cauchy sequences and completeness 450
9.7 A note about general eigenvalue problems 455
9.8 Suggestions for further reading 459

10 More about finite element methods 461

10.1 Implementation of finite element methods 461
10.1.1 Describing a triangulation 462
10.1.2 Computing the stiffness matrix 465
10.1.3 Computing the load vector 467
10.1.4 Quadrature 467
10.2 Solving sparse linear systems 473
10.2.1 Gaussian elimination for dense systems 473
10.2.2 Direct solution of banded systems 475
10.2.3 Direct solution of general sparse systems 477
10.2.4 Iterative solution of sparse linear systems 478
10.2.5 The conjugate gradient algorithm 482
10.2.6 Convergence of the CG algorithm 485
10.2.7 Preconditioned CG 486
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xii Contents

10.3 An outline of the convergence theory for finite element methods 488
10.3.1 The Sobolev H1( space 489
10.3.2 Best approximation in the energy norm 491
10.3.3 Approximation by piecewise polynomials 491
10.3.4 Elliptic regularity and L2 estimates 492
10.4 Finite element methods for eigenvalue problems 494
10.5 Suggestions for further reading 499

A Proof of Theorem 3.47 501

B Shifting the data in two dimensions 505

B.O.I Inhomogeneous Dirichlet conditions on a rectangle . 505
B.0.2 Inhomogeneous Neumann conditions on a rectangle 508

C Solutions to odd-numbered exercises 515

Bibliography 603

Index 607
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Foreword

Newton and other seventeenth-century scientists introduced differential equa-

tions to describe the fundamental laws of physics. The intellectual and technological
implications of this innovation are enormous: the differential equation description of
physics is the foundation upon which all modern quantitative science and engineer-
ing rests. Differential equations describe relations between physical quantities—
forces, masses, positions, etc.—and their rates of change with respect to space and
time, i.e. their derivatives. To calculate the implications of these relations requires
the "solution" or integration of the differential equation: since derivatives approxi-
mate the ratios of small changes, solution of differential equations amounts to the
summing together of many small changes—arbitrarily many, in principle—to com-
pute the effect of a large change. Until roughly the middle of the twentieth century,
this meant the derivation of formulas expressing solutions of differential equations
as algebraic combinations of the elementary functions of calculus—polynomials,
trigonometric functions, the logarithm and the exponential, and certain more ex-
otic functions. Such formulas are feasible only for a limited selection of problems,
and even then often involve infinite sums ("series") which can only be evaluated
approximately, and whose evaluation was (until not so long ago) quite laborious.
The digital revolution has changed all that. Fast computation, with inexpen-
sive machines performing many millions of arithmetic operations per second, makes
numerical methods for the solution of differential equations practical: these meth-
ods give useful approximate solutions to differential equations by literally adding up
the effects of many microscopic changes to approximate the effect of a large change.
Numerical methods have been used to solve certain relatively "small" differential
equations since the eighteenth century—notably those that occur in the computa-
tion of planetary orbits and other astronomical calculations. Systematic use of the
computer has vastly expanded the range of differential equation models that can be
coaxed into making predictions of scientific and engineering significance. Analytical
techniques developed over the last three centuries to solve special problem classes
have also attained new significance when viewed as numerical methods. Optimal
design of ships and aircraft, prediction of underground fluid migration, synthesis of
new drugs, and numerous other critical tasks all rely—sometimes tacitly—upon the
modeling of complex phenomena by differential equations and the computational
approximation of their solutions. Just as significantly, mathematical advances un-
derlying computational techniques have fundamentally changed the ways in which
scientists and engineers think about differential equations and their implications.

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xiv Foreword

Until recently this sea change in theory and practice has enjoyed little reflec-
tion in the teaching of differential equations in undergraduate classes at universities.
While mention of computer techniques began showing up in textbooks published or
revised in the 1970s, the view of the subject propounded by most textbooks would
have seemed conventional in the 1920s. The book you hold in your hands, along
with a few others published in recent years, notably Gil Strang's Introduction to
Applied Mathematics, represents a new approach to differential equations at the
undergraduate level. It presents computation as an integral part of the study of
differential equations. It is not so much that computational exercises must be part
of the syllabus—this text can be used entirely without any student involvement in
computation at all, though a class taught that way would miss a great deal of the
possible impact. Rather, the concepts underlying the analysis and implementation
of numerical methods assume an importance equal to that of solutions in terms of
series and elementary functions. In fact, many of these concepts are equally effec-
tive in explaining the workings of the series expansion methods as well. This book
devotes considerable effort to these "classical" methods, side by side with mod-
ern numerical approaches (particularly the finite element method). The "classical"
series expansions provide both a means to understand the essential nature of the
physical phenomena modeled by the equations, and effective numerical methods for
those special problems to which they apply.
Perhaps surprisingly, some of the most important concepts in the modern
viewpoint on differential equations are algebraic: the ideas of vector, vector space,
and other components of linear algebra are central, even in the development of
more conventional parts of the subject such as series solutions. The present book
uses linear algebra as a unifying principle in both theory and computation, just as
working scientists, engineers, and mathematicians do.
This book, along with a number of others like it published in recent years, dif-
fers from earlier undergraduate textbooks on differential equations in yet another
respect. Especially in the middle years of the last century, mathematical instruc-
tion in American universities tended to relegate the physical context for differential
equations and other topics to the background. The "big three" differential equa-
tions of science and engineering—the Laplace, wave, and heat equations, to which
the bulk of this book is devoted—have appeared in many texts with at most a cur-
sory nod to their physical origins and meaning in applications. In part, this trend
reflected the development of the theory of differential equations as a self-contained
arena of mathematical research. This development has been extremely fruitful, and
indeed is the source of many of the new ideas which underlie the effectiveness of
modern numerical methods. However, it has also led to generations of textbooks
which present differential equations as a self-contained subject, at most distantly
related to the other intellectual disciplines in which differential equations play a
crucial role. The present text, in contrast, includes physically and mathematically
substantial derivations of each differential equation, often in several contexts, along
with examples and homework problems which illustrate how differential equations
really arise in science and engineering.
With the exception of a part of the chapter on ordinary differential equations
which begins the book, this text concerns itself exclusively with linear problems—
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Foreword xv

that is, problems for which sums and scalar multiples of solutions are also solutions,
if not of the same problem then of a closely related problem. It might be argued
that such a conventional choice is odd in a book which otherwise breaks with recent
tradition in several important respects. Many if not most of the important problems
which concern contemporary scientists and engineers are nonlinear. For example, al-
most all problems involving fluid flow and chemical reaction are nonlinear, and these
phenomena and their simulation and analysis are of central concern to many mod-
ern engineering disciplines. While series solutions are restricted to linear problems,
numerical methods are in principle just as applicable to nonlinear as to linear prob-
lems (though many technical challenges arise in making them work well). However,
it is also true that not only are the classic linear differential equations—Laplace,
wave, and heat—models for generic classes of physical phenomena (potentials, wave
motion, and diffusion) to which many nonlinear processes belong, but also their so-
lutions are the building blocks of methods for solving complex, nonlinear problems.
Therefore the choice to concentrate on these linear problems seems very natural for
a first course in differential equations.
The computational viewpoint in the theory and application of differential
equations is very important to a large segment of SIAM membership, and indeed
SIAM members have been in the forefront of its development. It is therefore gratify-
ing that SIAM should play a leading role in bringing this important part of modern
applied mathematics into the classroom by making the present volume available.

William W. Symes
Rice University
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Preface

This introductory text on partial differential equations (PDEs) has several

features that are not found in other texts at this level, including:
• equal emphasis on classical and modern techniques.
• the explicit use of the language and results of linear algebra.
• examples and exercises analyzing realistic experiments (with correct physical
parameters and units).
• a recognition that mathematical software forms a part of the arsenal of both
students and professional mathematicians.
In this preface, I will discuss these features and offer suggestions for getting the
most out of the text.

Classical and modern techniques

Undergraduate courses on PDEs tend to focus on Fourier series methods and sep-
aration of variables. These techniques are still useful after two centuries because
they offer a great deal of insight into those problems to which they apply. How-
ever, the subject of PDEs has driven much of the research in both pure and applied
mathematics in the last century, and students ought to be exposed to some more
modern techniques as well.
The limitation of the Fourier series technique is its restricted applicability:
it can be used only for equations with constant coefficients and only on certain
simple geometries. To complement the classical topic of Fourier series, I present the
finite element method, a modern, powerful, and flexible approach to solving PDEs.
Although many introductory texts include some discussion of finite elements (or
finite differences, a competing computational methodology), the modern approach
tends to receive less attention and a subordinate place in the exposition. In this
text, I have put equal weight on Fourier series and finite elements.

Linear algebra
Both linear and nonlinear differential equations occur as models of physical phenom-
ena of great importance in science and engineering. However, most introductory

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xviii Preface

texts focus on linear equations, and mine is no exception. There are several reasons
why this should be so. The study of PDEs is difficult, and it makes sense to begin
with the simpler linear equations before moving on to the more difficult nonlinear
equations. Moreover, linear equations are much better understood. Finally, much
of what is known about nonlinear differential equations depends on the analysis
of linear differential equations, so this material is prerequisite for moving on to
nonlinear equations.
Because we focus on linear equations, linear algebra is extremely useful. In-
deed, no discussion of Fourier series or finite element methods can be complete
unless it puts the results in the proper linear algebraic framework. For example,
both methods produce the best approximate solution from certain finite-dimensional
subspaces, and the projection theorem is therefore central to both techniques. Sym-
metry is another key feature exploited by both methods.
While many texts de-emphasize the linear algebraic nature of the concepts
and solution techniques, I have chosen to make it explicit. This decision, I believe,
leads to a more cohesive course and a better preparation for future study. However,
it presents certain challenges. Linear algebra does not seem to receive the attention
it deserves in many engineering and science programs, and so many students will
take a course based on this text without the "prerequisites." Therefore, I present
a fairly complete overview of the necessary material in Chapter 3, Essential Linear
Algebra.
Both faculty previewing this text and students taking a course from it will
soon realize that there is too much material in Chapter 3 to cover thoroughly in the
couple of weeks it can reasonably occupy in a semester course. From experience I
know that conscientious students dislike moving so quickly through material that
they cannot master it. However, one of the keys to using this text is to avoid getting
bogged down in Chapter 3. Students should try to get from it the "big picture"
and two essential ideas:

• How to compute a best approximation to a vector from a subspace, with and

without an orthogonal basis (Section 3.4).

• How to solve a matrix-vector equation when the matrix is symmetric and its
eigenvalues and eigenvectors are known (Section 3.5).

Having at least begun to grasp these ideas, students should move on to Chapter 4
even if some details are not clear. The concepts from linear algebra will become
much clearer as they are used throughout the remainder of the text.1
I have taught this course several times using this approach, and, although
students often find it frustrating at the beginning, the results seem to be good.

Realistic problems
The subject of PDEs is easier to grasp if one keeps in mind certain standard phys-
ical experiments modeled by the equations under consideration. I have used these
1
Also, Chapter 4 is much easier going than Chapter 3, a welcome contrast!
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Preface xix

models to introduce the equations and to aid in understanding their solutions. The
models also show, of course, that the subject of PDEs is worth studying!
To make the applications as meaningful as possible, I have included many
examples and exercises posed in terms of meaningful experiments with realistic
physical parameters.

Software
There exists powerful mathematical software that can be used to illuminate the
material presented in this book. Computer software is useful for at least three
reasons:
• It removes the need to do tedious computations that are necessary to compute
solutions. Just as a calculator eliminates the need to use a table and inter-
polation to compute a logarithm, a computer algebra system can eliminate
the need to perform integration by parts several times in order to evaluate an
integral. With the more mechanical obstacles removed, there is more time to
focus on concepts.

• Problems that simply cannot be solved (in a reasonable time) by hand can of-
ten be done with the assistance of a computer. This allows for more interesting
assignments.

• Graphical capabilities allow students to visualize the results of their compu-

tations, improving understanding and interpretation.
I expect students to use a software package such as MATLAB, Mathematica, or
Maple to reproduce the examples from the text and to solve the exercises.
I prefer not to introduce a particular software package in the text itself, for
at least two reasons. The explanation of the features and usage of the software can
detract from the mathematics. Also, if the book is based on a particular software
package, then it can be difficult to use with a different package. For these reason, my
text does not mention any software packages except in a few footnotes. However,
since the use of software is, in my opinion, essential for a modern course, I have
written tutorials for MATLAB, Mathematica, and Maple that explain the various
capabilities of these programs that are relevant to this book. These tutorials appear
on the accompanying CD.

Outline
The core material in this text is found in Chapters 5-7, which present Fourier series
and finite element techniques for the three most important differential equations of
mathematical physics: Laplace's equation, the heat equation, and the wave equa-
tion. Since the concepts themselves are hard enough, these chapters are restricted
to problems in a single spatial dimension.
Several introductory chapters set the stage for this core. Chapter 1 briefly
defines the basic terminology and notation that will be used in the text. Chapter
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xx Preface

2 then derives the standard differential equations in one spatial dimension, in the
process explaining the meaning of various physical parameters that appear in the
equations and introducing the associated boundary conditions and initial conditions.
Chapter 3, which has already been discussed above, presents the concepts and
techniques from linear algebra that will be used in subsequent chapters. I want
to reiterate that perhaps the most important key to using this text effectively is
to move through Chapter 3 expeditiously. The rudimentary understanding that
students obtain in going through Chapter 3 will grow as the concepts are used in
the rest of the book.
Chapter 4 presents the background material on ordinary differential equations
that is needed in later chapters. This chapter is much easier than the previous
one, because much of the material is review for many students. Only the last two
sections, on numerical methods and stiff systems, are likely to be new. Although
the chapter is entitled Essential Ordinary Differential Equations, Section 4.3 is not
formally prerequisite for the rest of the book. I included this material to give
students a foundation for understanding stiff systems of ODEs (particularly, the
stiff system arising from the heat equation). Similarly, Runge-Kutta schemes and
automatic step control are not strictly needed. However, understanding a little
about variable step size methods is useful if one tries to apply an "off-the-shelf"
routine to a stiff system.
Chapter 8 extends the models and techniques developed in the first part of the
book to two spatial dimensions (with some brief discussions of three dimensions).
The last two chapters provide a more in-depth treatment of Fourier series
(Chapter 9) and finite elements (Chapter 10). In addition to the standard theory of
Fourier series, Chapter 9 shows how to use the fast Fourier transform to efficiently
compute Fourier series solutions of the PDEs, explains the relationships among the
various types of Fourier series, and discusses the extent to which the Fourier series
method can be extended to complicated geometries and equations with noncon-
stant coefficients. Sections 9.4-9.6 present a careful mathematical treatment of the
convergence of Fourier series, and have a different flavor from the remainder of the
book. In particular, they are less suited for an audience of science and engineering
students, and have been included as a reference for the curious student.
Chapter 10 gives some advice on implementing finite element computations,
discusses the solution of the resulting sparse linear systems, and briefly outlines
the convergence theory for finite element methods. It also shows how to use finite
elements to solve general eigenvalue problems. The tutorials on the accompany-
ing CD include programs implementing two-dimensional finite element methods, as
described in Section 10.1, in each of the supported software packages (MATLAB,
Mathematica, and Maple). The sections on sparse systems and the convergence the-
ory are both little more than outlines, pointing the students toward more advanced
concepts. Both of these topics, of course, could easily justify a dedicated semester-
long course, and I had no intention of going into detail. I hope that the material
on implementation of finite elements (in Section 10.1) will encourage some students
to experiment with two-dimensional calculations, which are already too tedious to
carry out by hand. This sort of information seems to be lacking from most books
accessible to students at this level.
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Preface xxi

Possible course outlines

In a one-semester course (42-45 class hours), I typically cover Chapters 1-7 and part
of Chapter 8. I touch only lightly on the material concerning Green's functions and
the Dirac delta function (Sections 4.6, 6.6, and 7.4.1), and sometimes omit Section
6.3, but cover the remainder of Chapters 1-7 carefully.
If an instructor wishes to cover a significant part of the material in Chapters
8-10, an obvious place to save time is in Chapter 4. I would suggest covering
the needed material on ODEs on a "just-in-time" basis in the course of Chapters
5-7. This will definitely save time, since my presentation in Chapter 4 is more
detailed than is really necessary. Chapter 2 can be given as a reading assignment,
particularly for the intended audience of science and engineering students, who will
typically be comfortable with the physical parameters appearing in the differential
equations.

Acknowledgments
This book began when I was visiting Rice University in 1998-1999 and taught a
course using the lecture notes of Professor William W. Symes. To satisfy my per-
sonal predilections, I rewrote the notes significantly, and for the convenience of
myself and my students, I typeset them in the form of a book, which was the first
version of this text. Although the final result bears, in some ways, little resem-
blance to Symes's original notes, I am indebted to him for the idea of recasting the
undergraduate PDE course in more modern terms. His example was the inspiration
for this project, and I benefited from his advice throughout the writing process.
I am also indebted to the students who have suffered through courses taught
from early version of this text. Many of them found errors, typographical and
otherwise, that might otherwise have found their way into print.
I would like to thank Professors Gino Biondini, Yuji Kodoma, Robert Krasny,
Yuan Lou, Fadil Santosa, and Paul Uhlig, all of whom read part or all of the text
and offered helpful suggestions.
The various physical parameters used in the examples and exercises were de-
rived (sometimes by interpolation) from tables in the CRC Handbook of Chemistry
and Physics [35].
The graphs in this book were generated with MATLAB. For MATLAB product
information, please contact:
The MathWorks, Inc.
3 Apple Hill Drive
Natick, MA 01760-2098 USA
Tel: 508-647-7000
Fax: 508-647-7101
E-mail: [email protected]
Web: www.mathworks.com
As mentioned above, the CD also supports the use of Mathematica and Maple. For
Mathematica product information, contact:
 www.unifreebooks.com

xxii Preface

Wolfram Research, Inc.

100 Trade Center Drive
Champaign, IL 61820-7237 USA
Tel: 800-965-3726
Fax: 217-398-0747
E-mail: [email protected]
For Maple product information, contact:
Waterloo Maple Inc.
57 Erb Street
West Waterloo, Ontario
Canada N2L6C2
Tel: 800-267-6583
E-mail: [email protected]
 www.unifreebooks.com

Chapter 1

classification of
differential equations

Loosely speaking, a differential equation is an equation specifying a relation between

the derivatives of a function or between one or more derivatives and the function
itself. We will call the function appearing in such an equation the unknown function.
We use this terminology because the typical task involving a differential equation,
and the focus of this book, is to solve the differential equation, that is, to find a
function whose derivatives are related as specified by the differential equation. In
carrying out this task, everything else about the relation, other than the unknown
function, is regarded as known. Any function satisfying the differential equation is
called a solution. In other words, a solution of a differential equation is a function
that, when substituted for the unknown function, causes the equation to be satisfied.
Differential equations fall into several natural and widely used categories:
1. Ordinary versus partial:
(a) If the unknown function has a single independent variable, say t, then the
equation is an ordinary differential equation (ODE). In this case, only
"ordinary" derivatives are involved. Examples of ODEs are

In the second example, a, b, and c are regarded as known constants,

and f ( t ) as a known function of t. In both equations, the unknown is
u = u(t).
(b) If the unknown function has two or more independent variables, the
equation is called a partial differential equation (PDE). Examples include

1
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Chapter 1. Classification of differential equations

In (1-3), the unknown function is u = u(x,y), while in (1.4), it is u =

u(x,t). In (1.4), c is a known constant.
2. Order: The order of a differential equation is the order of the highest deriva-
tive appearing in the equation. Most differential equations arising in science
and engineering are first or second order. Example (1.1) above is first order,
while Examples (1.2), (1.3), and (1.4) are second order.
3. Linear versus nonlinear:
(a) As the examples suggest, a differential equation has, on each side of the
equals sign, algebraic expressions involving the unknown function and
its derivatives, and possibly other functions and constants regarded as
known. A differential equation is linear if those terms involving the un-
known function contain only products of a single factor of the unknown
function or one of its derivatives with other (known) constants or func-
tions of the independent variables.2 In linear differential equations, the
unknown function and its derivatives do not appear raised to a power
other than 1, or as the argument of a nonlinear function (like sin, exp,
log, etc.).
For example, the general linear second-order ODE has the form

Here we require that a 2 ( t ) 0 in order that the equation truly be of

second order. Example (1.2) is a special case of this general equation.
In a linear differential equation, the unknown or its derivatives can be
multiplied by constants or by functions of the independent variable, but
not by functions of the unknown.
As another example, the general linear second-order PDE in two inde-
pendent variables is

Examples (1.3) and (1.4) are of this form (although the independent
variables are called x and t in (1.4), not x and y). Not all of an, a12,
and a22 can be zero in order for this equation to be second order.
A linear differential equation is homogeneous if the zero function is a
solution. For example, u(t) = 0 satisfies (1.1), u(x,y) = 0 satisfies (1.3),
2
In Section 3.1, we will give a more precise definition of linearity.
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Chapter 1. Classification of differential equations 3

and u(x,t) = 0 satisfies (1.4), so these are examples of homogeneous

linear differential equations. A homogeneous linear equation has another
important property: whenever u and v are solutions of the equation, so
is cm + ftv for all real numbers a and ft. For example, suppose u(t) and
v(t) are solutions of (1.1) (that is, du/dt — 3w and dv/dt = 3i>), and
w = au + ftv. Then

Thus w is also a solution of (1.1).

A linear differential equation which is not homogeneous is called inho-
mogeneous. For example

is linear inhomogeneous, since u(i) = 0 does not satisfy this equation.

Example (1.2) might be homogeneous or not, depending on whether
/(*) = 0 or not.
It is always possible to group all terms involving the unknown function
in a linear differential equation on the left-hand side and all terms not
involving the unknown function on the right-hand side. For example,
(1.5) is equivalent to

"Equivalent to" in this context means that (1.5) and (1.6) have exactly
the same solutions: if u(t) solves one of these two equations, it solves
the other as well. When the equation is written this way, with all of
the terms involving the unknown on the left and those not involving the
unknown on the right, homogeneity is easy to recognize: the equation is
homogeneous if and only if the right-hand side is identically zero.
(b) Differential equations which are not linear are termed nonlinear. For
example,

is nonlinear. This is clear, as the unknown function u appears raised to

the second power. Another way to see that (1.7) is nonlinear is as follows:
if the equation were linear, it would be linear homogeneous, since the zero
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4 Chapter 1. Classification of differential equations

function is a solution. However, suppose that u(t) and v(t} are nonzero
solutions, so that

Thus w does not satisfy the equation, so the equation must be nonlinear.
Both linear and nonlinear differential equations occur as models of physi-
cal phenomena of great importance in science and engineering. However,
linear differential equations are much better understood, and most of
what is known about nonlinear differential equations depends on the
analysis of linear differential equations. This book will focus almost ex-
clusively on the solution of linear differential equations.

4. Constant versus nonconstant coefficient: Linear differential equations

like

have constant coefficients if the coefficients ra, c, and k are constants rather
than (nonconstant) functions of the independent variable. The right-hand side
f ( t ) may depend on the independent variable; it is only the quantities which
multiply the unknown function and its derivatives which must be constant,
in order for the equation to have constant coefficients. Some techniques that
are effective for constant-coefficient problems are very difficult to apply to
problems with nonconstant coefficients.
As a convention, we will explicitly write the independent variable when a coef-
ficient is a function rather than a constant. The only function in a differential
equation for which we will omit the independent variable is the unknown
function. Thus

is an ODE with a nonconstant coefficient, namely k(x).

We will only apply the phrase "constant coefficients" to linear differential
equations.
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Chapter 1. Classification of differential equations 5

5. Scalar equation versus system of equations: A single differential equa-

tion in one unknown function will be referred to as a scalar equation (all of the
examples we have seen to this point have been scalar equations). A system of
differential equations consists of several equations for one or more unknown
functions. Here is a system of three first-order linear, constant-coefficient
ODEs for three unknown functions x i ( t ) , X 2 ( t ) , and xs(t):

It is important to realize that, since a differential equation is an equation

involving functions, a solution will satisfy the equation for all values of the inde-
pendent variable(s), or at least all values in some restricted domain. The equation
is to be interpreted as an identity, such as the familiar trigonometric identity

To say that (1.8) is an identity is to say that it is satisfied for all values of the
independent variable t. Similarly, u(t) — e3t is a solution of (1.1) because this
function u satisfies

for all values of t.

The careful reader will note the close analogy between the uses of many terms
introduced in this section ("unknown function," "solution," "linear" vs. "nonlin-
ear" ) and the uses of similar terms in discussing algebraic equations. The analogy
between linear differential equations and linear algebraic systems is an important
theme in this book.

Exercises
1. Classify each of the following differential equations according to the categories
described in this chapter (ODE or PDE, linear or nonlinear, etc.):
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6 Chapter 1. Classification of differential equations

2. Repeat Exercise 1 for the following equations:

3. Repeat Exercise 1 for the following equations:

4. Repeat Exercise 1 for the following equations:

5. Determine whether each of the functions below is a solution of the correspond-

ing differential equation in Exercise 1:

6. Determine whether each of the functions below is a solution of the correspond-

ing differential equation in Exercise 2:
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Chapter 1. Classification of differential equations 7

7. Find a function f ( t ) so that u(t) = tsm (t) is a solution of the ODE

Is there only one such function /? Why or why not?

8. Is there a constant / such that u(t] = e1 is a solution of the ODE

9. Suppose u is a nonzero solution of a linear, homogeneous differential equation.

What is another nonzero solution?
10. Suppose u is a solution of

and v is a (nonzero) solution of

Explain how to produce infinitely many different solutions of (1.9).

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Chapter 2

Modelas in one dimension

In this chapter, we present several different and interesting physical processes that
can be modeled by ODEs or PDEs. For now we restrict ourselves to phenomena that
can be described (at least approximately) as occurring in a single spatial dimension:
heat flow or mechanical vibration in a long, thin bar, vibration of a string, diffusion
of chemicals in a pipe, and so forth. In Chapters 5-7, we will learn methods for
solving the resulting differential equations.
In Chapter 8, we consider similar experiments occurring in multiple spatial
dimensions.

2.1 Heat flow in a bar; Fourier's law

We begin by considering the distribution of heat energy (or, equivalently, of temper-
ature) in a long, thin bar. We assume that the cross-sections of the bar are uniform,
and that the temperature varies only in the longitudinal direction. In particular,
we assume that the bar is perfectly insulated, except possibly at the ends, so that
no heat escapes through the side. By making several simplifying assumptions, we
derive a linear PDE whose solution is the temperature in the bar as a function of
spatial position and time.
We show, when we treat multiple space dimensions in Chapter 8, that if the
initial temperature is constant in each cross-section, and if any heat source depends
only on the longitudinal coordinate, then all subsequent temperature distributions
depend only on the longitudinal coordinate. Therefore, in this regard, there is
no modeling error in adopting a one-dimensional model. (There is modeling error
associated with some of the other assumptions we make.)
We will now derive the model, which is usually called the heat equation. We
begin by defining a coordinate system (see Figure 2.1). The variable x denotes
position in the bar in the longitudinal direction, and we assume that one end of the
bar is at x = 0. The length of the bar will be £, so the other end is at x = t. We
denote by A the area of a cross-section of the bar.
The temperature of the bar is determined by the amount of heat energy in

9
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2.1. Heat flow in a bar; Fourier's law 11

The fact that we do not know EQ causes no difficulty, because we are going to model
the change in the energy (and hence temperature).
Specifically, we examine the rate of change, with respect to time, of the heat
energy in the part of the bar between x and x + Ax. The total heat in [x, x + Ax]
is given by (2.2), so its rate of change is

(the constant EQ differentiates to zero). To work with this expression, we need the
following result, which allows us to move the derivative past the integral sign:

Theorem 2.1. Let F : (a,b) x [c, d\ —>• R and dF/dx be continuous, and define
(f>: (a, 6) ->• R by

Then 0 is continuously differentiate, and

That is,

By Theorem 2.1, we have

If we assume that there are no internal sources or sinks of heat, the heat
contained in [x, x + Ax] can change only because heat flows through the cross-
sections at x and x + Ax. The rate at which heat flows through the cross-section
at x is called the heat flux, and is denoted q(x,t). It has units of energy per unit
area per unit time, and is a signed quantity: if heat energy is flowing in the positive
x-direction, then q is positive.
The net heat entering [x, x + Ax] at time t, through the two cross-sections, is

the last equation follows from the fundamental theorem of calculus. (See Figure
2.2.) Equating (2.3) and (2.4) yields
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12 Chapter 2. Models in one dimension

or

Since this holds for all x and Ax, it follows that the integrand must be zero:

(The key point here is that the integral above equals zero over every small interval.
This is only possible if the integrand is itself zero. If the integrand were positive,
say, at some point in [0,^], and were continuous, then the integral over a small
interval around that point would be positive.)

Figure 2.2. The heat flux into and out of a part of the bar.

Naturally, heat will flow from regions of higher temperature to regions of

lower temperature; note that the sign of du/dx indicates whether temperature is
increasing or decreasing as x increases, and hence indicates the direction of heat
flow. We now make a simplifying assumption, which is called Fourier's law of heat
conduction: the heat flux q is proportional to the temperature gradient, du/dx. We
call the magnitude of the constant of proportionality the thermal conductivity K,
and obtain the equation

(the units of K can be determined from the units of the heat flux and those of the
temperature gradient; see Exercise 2.1.1). The negative sign is necessary so that
heat flows from hot regions to cold. Substituting Fourier's law into the differential
equation (2.5), we can eliminate q and find a PDE for u:

(We have canceled a common factor of A) Here we have assumed that K is constant,
which would be true if the bar were homogeneous. It is possible that K depends on
x (in which case p and c probably do as well); then we obtain

We call (2.7) the heat equation.

If the bar contains internal sources (or sinks) of heat (such as chemical reac-
tions that produce heat), we collect all such sources into a single source function
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2.1. Heat flow in a bar; Fourier's law 13

/(x,t) (in units of heat energy per unit time per unit volume). Then the total heat
added to [x, x + Ax] during the time interval [t, t + At] is

The time rate of change of this contribution to the total heat energy (at time t) is

The rate of change of total heat in [#, x + Ax] is now given by the sum of (2.4) and
(2.8), so we obtain, by the above reasoning, the inhomogeneous3 heat equation

2.1.1 Boundary and initial conditions for the heat equation

The heat equation by itself is not a complete model of heat flow. We must know
how heat flows through the ends of the bar, and we must know the temperature
distribution in the bar at some initial time.
Two possible boundary conditions for heat flow in a bar correspond to perfect
insulation and perfect thermal contact. If the ends of the bar are perfectly insulated,
so that the heat flux across the ends is zero, then we have

(no heat flows into the left end or out of the right end). On the other hand, if
the ends of the bar are kept fixed at temperature zero4 (through perfect thermal
contact with an ice bath, for instance), we obtain

u(0,t) =u(l,t] = 0 for alH.

Either of these boundary conditions can be inhomogeneous (that is, have a nonzero
right-hand side), and we could, of course, have mixed conditions (one end insulated,
the other held at fixed temperature).
A boundary condition that specifies the value of the solution is called a Dirich-
let condition, while a condition that specifies the value of the derivative is called a
Neumann condition. A problem with a Dirichlet condition at one end and a Neu-
mann condition at the other is said to have mixed boundary conditions. As noted
3
The term homogeneous is used in two completely different ways in this section and throughout
the book. A material can be (physically) homogeneous, which implies that the coefficients in the
differential equations will be constants. On the other hand, a linear differential equation can be
(mathematically) homogeneous, which means that the right-hand side is zero. These two uses of
the word homogeneous are unrelated and potentially confusing, but the usage is standard and so
the reader must understand from context the sense in which the word is used.
4
Since changing u by an additive constant does not affect the differential equation, we can as
well use Celsius as the temperature scale rather than Kelvin. (See Exercise 6.)
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14 Chapter 2. Models in one dimension

above, we will also use the terms homogeneous and inhomogeneous to refer to the
boundary conditions. The condition u(i] = 10 is called an inhomogeneous Dirichlet
condition, for example.
To completely determine the temperature as a function of time and space, we
must know the temperature distribution at some initial time to. This is an initial
rnnAH-.i.nn.'

Putting together the PDE, the boundary conditions, and the initial condition,
we obtain an initial-boundary value problem (IBVP) for the heat equation. For
example, with both ends of the bar held at fixed temperatures, we have the IBVP

2.1.2 Steady-state heat flow

An important special case modeled by the heat equation is steady-state heat flow—a
situation in which the temperature is constant with respect to time (although not
necessarily with respect to space). In this case, the temperature function u can be
thought of as a function of x alone, u — u(x), the partial derivative with respect to
t is zero, and the differential equation becomes

In the steady-state case, any source term / must be independent of time (otherwise,
the equation could not possibly be satisfied by a function u that is independent of
time). Boundary conditions have the same meaning as in the time-dependent case,
although in the case of inhomogeneous boundary conditions, the boundary data
must be constant. On the other hand, it obviously does not make sense to impose
an initial condition on a steady-state temperature distribution.
Collecting these observations, we see that a steady-state heat flow problem
takes the form of a boundary value problem (BVP). For example, if the temperature
is fixed at the two endpoints of the bar, we have the following Dirichlet problem:

We remark that, when only one spatial dimension is taken into account, a steady-
state (or equilibrium] problem results in an ODE rather than a PDE. Moreover,
these problems, at least in their simplest form, can be solved directly by two inte-
grations. Nevertheless, we will (in Chapter 5) devote a significant amount of effort
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2.1. Heat flow in a bar; Fourier's law 15

toward developing methods for solving these ODEs, since the techniques can be gen-
eralized to multiple spatial dimensions, and also form the foundation for techniques
for solving time-dependent problems.

Example 2.2. The thermal conductivity of an aluminum alloy is 1.5 W/(cmK).

We will calculate the steady-state temperature of an aluminum bar of length 1 m
(insulated along the sides) with its left end fixed at 20 degrees Celsius and its right
end fixed at 30 degrees. If we write u = u(x] for the steady-state temperature, then
u satisfies the BVP

(We changed the units of the length of the bar to centimeters, so as to be consistent
with the units of the thermal conductivity.) The differential equation implies that
d?u/dx2 is zero, so, integrating once, du/dx is constant, say

Integrating a second time yields

The boundary condition w(0) = 20 implies that C? = 20, and the second boundary
condition then yields

Thus

The reader should notice that the thermal conductivity of the bar does not
affect the solution in the previous example. This is because the bar is homogeneous
(that is, the thermal conductivity of the bar is constant throughout). This should
be contrasted with the next example.

Example 2.3. A metal bar of length 100 cm is manufactured so that its thermal
conductivity is given by the formula

(the units of K(X] are W/(cmK)). We will find the steady-state temperature of the
bar under the same conditions as in the previous example. That is, we will solve
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16 Chapter 2. Models in one dimension

the BVP

Integrating both sides of the differential equation once yields

where C is a constant. Equivalently, we have

Integrating a second time yields

Applying the boundary condition w(100) = 30, we obtain

With this value for C, we have

The steady-state temperatures from the two previous examples are shown in
Figure 2.3, which shows that the heterogeneity of the second bar makes a small but
discernible difference in the temperature distribution. In both cases, heat energy is
flowing from the right end of the bar to the left, and the heterogeneous bar has a
higher thermal conductivity at the right end. This leads to a higher temperature
in the middle of the bar.

2.1.3 Diffusion
One of the facts that makes mathematics so useful is that different physical phe-
nomena can lead to essentially the same mathematical model. In this section we
introduce another experiment that is modeled by the heat equation. Of course, the
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2.1. Heat flow in a bar; Fourier's law 17

Figure 2.3. The steady-state temperature from Example 2.2 (solid line)
and Example 2.3 (dashed curve).

meaning of the quantities appearing in the equation will be different than in the
case of heat flow.
We suppose that a certain chemical is in solution in a straight pipe having a
uniform cross-section. We assume that the pipe has length t, and we establish a
coordinate system as in the preceding section, with one end of the pipe at x = 0
and the other at x = 1. Assuming the concentration varies only in the ^-direction,
we can define u(x, t) to be the concentration, in units of mass per volume, of the
chemical at time t in the cross-section located at x. Then the total mass of the
chemical in the part of the bar between x and x + Aar (at time t) is

where A is the cross-sectional area of the pipe. The chemical will tend to diffuse
from regions of high concentration to regions of low concentration (just as heat
energy flows from hot regions to cooler regions). We will assume5 that the rate of
diffusion is proportional to the concentration gradient

5
This assumption, which is analogous to Fourier's law of heat conduction, is called Pick's law
in the diffusion setting.
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18 Chapter 2. Models in one dimension

the meaning of this assumption is that there exists a constant6 D > 0 such that, at
time t, the chemical moves across the cross-section at x at a rate of

The units of this mass flux are mass per area per time (for example, g/cm2s). Since
the units of du/dx are mass/length4, the diffusion coefficient D must have unit of
area per time (for example, cm2/s).
With this assumption, the equation modeling diffusion is derived exactly as
was the heat equation, with a similar result. The total amount of the chemical
contained in the part of the pipe between x and x + Ax is given by (2.12), so the
rate at which this total mass is changing is

This same quantity can be computed from the fluxes at the two cross-sections at x
and x + Ax. At the left, mass is entering at a rate of

while at the right it enters at a rate of

We therefore have

The result is the diffusion equation:

If the chemical is added to the interior of the pipe, this can be accounted for by a
function /(x, t), where mass is added to the part of the pipe between x and x + Ax
at a rate of

(mass per unit time—/ has units of mass per volume per time). We then obtain
the inhomogeneous diffusion equation:

6
This constant varies with temperature and pressure; see the CRC Handbook of Chemistry and
°hysics [35], page 6-179.
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2.1. Heat flow in a bar; Fourier's law 19

Just as in the case of heat flow, we can consider steady-state diffusion. The
result is the ODE

with appropriate boundary conditions. Boundary conditions for the diffusion equa-
tion are explored in the exercises.

Exercises
1. Determine the units of the thermal conductivity K from (2.6).
2. In the CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics [35], there is a table labeled
"Heat Capacity of Selected Solids," which "gives the molar heat capacity at
constant pressure of representative metals ... as a function of temperature in
the range 200 to 600 K" ([35], page 12-190). For example, the entry for iron
is as follows:

Temp. (K) 200 250 300 350 400 500 600

c (J/mole • K) 21.59 23.74 25.15 26.28 27.39 29.70 32.05
As this table indicates, the specific heat of a material depends on its tempera-
ture. How would the heat equation change if we did not ignore the dependence
of the specific heat on temperature?
3. Verify that the integral in (2.1) has units of energy.
4. Suppose u represents the temperature distribution in a homogeneous bar, as
discussed in this section, and assume that both ends of the bar are perfectly
insulated.
(a) What is the IBVP modeling this situation?
(b) Show (mathematically) that the total heat energy in the bar is constant
with respect to time. (Of course, this is obvious from a physical point of
view. The fact that the mathematical model implies that the total heat
energy is constant is one confirmation that the model is not completely
divorced from reality.)
5. Suppose we have a means of "pumping" heat energy into a bar through one
of the ends. If we add r Joules per second through the end at x = I, what
would the corresponding boundary condition be?
6. In our derivation of the heat equation, we assumed that temperature was
measured on the Kelvin scale. Explain what changes must be made (in the
PDE, initial condition, or boundary conditions) to use degrees Celsius instead.
7. The thermal conductivity of iron is 0.802 W/(cm K). Consider an iron bar of
length 1 m and radius 1 cm, with the lateral side completely insulated, and
assume that the temperature of one end of the bar is held fixed at 20 degrees
Celsius, while the temperature of the other end is held fixed at 30 degrees.
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20 Chapter 2. Models in one dimension

Assume that no heat energy is added to or removed from the interior of the
bar.
(a) What is the (steady-state) temperature distribution in the bar?
(b) At what rate is heat energy flowing through the bar?
8. (a) Show that the function

is a solution to the homogeneous heat equation

(b) What values of 0 will cause u to also satisfy homogeneous Dirichlet con-
ditions at x = 0 and x = tl
9. In this exercise, we consider a boundary condition for a bar that may be more
realistic than a simple Dirichlet condition. Assume that, as usual, the side of a
bar is completely insulated and that the ends are placed in a bath maintained
at constant temperature. Assume that the heat flows out of or into the ends
in accordance with Newton's law of cooling: the heat flux is proportional to
the difference in temperature between the end of the bar and the surrounding
medium. What are the resulting boundary conditions?
10. Derive the heat equation from Newton's law of cooling (cf. the previous exer-
cise) as follows: Divide the bar into a large number n of equal pieces, each of
length Ax. Approximate the temperature in the «th piece as a function Ui(t)
(thus assuming that the temperature in each piece is constant at each point
in time). Write down a coupled system of ODEs for ui(t), u^t], • • • ,un(t)
by applying Newton's law of cooling to each piece and its nearest neighbors.
Assume that the bar is homogeneous, so that the material properties p, c, and
K are constant. Take the limit as Aa; —> 0, and show that the result is the
heat equation.
11. Suppose a chemical is diffusing in a pipe, and both ends of the pipe are sealed.
What are the appropriate boundary conditions for the diffusion equation?
What initial conditions are required? Write down a complete IBVP for the
diffusion equation under these conditions.
12. Suppose that a chemical contained in a pipe of length I has an initial concen-
tration distribution of w(or,0) = ip(x}. At time zero, the ends of the pipe are
sealed, and no mass is added to or removed from the interior of the pipe.
(a) Write down the IBVP describing the diffusion of the chemical.
(b) Show mathematically that the total mass of the chemical in the pipe is
constant. (Derive this fact from the equations rather than from common
sense.)
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2.2. The hanging bar 21

(c) Describe the ultimate steady-state concentration.

(d) Give a formula for the steady-state concentration in terms of if).
13. Suppose a pipe of length t and radius r joins two large reservoirs, each con-
taining a (well-mixed) solution of the same chemical. Let the concentration
in one reservoir be MO and in the other be ui, and assume that w(0,£) = MO
and u(l,t) = ut.
(a) Find the steady-state rate at which the chemical diffuses through the
pipe (in units of mass per time).
(b) How does this rate vary with the length i and the radius r?
14. Consider the previous exercise, in which the chemical is carbon monoxide
(CO) and the solution is CO in air. Suppose that MO = 0.01 and ui = 0.015,
and that the diffusion coefficient of CO in air is 0.208 cm2/s. If the bar is 1 m
long and its radius is 2cm, find the steady-state rate at which CO diffuses
through the pipe (in units of mass per time).
15. Verify that Theorem 2.1 holds for (a, 6) x (c, d) = (0,1) x [0,1] and F defined
by F(x,y) = cos(xy}.

2.2 The hanging bar

Suppose that a bar, with uniform cross-sectional area A and length i, hangs verti-
cally, and it stretches due to a force (perhaps gravity) acting upon it. We assume
that the deformation occurs only in the vertical direction; this assumption is reason-
able only if the bar is long and thin. Normal materials tend to contract horizontally
when they are stretched vertically, but both this contraction and the coupling be-
tween horizontal and vertical motion are small compared to the elongation when
the bar is thin (see Lin and Segel [36], Chapter 12).
With the assumption of purely vertical deformation, we can describe the move-
ment of the bar in terms of a displacement function u(x,t). Specifically, suppose
that the top of the bar is fixed at x = 0, and let down be the positive x-direction.
Let the cross-section of the bar originally at x move to x + u(x,t) at time t (see
Figure 2.4). We will derive a PDE describing the dynamics of the bar by applying
Newton's second law of motion.
We assume that the bar is elastic, which means that the internal forces in the
bar depend on the local relative of change in length. The deformed length of the
part of the bar originally between x and x + Ax (at time t} is

Since the original length is Ax, the change in length of this part is

and the relative change in length is

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22 Chapter 2. Models in one dimension

Figure 2.4. The hanging bar and its coordinate system.

This explains the definition of the strain, the local relative change in length, as the
dimensionless quantity

As we noted above, to say that the bar is elastic is to say that the internal
restoring force of the deformed bar depends only on the strain. We now make the
further assumption that the deformations are small, and therefore that the internal
forces are, to good approximation, proportional to the strain. This is equivalent to
assuming that the bar is linearly elastic, or Hookean.
Under the assumption that the bar is Hookean, we can write an expression for
the total internal force acting on P, the part of the bar between x and x + Ax. We
denote by k(x) the stiffness of the bar at x, that is, the constant of proportionality
in Hooke's law, with units of force per unit area. (In the engineering literature, k is
called the Young's modulus or the modulus of elasticity. Values for various materials
can be found in reference books, such as [35].) Then the total internal force is

The first term in this expression is the force exerted by the part of the bar below
x + Ax on P, and the second term is the force exerted by the part of the bar above
x on P. The signs are correct; if the strains are positive, then the bar has been
stretched, and the internal restoring force is pulling down (the positive direction)
at x + Ax and up at x.
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2.2. The hanging bar 23

Now, (2.13) is equal (by the fundamental theorem of calculus) to

We now assume that all external forces are lumped into a body force given by a force
density / (which has units of force per unit volume). Then the total external force
on P (at time t] is

and the sum of the forces acting on part P is

Newton's second law states that the total force acting on P must equal the
mass of P times its acceleration. This law takes the form

where p(x) is the density of the bar at x (in units of mass per volume). We can
rewrite this as

(note how the factor of A cancels). This integral must be zero for every x e [0,£)
and every Ax > 0. It follows (by the reasoning introduced on page 12) that the
integrand must be identically zero; this gives the equation

The PDE (2.14) is called the wave equation.

If the bar is in equilibrium, then the displacement does not depend on t, and
we can write u = u(x]. In this case, the acceleration d2u/dt2 is zero, and the forcing
function / must also be independent of time. We then obtain the following ODE
for the equilibrium displacement of the bar:

This is the same equation that governs steady-state heat flow! Just as in the case
of steady-state heat flow, the resulting BVPs can be solved with two integrations
(see Examples 2.2 and 2.3).
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24 Chapter 2. Models in one dimension

If the bar is homogeneous, so that p and k are constants, these last two
differential equations can be written as

and

respectively.

2.2.1 Boundary conditions for the hanging bar

Equation (2.15) by itself does not determine a unique displacement; we need bound-
ary conditions, as well as initial conditions if the problem is time-dependent. The
statement of the problem explicitly gives us one boundary condition: u(0) = 0 (the
top end of the bar cannot move). Moreover, we can deduce a second boundary
condition from force balance at the other end of the bar. If the bottom of the bar
is unsupported, then there is no contact force applied at x = t. On the other hand,
the analysis that led to (2.13) shows that the part of the bar above x — t (which is
all of the bar) exerts an internal force of

on the surface at x = t. Since there is nothing to balance this force, we must have

or simply

Since the wave equation involves the second time derivative of u, we need two
initial conditions to uniquely determine the motion of the bar: the initial displace-
ment and the initial velocity. We thus arrive at the following IBVP for the wave
equation:
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2.2. The hanging bar 25

The corresponding steady-state BVP (expressing mechanical equilibrium) is

There are several other sets of boundary conditions that might be of interest
in connection with the differential equations (2.14) or (2.15). For example, if both
ends of the bar are fixed (not allowed to move), we have the boundary conditions

(recall that u is the displacement, so the condition u(i] = 0 indicates that the cross-
section at the end of the bar corresponding to x = t does not move from its original
position). If both ends of the bar are free, the corresponding boundary conditions
are

Any of the above boundary conditions can be inhomogeneous. For example,

we could fix one end of the bar at x = 0 and stretch the other to x = t + A^.
This experiment corresponds to the boundary conditions w(0) = 0, u(t] = A£ As
another example, if one end of the bar (say x = 0) is fixed and a force F is applied
to the other end (x = £), then the applied force determines the value of du/dx(i}.
Indeed, as indicated above, the restoring force of the bar on the x = t cross-section
is

and this must balance the applied force F:

This leads to the boundary condition

and the quantity F/A has units of pressure (force per unit area). For mathematical
purposes, it is simplest to write an inhomogeneous boundary condition of this type
as

but for solving a practical problem, it is essential to recognize that

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26 Chapter 2. Models in one dimension

Exercises
1. Consider the following experiment: A bar is hanging with the top end fixed
at x = 0, and the bar is stretched by a pressure (force per unit area) p
applied uniformly to the free (bottom) end. What are the boundary conditions
describing this situation?
2. Suppose that a homogeneous bar (that is, a bar with constant stiffness A;) of
length i has its top end fixed at x = 0, and the bar is stretched to a length
1+A£. by a pressure p applied to the bottom end. Take down to be the positive
x-direction.
(a) Explain why p and A^ have the same sign.
(b) Explain why p and \t cannot both be chosen arbitrarily (even subject
to the requirement that they have the same sign). Give both physical
and mathematical reasons.
(c) Suppose p is specified. Find A^ (in terms of p, k, and i).
(d) Suppose Al is specified. Find p (in terms of A£, fc, and t}.
3. A certain type of stainless steel has a stiffness of 195 GPa. (A Pascal (Pa) is
the standard unit of pressure, or force per unit area. The Pascal is a derived
unit: one Pascal equals one Newton per square meter. The Newton is the
standard unit of force: one Newton equals one kilogram meter per second-
squared. Finally, GPa is short for gigaPascal, or 109 Pascals.)
(a) Explain in words (including units) what a stiffness of 195 GPa means.
(b) Suppose a pressure of 1 GPa is applied to the end of a homogeneous,
circular cylindrical bar of this stainless steel, and that the other end is
fixed. If the original length of the bar is 1 m and its radius is 1 cm, what
will its length be, in the equilibrium state, after the pressure has been
applied?
(c) Verify the result of 3b by formulating and solving the boundary value
problem representing this experiment.
4. Consider a circular cylindrical bar, of length 1 m and radius 1 cm, made from
an aluminum alloy with stiffness 70 GPa. If the top end of the bar (x = 0)
is fixed, what total force must be applied to the other end (x = 1) to stretch
the bar to a length of 1.01 m?
5. Write the wave equation for the bar of Exercise 3, given that the density of
the stainless steel is 7.9 g/cm3. (Warning: Use consistent units!) What must
the units of the forcing function / be? Verify that the two terms on the left
side of the differential equation have the same units as /.
6. Suppose that a i m bar of the stainless steel described in Exercise 3, with
density 7.9g/cm3, is supported at the bottom but free at the top. Let the
cross-sectional area of the bar be O.lm 2 . A weight of 1000 kg is placed on
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2.3. The wave equation for a vibrating string 27

top of the bar, exerting pressure on it via gravity (the gravitational constant
is 9.8m/s 2 ).
The purpose of this problem is to compute and compare the effects on the bar
of the mass on the top and the weight of the bar itself.
(a) Write down three BVPs:
i. First, take into account the weight of the bar (which means that
gravity induces a body force), but ignore the mass on the top (so the
top end of the bar is free—the boundary condition is a homogeneous
Neumann condition).
ii. Next, take into account the mass on the top, but ignore the effect of
the weight of the bar (so there is no body force).
iii. Last, take both effects into account.
(b) Explain why the third BVP can be solved by solving the first two and
adding the results.
(c) Solve the first two BVPs by direct integration. Compare the two dis-
placements. Which is more significant, the weight of the bar or the mass
on top?
(d) How would the situation change if the cross-sectional area of the bar were
changed to 0.2m 2 ?
7. (a) Show that the function

is a solution to the homogeneous wave equation

(b) What values of 9 will cause u to also satisfy homogeneous Dirichlet con-
ditions at x = 0 and x = tl

2.3 The wave equation for a vibrating string

We now present an argument that the wave equation (2.14) also describes the small
transverse vibrations of an elastic string (such as a guitar string). In the course
of the following derivation, we make several a priori unjustified assumptions which
are significant enough that the end result ought to be viewed with some skepticism.
However, a careful analysis leads to the same model (see the article by Antman [1]).
For simplicity, we will assume that the string in question is homogeneous,
so that any material properties are constant throughout the string. We suppose
that the string is stretched to length I and that its two endpoints are not allowed
to move. We further suppose that the string vibrates in the xy-plane, occupying
the interval [0,1] on the x-axis when at rest, and that the point at (x,0) in the
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28 Chapter 2. Models in one dimension

reference configuration moves to (x, u(x, t)) at time t. We are thus postulating that
the motion of the string is entirely in the transverse direction (this is one of the
severe assumptions that we mentioned in the previous paragraph). Granted this
assumption, we now derive the differential equation satisfied by the displacement u.
Since, by assumption, a string does not resist bending, the internal restoring
force of the string under tension is tangent to the string itself at every point. We
will denote the magnitude of this restoring force by T(x, t). In Figure 2.5, we display
a part of the deformed string, corresponding to the part of the string between x
and x + Ax in the reference configuration, together with the internal forces at the
ends of this part, and their magnitudes. In the absence of any external forces, the
sum of these internal forces must balance the mass times acceleration of this part
of the string. To write down these equations, we must decompose the internal force
into its horizontal and vertical components.

Figure 2.5. A part of the deformed string.

We write n = n(x, t) for the force at the left endpoint and 9 for the angle this
force vector makes with the horizontal. We then have

with

Assuming that \du/dx <C 1 at every point, and noting that

a reasonable approximation is
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2.3. The wave equation for a vibrating string 29

We then obtain

Similarly, the force at the right end of the part of the string under consideration is

We then see that

is (an approximation to) the horizontal component of the total force on the part of
the string, and

is (an approximation to) the vertical component.

By assumption, the horizontal component of the acceleration of the string is
zero, and so Newton's second law yields

thus the tension is constant throughout the string at each point in time. We will
assume that the length of the string never changes much from its length in the
reference configuration (which is £), and therefore that it makes sense to assume
that T is independent of t as well, that is, that T is a constant. Applying Newton's
second law to the vertical component yields

where p is the density of the string (in units of mass per length). Since this holds
for all x and Ax sufficiently small, we obtain the differential equation

We recognize this as the homogeneous wave equation. It is usual to write this in

the form

where c2 = T/p. The significance of the parameter c will become clear in Chapter
7.
In the case that an external body force is applied to the string (in the vertical
direction), the equation becomes
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30 Chapter 2. Models in one dimension

Exercise 1 asks the reader to determine the units of /.

The natural boundary conditions for the vibrating string, as suggested above,
are homogeneous Dirichlet conditions:

One can also imagine that one or both ends of the string are allowed to move freely
in the vertical direction (perhaps an end of the string slides along a frictionless
pole). In this case, the appropriate boundary condition is a homogeneous Neumann
condition (see Exercise 5).

Exercises
1. What units must f ( x , t ) have in (2.19)?
2. What are the units of the tension T in the derivation of the wave equation for
the string?
3. What are the units of the parameter c in (2.18)?
4. Suppose the only external force applied to the string is the force due to gravity.
What form does (2.19) take in this case? (Let g be the acceleration due to
gravity, and take g to be constant.)
5. Explain why a homogeneous Neumann condition models an end of the string
that is allowed to move freely in the vertical direction.
6. Suppose that an elastic string is fixed at both ends, as in this section, and it
sags under the influence of an external force f ( x ) (f is constant with respect
to time). What differential equation and side conditions does the equilibrium
displacement of the string satisfy? Assume that / is given in units of force
per length.

2.4 Suggestions for further reading

If the reader wishes to learn more about the use of mathematical models in the
sciences, an excellent place to start is the text by Lin and Segel [36], which com-
bines modeling with the analysis of the models by a number of different analytical
techniques. Lin and Segel cover the models that form the basis for this book, as
well as many others.
A more advanced text, which focuses almost entirely on the derivation of
differential equations from the basic principles of continuum mechanics, is Gurtin
[21].
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Chapter 3

Eseential linear algebra

The solution techniques presented in this book can be described by analogy to

techniques for solving

where A is an n x n matrix (A 6 R n x n ) and x and b are n-vectors (x,b € R n ).

Recall that such a matrix-vector equation represents the following system of n linear
equations in the n unknowns x\, #2, • • • , xn:

Before we discuss methods for solving differential equations, we review the funda-
mental facts about systems of linear (algebraic) equations.

3.1 Linear systems as linear operator equations

To fully appreciate the point of view taken in this book, it is necessary to understand
the equation Ax = b not just as a system of linear equations, but as a finite-
dimensional linear operator equation. In other words, we must view the matrix A
as defining an operator (or mapping, or simply function) from Rn to Rn via matrix
multiplication: A maps x 6 Rn to y = Ax e R n . (More generally, if A is not
square, say A e R m x n , then A defines a mapping from Rn to R m , since Ax G Rm
for each x e Rn.)
The following language is useful in discussing operator equations.

Definition 3.1. Let X and Y be sets. A function (^operator, mapping,) / from X

to Y is a rule for associating with each x e X a unique y £ Y, denoted y = f ( x ) .
The set X is called the domain of f , and the range of f is the set

31
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32 Chapter 3. Essential linear algebra

We write f : X -> Y ("f maps X into Y") to indicate that f is a function from X
toY.

The reader should recognize the difference between the range of a function
/ : X —)• Y and the set Y (which is sometimes called the co-domain of /). The set
Y merely identifies the type of the output values /(#); for example, if Y = R, then
every /(#) is a real number. On the other hand, the range of / is the set of elements
of Y that are actually attained by /. As a simple example, consider / : R —> R
defined by f ( x ) = x2. The co-domain of / is R, but the range of / consists of the
set of nonnegative numbers:

In many cases, it is quite difficult to determine the range of a function. The co-
domain, on the other hand, must be specified as part of the definition of the function.
A set is just a collection of objects (elements); most useful sets have operations
defined on their elements. The most important sets used in this book sue vector
spaces.

Definition 3.2. A vector space V is a set on which two operations are defined,
addition (if u, v 6 V, then u + v e V) and scalar multiplication (if u € V and a
is a scalar, then cm € V). The elements of the vector space are called vectors. (In
this book, the scalars are usually real numbers, and we assume this unless otherwise
stated. Occasionally we use the set of complex numbers as the scalars. Vectors will
always be denoted by lower case boldface letters.)
The two operations must satisfy the following algebraic properties:

For every vector space considered in this book, the verification of these vector
space properties is straightforward and will be taken for granted.

Example 3.3. The most common example of a vector space is (real) Euclidean
n-space:
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3.1. Linear systems as linear operator equations 33

Vectors in Rn are usually written in column form,

as it is convenient at times to think of u G Rn as an n x 1 matrix. Addition and

scalar multiplication are defined componentwise:

Example 3.4. Apart from Euclidean n-space, the most common vector spaces are
function spaces —vector spaces in which the vectors are functions. Functions (with
common domains) can be added together and multiplied by scalars, and the algebraic
properties of a vector space are easily verified. Therefore, when defining a function
space, one must only check that any desired properties of the functions are preserved
by addition and scalar multiplication. Here are some important examples:
1. C[a, b] is defined to be the set of all continuous, real-valued functions defined
on the interval [a, b]. The sum of two continuous functions is also continuous,
as is any scalar multiple of a continuous function. Therefore, C[a, b] is a
vector space.
2. Cl [a, b] is defined to be the set of all real-valued, continuously differentiate
functions defined on the interval [a,b]. (A function is continuously differen-
tiate if its derivative exists and is continuous.) The sum of two continuously
differentiate functions is also continuously differentiate, and the same is
true for a scalar multiple of a continuously differentiate function. Therefore,
Cl [a, b] is a vector space.
3. For any positive integer k, Ck[a, b] is the space of real-valued functions defined
on [a, b] that have k continuous derivatives.

Many vector spaces that are encountered in practice are subspaces of othe
vector spaces.

Definition 3.5. Let V be a vector space, and suppose W is a subset ofV with the
following properties:
1. The zero vector belongs to W.
2. Every linear combination of vectors in W is also in W. That is, if x, y G W
and a, /? G R, then
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34 Chapter 3. Essential linear algebra

Then we call W a subspace ofV.

A subspace of a vector space is a vector space in its own right, as the reader
can verify by checking that all the properties of a vector space are satisfied for a
subspace.

Example 3.6. We define

The set C^ja, b] is a subset of C2[a,b], and this subset contains the zero function
(hopefully this is obvious to the reader). Also, if u,v e 6%[a, b], a,j3 G R, and
w = au + f3v, then
w e C2[a, b] (since C2[a,b] is a vector space); and
w(a) — au(a) + /3v(a) = a-Q + 0-Q = Q, and similarly w(b) = 0.
Therefore, w € Cp[a,b], which shows that C^a,b] is a subspace of C2[a,b].

Example 3.7. We define

The set C^[a,b] is also a subset of C2[a,b], and it can be shown to be a subspace.
Clearly the zero function belongs to Cj^[a,b]. If u,v € C^[a,b], a,/? £ R, and
w = au + fiv, then

Similarly,

and so w e C^[a,b]. This shows that C^[a,b] is a subspace of C2[a,b].

The previous two examples will be used throughout this book. The letters
"D" and "N" stand for Dirichlet and Neumann, respectively (see Section 2.1, for
example).
The following provides an important nonexample of a subspace.

Example 3.8. We define

where 7 and 8 are nonzero real numbers. Then, although W is a subset of C2[a,b],
it is not a subspace. For example, the zero function does not belong to W, since
it does not satisfy the boundary conditions. Also, if u, v e W and a, J3 € R, then,
with w = au + flv, we have
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3.1. Linear systems as linear operator equations 35

Thus w(a) does not equal 7, except in the special case that a + (3 = I. Similarly,
w(b) does not satisfy the boundary condition at the right endpoint.

The concept of a vector space allows us to define linearity, which describes

many simple processes and is indispensable in modeling and analysis.

Definition 3.9. Suppose X and Y are vector spaces, and f : X —>• Y is an operator
(or function,7 or mapping) with domain X and range Y. Then f is linear if and
only if

This condition can be expressed as the following two conditions, which together are
equivalent to (3.1):

A linear operator is thus a particularly simple kind of operator; its simplicity

can be appreciated by comparing the property of linearity (e.g. f ( x + y} = f ( x ) +
f(y)} with common nonlinear operators: ^/x + y ^ ^-\-^Jy-> sin (x + y) ^ sin (x) +
sin(?/), etc.

Example 3.10. The operator defined by a matrix A G R m x n via matrix-vectoi

multiplication,
f (x) = Ax,
is linear; the reader should verify this if necessary (see Exercise 7). Moreover, it
can be shown that every linear operator mapping Rn into Rm can be represented
by a matrix A € R mxn in this way (see Exercise 8). This explains why the study
of (finite-dimensional) linear algebra is largely the study of matrices. In this book,
matrices will be denoted by upper case boldface letters.

Example 3.11. To show that the sine function is not linear, we observe that

while

Example 3.12. Differentiation defines an operator

7
The word "operator" is preferred over "function" in this context, because the vector spaces
themselves are often spaces of functions.
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36 Chapter 3. Essential linear algebra

and this operator is well known to be linear. For example,

since

In general, the kth derivative operator defines a linear operator mapping Ck[a, b
into C[a,b]. This is why linearity is so important in the study of differential equa-
tions.

Since a matrix A e R n x n defines a linear operator from Rn to Rn, the linear

system Ax = b can be regarded as a linear operator equation. From this point of
view, the questions posed by the system are: Is there a vector x G Rn whose image
under A is the given vector b? If so, is there only one such vector x? In the next
section, we will explore these questions.
The point of view of a linear operator equation is also useful in discussing
differential equations. For example, consider the steady-state heat flow problem

from Section 2.1. We define a differential operator LD : C|,[0,^] -> C[Q,l] by

Then the BVP (3.2) is equivalent to the operator equation

(the reader should notice how the Dirichlet boundary conditions are enforced by
the definition of the domain of LD). This and similar examples will be discussed
throughout this chapter and in detail in Section 5.1.

Exercises
1. In elementary algebra and calculus courses, it is often said that / : R ->• R
is linear if and only if it has the form f(x) — ax + &, where a and b are
constants. Does this agree with Definition 3.9? If not, what is the form of a
linear function / : R —^ R?
2. Show explicitly that / : R -> R defined by f(x) = ^/x is not linear.
3. For each of the following sets of functions, determine whether or not it is a
vector space. (Define addition and scalar multiplication in the obvious way.)
If it is not, state what property of a vector space fails to hold.
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3.1. Linear systems as linear operator equations 37

(d) Pn, the set of all polynomials of degree n or less.

(e) The set of all polynomials of degree exactly n.

4. Prove that the differential operator L : Cl[a, b] —> C[a, b] defined by

is not a linear operator.

5. Prove that the differential operator L : Cl[a,b] —>• C[a,b] defined by

is not a linear operator.

6. Prove that the differential operator M : C2[a, b] —)• <7[a, b] defined by

is a linear operator.

7. (a) Let A e R 2x2 . Prove that

(Write

and write out A(ax + /3y) explicitly.)

(b) Now repeat part 7a for A e R n x n . The proof is not difficult when one
uses summation notation. For example, if the (i, j)-entry of A is denoted
aij, then

Write (A(ax + /?y)) i and (o:Ax + /5Ay)i in summation notation, and

show that the first can be rewritten as the second using the elementary
properties of arithmetic.
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38 Chapter 3. Essential linear algebra

8. (a) Suppose / : R2 —>• R2 is linear. Prove that there is a matrix A € R 2x2

such that / is given by /(x) = Ax. Hint: Each x e R2 satisfies x =
xiei + #262, where

Since / is linear, we have

The desired matrix A can be expressed in terms of the vectors /(ei),

/(e 2 ).
(b) Now show that if / : Rn —>• Rm is linear, then there exists a matrix
A <E R m x n such that /(x) = Ax for all x e R n .

3.2 Existence and uniqueness of solutions to Ax = b

We will now discuss the linear system Ax = b, where A e R n x n and b e R n , as a
linear operator equation. We consider three fundamental questions:
1. Does a solution to the equation exist?

2. If a solution exists, is it unique?

3. If a unique solution exists, how can we compute it?

It turns out that the first two questions are intimately linked; the purpose of this
section is to shed some light on these two questions and the connection between
them. We will also briefly discuss how this point of view can be carried over to the
case of a linear differential equation. The third question will be deferred to later in
this chapter.

3.2.1 Existence
The existence of a solution to Ax = b is equivalent to the condition that b lie in
72-(A), the range of A. This begs the question: What sort of a set is 7£(A)?
If y, w 6 72.(A), say y = Ax, w = Az, then

This shows that ay + /3w € 72-(A). Moreover, the zero vector lies in 7£(A), since
AO = 0. It follows that 7£(A) is a subspace of Rn (possibly the entire space R n —
every vector space is a subspace of itself). Every linear operator has this property;
if f : X -» Y is a linear operator, then 72-(f) is a subspace of the vector space Y.
(The same need not be true for a nonlinear operator.)
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3.2. Existence and uniqueness of solutions to Ax = b 39

The geometry of subspaces of Rn is particularly simple: the proper subspaces

n
of R (i.e. those that are not the entire space) are lower-dimensional spaces: lines
in R2, lines and planes in R3, and so forth (we cannot visualize these objects in
dimensions greater than three, but we can understand them by analogy). Since
every subspace must contain the zero vector, not every line in R2, for example, is
a subspace, but only those passing through the origin are.
With this understanding of the geometry of R n , we obtain the following con-
clusions:
If 7£(A) = R n , then Ax = b has a solution for each b e R n . (This is a
tautology.)

If 7£(A) ^ R n , then Ax = b fails to have a solution for almost every b e R n .

This is because a lower-dimensional subspace comprises very little of Rn (think
of a line contained in the plane or in three-dimensional space).

Example 3.13. We consider the equation Ax = b, where A 6 R 2 x 2 is given by

For any x 6 R 2 , we have

This calculation shows that every vector b in the range of A is a multiple of the
vector

Therefore, the subspace 'R-(A) is a line in the plane R2 (see Figure 3.1). Since this
line is a very small part of R 2 , the system Ax = b fails to have a solution for
almost every b e R 2 .

As mentioned at the beginning of this chapter, there is a close analogy between

linear (algebraic) systems and linear differential equations. The reader should think
carefully about the similarities between the following example and the previous one.

Example 3.14. We define the linear differential operator LN '• C^[Q,f\ -» (7[0,£j
by
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40 Chapter 3. Essential linear algebra

Figure 3.1. The range of the matrix A in Example 3.13.

where

(as defined in the previous section). If f e 7£(Ljv), then there exists u € C^[0,l]
such that LNU = f. It follows that

This shows that f e C[0,^] cannot belong to the range of LN unless it satisfies the
special condition

In fact, 7£(Ljv) i-s the set of all such f , as the reader is asked to show in Exercise
12.
Because the space C[0,^] is infinite-dimensional, we cannot visualize this situ-
ation (as we could in the previous example). However, the reader should appreciate
that most functions f e C[0, £] do not satisfy the condition (3.3). (For example,
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3.2. Existence and uniqueness of solutions to Ax = b 41

the reader is invited to write down a quadratic polynomial at random and call it
/(#). Chances are that this quadratic will not satisfy (3.3).) Therefore, the range
of LN is only a small part of C[0,i], and for most choices of f G C[0, £], there is
no solution to L^u = f .

Example 3.15. We now define LD : C^[Q,l] ->• C[Q,f\ by

where

The reader should recall from the previous section that the BVP

can be written as the linear operator equation Lj^u — f . We will show that 'R-(A) is
all of C[Q,(] by showing that we can solve Lpu = f for every f £ C[0,£]. The idea
is to integrate twice and use the boundary conditions to determine the constants of
intearation. We have

so

We write

where

We then integrate to obtain

The reader should notice the use of the dummy variables of integration s and z.
The first boundary condition, w(0) = 0, implies that Ci = 0. We then have

since u(i] — 0, we obtain

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42 Chapter 3. Essential linear algebra

and so

The reader can verify directly (by differentiating twice) that this formula defines a
solution of the BVP represented by LDU = f . This shows that we can solve LDU = f
for any f e C[0,4 and so K(LD) = C[Q,l}.

3.2.2 Uniqueness
The linearity of a matrix operator A implies that nonuniqueness of solutions to
Ax = b, if it occurs, has a special structure. Suppose x and z in Rn are both
solutions to Ax = b (i.e. Ax = b and Az = b both hold). Then

the last step following from the linearity of A. If x ^ z, then w = x — z is a nonzero

vector satisfying Aw = 0.
On the other hand, suppose x is a solution to Ax = b and w is a nonzero
vector satisfying Aw = 0. Then

and in this case there cannot be a unique solution to Ax = b.

Because of the above observations, we define the null space of A to be

Since AO = 0 always holds for a linear operator A, we always have 0 e -A/"(A).

Moreover, if x,z e A/"(A) and a, ft € R, then

and so

Therefore, ax + /3z € A/"(A). This shows that A/"(A) is a subspace of Rn. If 0 is

the only vector in A/"(A), we say that A/"(A) is trivial.
Our observations above lead to the following conclusion: If Ax = b has a
solution, it is unique if and only if wV(A) is trivial. Furthermore, nothing in the
above discussion depends on A's being a matrix operator; the same arguments can
be made for any linear operator, such as a differential operator.
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3.2. Existence and uniqueness of solutions to Ax = b 43

If JV(A) is nontrivial and Ax = b has a solution, then the equation has in

fact infinitely many solutions. To see this, suppose x e Rn satisfies Ax = b and
w e A/"(A), w 7^ 0. Then, for each a G R, we have

Since x + aw is different for each different choice of the real number a, this shows
that the equation has infinitely many solutions. Moreover, it easily follows that the
set of all solutions to Ax = b is, in this case,

Once again, the same properties hold for any linear operator equation.

Example 3.16. Let A e R 4x4 be defined by

Consider the equation Ax = b, where b e R4 is arbitrary. Using the standard

elimination algorithm,8 the system Ax = b can be shown to be equivalent to the
system

We see that the system is inconsistent unless the conditions

hold. If these conditions are satisfied by b. then

where x% and x± can take on any value. Setting #3 = s and #4 = t, every vector of
the form

8
We assume that the reader is familiar with Gaussian elimination, the standard row reduction
algorithm for solving Ax = b. For a review, see any introductory text on linear algebra, such as
the text by Lay [34].
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44 Chapter 3. Essential linear algebra

is a solution of the system. We have that

is one solution of Ax = b, and

Example 3.17. We compute the null space of the operator LN defined in Example
3.14- If LNU = 0, then u satisfies the BVP

The differential equation implies that u(x] = C\x + C% for some constants C\
and C^- The two boundary conditions each lead to the conclusion that C\ = 0;
however, the constant C% can have any value and both the differential equation
and the two boundary conditions will be satisfied. This shows that every constant
function u(x) = C<z satisfies LNU = 0. That is, the null space of LN is the space of
constant functions.

Since the null space of LTV is not trivial, we know from the above discussion
that the operator equation L^u = f cannot have a unique solution—if there is one
solution, there must in fact be infinitely many. However, since the null space is the
set of constant functions, all solutions to L^u = f differ by a constant.

Example 3.18. The null space of the operator Lp defined in Example 3.15 is
trivial. To see this, the reader should note that the differential equation

again implies that u(x] = C\x + C%; however, now the boundary conditions w(0) =
u(l) — 0 force C\ = C^ = 0. Therefore, the only solution of LDU = 0 is the zero
function.

Since the null space of LD is trivial, we see that LDU = f has at most one
solution for any right-hand side /.
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3.2. Existence and uniqueness of solutions to Ax = b 45

3.2.3 The Fredholm alternative

One of the fundamental results of linear algebra is that, in a certain sense, existence
and uniqueness are equivalent for a square system. To be precise, if Ax — b has
a solution for each b G Rn (i.e. if 7£(A) = R n ), then the solution is unique for
each b 6 Rn (i.e. A/"(A) is trivial). On the other hand, if the solution to Ax = b,
whenever it exists, is unique (i.e. if A/"(A) is trivial), then Ax = b has a solution
for each b 6 Rn (i.e. ft(A) = R n ).
Moreover, in the case that A/"(A) is not trivial, we can give a condition that
b G Rn must satisfy in order for Ax = b to have a solution. We collect these facts
in the following theorem.

Theorem 3.19. (The Fredholm alternative) Suppose A 6 R n x n . Then exactly

one of the following is true.
1. The null space of A is trivial and for each b G R n , there exists a unique
solution x G Rn to Ax = b.
2. The null space of A is nontrivial, and the equation Ax = b has a solution if
and only if b satisfies the following condition:

or, equivalently,

If this condition is satisfied, then the equation Ax = b has infinitely many

solutions.

In the statement of the Fredholm alternative, we used the transpose of A, A T ,

which is the matrix whose rows are the columns of A and vice versa. We also used
the dot product, defined for two vectors in Rn:

We will discuss the dot product and its significance in Section 3.4.
We will have more to say later about the condition (3.6). For now it is sufficient
to understand that, if -A/"(A) is not trivial, then Ax = b has a solution only if the
right-hand side vector b satisfies a certain compatibility condition.

Example 3.20. In Example 3.16, J\f(A) is nontrivial, and we saw directly that
Ax = b has a solution if and only ifb satisfies conditions (3.5). These conditions
can be written as
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46 Chapter 3. Essential linear algebra

where

It is straightforward to show that

Example 3.21. In Examples 3.14 and 3.17, we showed that A/"(L/v) is nontrivial
and that L^u = f has a solution if and only if the compatibility condition (3.3) is
satisfied. Although the Fredholm alternative, as stated in Theorem 3.19, does not
apply to this situation, an analogous statement can in fact be made. We will see
how close the analogy is when we define a "dot product" for functions (see Sections
3.4.1 and 6.2.3).

If A e R n x n and JV(A) is trivial, then A is called nonsingular (or invertible),

and there exists a matrix A"1 G R n x n (the inverse of A), with the property that

The matrix I is the n x n identity matrix; it has the property that Ix = x for all
xeRn.
If we know A"1, and we wish to solve Ax = b, we need only compute a
matrix-vector product, as the following calculation shows:

Thus the solution of Ax = b is x = A x b.

Since A"1 defines a linear operator, we see that the solution x to Ax = b
depends linearly on the right-hand side b. In fact, we can demonstrate this for
any linear operator equation. We assume that X and Y are vector spaces and
f : X -» Y is a linear operator with a trivial null space. Then, for each y € 7?.(f),
there is a unique solution x e X to f (x) = y. Let us define the solution operator
S : 7£(f) -» X by the condition that x = Sy is the solution to f (x) = y. (If
K(f) — Y, so that f is invertible, then S is nothing more than f"1.) We wish to
show that S is linear.
We will show that if y, z e 7£(f) and a, ft € R, then
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3.2. Existence and uniqueness of solutions to Ax = b 47

We define x = Sy and w = Sz; then

By the linearity of f, we have

This last equation is equivalent to

Thus, the linearity of f implies that the solution operator is also necessarily linear.
To put it another way, the solution to a linear operator equation depends linearly
on the right-hand side of the equation. In the context of differential equations, this
property is usually called the principle of superposition.

Example 3.22. The BVP

can be written as the linear operator equation Lpu = /, as explained in Examples

3.15 and 3.18, and we showed in those examples that there is a unique solution u
for each f e C[0,£]. Since integration is a linear operation, Formula (3.4) shows
that u depends linearly on f .

For many linear differential equations, we cannot find an explicit formula for
the solution that makes this linear dependence obvious. Even in those cases, we
know from the above argument that the solution depends linearly on the right-hand
side.

Exercises
1. Let

Graph H(A) in the plane.

2. (a) Fill in the missing steps in Example 3.16.
(b) Let A by the matrix in Example 3.16. Compute the solution set of the
equation ATw = 0, and show that the result is (3.8).
3. For each of the following matrices A, determine if Ax = b has a unique
solution for each b, that is, determine if A is nonsingular. For each matrix
A which is singular, find a vector b such that Ax = b has a solution and a
vector c such that Ax = c does not have a solution.
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48 Chapter 3. Essential linear algebra

4. For each of the following matrices A, determine if Ax = b has a unique

solution for each b, that is, determine if A is nonsingular. For each matrix
A which is singular, find a vector b such that Ax = b has a solution and a
vector c such that Ax — c does not have a solution.

5. Suppose A € R nxn and b € R n , b ^ 0. Is the solution set of the equation

Ax = b,

a subspace of R n ? Why or why not?

6. Let D : Cl[a,b] —»• C[a, b] be the derivative operator. What is the null space
of Dl

7. Let L : C2[a, b] —» C[a, b] be the second derivative operator. What is the null
space of L?

8. As shown in Chapter 2, differential equations involving the second derivative

operator are sometimes paired with mixed boundary conditions. Define the
set

The reader should note that C^[a, b] is a subspace of C2[a, b].

(a) Determine the null space of Lm.

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3.2. Existence and uniqueness of solutions to Ax = b 49

(b) Explain how to solve Lmu = f for w, when / is a given function in

C[a,b]. (Hint: Integrate twice.) Is this differential equation solvable for
every / £ C[a, &]?
9. Repeat Exercise 8, but with

10. Consider the following system of nonlinear equations:

This system can be written as f (x) = b, where f : R2 —> R2 is denned by

and

(a) Show that f (x) = b has exactly two solutions. (Hint: A graph is useful.)
(b) Show that the only solution to f(x) = 0 is x = 0. (Yet, as Part lOa
shows, the solution to f (x) = b is not unique.)
This example illustrates that the properties of linear systems do not necessar-
ily carry over to nonlinear systems.
11. Let D : Cl[a, b] -> C[a,b] be the differentiation operator:

(a) Show that the range of D is all of C[a, b].

(b) Part lla is equivalent to saying that, for every / e C[a, b], the (differen-
tial) equation Du = f has a solution. Is this solution unique? Why or
why not?
12. Let LN be defined as in Example 3.14, and suppose / e C[Q,l] satisfies

Show that / e n(Ln}.

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50 Chapter 3. Essential linear algebra

3.3 Basis and dimension

The matrix-vector product Ax is equivalent to a linear combination of the columns
of the matrix A. If A has columns YI, V 2 , . . . , v n , then

The reader should write out a specific example if this is not clear (see Exercise
1). The quantities £i,#2, • • • ixn are scalars and YI, V2,...., vn are vectors; an ex-
pression such as XiVi + #2V2 + cldots + xnvn is called a linear combination of the
vectors YI , v 2 , . . . , vn because the vectors are combined using the linear operations
of addition and scalar multiplication.
When A £ R n x n is nonsingular, each b £ Rn can be written in a unique way
as a linear combination of the columns of A (that is, the equation Ax = b has a
unique solution). The following definition is related.

Definition 3.23. Let V be a vector space, and suppose v i , V 2 , . . .,v n are vectors
in V with the property that each v 6 V can be written in a unique way as a lin-
ear combination of (YI, v 2 , . . . , vn}. Then {vi, V 2 , . . . , v n ) is called a basis of V.
Moreover, we say that n is the dimension of V.

A vector space can have many different bases, but it can be shown that each
contains the same number of vectors, so the concept of dimension is well-defined.
We now present several examples of bases.

Example 3.24. The standard basis for Rn is (ei,e2,... ,en}; where every entry
of GJ is zero except the jth, which is one. Then we obviously have, for any x 6 R n ,

and it is not hard to see that this representation is unique. For example, for x £ R3;

Example 3.25. An alternate basis for R3 is {vi,V2,V3J ; where

It may not be obvious to the reader why one would want to use this basis instead of
the much simpler basis {61,62,63}. However, it is easy to check that
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3.3. Basis and dimension 51

and this property makes the basis {vi,V2,vs} almost as easy to use as {61,62,63}.
We explore this topic in the next section.

Example 3.26. The set Pn is the vector space of all polynomials of degree n or
less (see Exercise 3.1.3). The standard basis is {l,x,x2,... ,x n }. To see that this
is indeed a basis, we first note that every polynomial p € Pn can be written as a
linear combination of 1, x, x 2 , . . . , xn:

(this is just the definition of polynomial of degree n). Showing that this representa-
tion is unique is a little subtle. If we also had

then, subtraction would yield

for every x. However, a nonzero polynomial of degree n can have at most n roots,
so it must be the case that (CQ — do) 4- (GI — di)x + • • • + (cn — dn)xn is the zero
polynomial. That is, CQ — do, ci = d i , . . . , cn = dn must hold.

Example 3.27. An alternate basis for P^ is

(the advantage of this basis will be discussed in Example 3.39 in the next section). To
show that this is indeed a basis, we must show that, given any p(x] — CQ+cix+C2X2,
there is a unique choice of the scalars ao,ai,fl2 such that

This equation is equivalent to the three linear equations

The reader can easily verify that this system has a unique solution, regardless of the
values 0/co,ci,C2.

Example 3.28. Yet another basis forP? is {1/1,1/2,1^3}, where

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52 Chapter 3. Essential linear algebra

// we write x\ = Q, #2 = 1/2, and x% = I , then the property

holds. From this property, the properties of a basis can be verified (see Exercise 5).

There are two essential properties of a basis {vi, v 2 ,...,v n } of a vector space
V. First, every vector in V can be represented as a linear combination of the basis
vectors. Second, this representation is unique. The following two definitions provide
concise ways to express these two properties.

Definition 3.29. Let V be a vector space, and suppose {YI, v 2 , . . . , vn} is a col-
lection of vectors in V. The span of {YI, v 2 , . . . , vn} is the set of all linear combi-
nations of these vectors:

spon{vi,v 2 ,...,v n } = {o!iVi+Q!2V2 + h anvn : c*i, a 2 , • • •, an e R}

Thus, one of the properties of a basis {YI, v 2 , . . . , vn} of a vector space V is

that
V = span{vi,v 2 ,...,v n }.
The reader should also be aware that, for any vectors v i , V 2 , . . . , v n in a vector
space V, span{vi, V 2 , . . . , vn} is a subspace of V (possibly the entire space V, as in
the case of a basis).

Definition 3.30. A set of vectors {YI, v 2 , . . . , vn} is called linearly independent if

the only scalars c\, c 2 , . . . , cn satisfying

It can be shown that the uniqueness part of the definition of a basis is equiva-
lent to the linear independence of the basis vectors. Therefore, a basis for a vector
space is a linearly independent spanning set.
A third quality of a basis is the number of vectors in it—the dimension of the
vector space. It can be shown that any two of these properties imply the third.
That is, if V has dimension n, then any two of the following statements about
{vi, v 2 , . . . , v fc } imply the third:
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3.3. Basis and dimension 53

Thus if {vi, v 2 , . . . , Vfc} is known to satisfy two of the above properties, then it is a
basis for V.
Before leaving the topic of basis, we wish to remind the reader of the fact
indicated in the opening paragraphs of this section, which is so fundamental that
we express it formally as a theorem.

Theorem 3.31. Let A be an n x n matrix. Then A is nonsingular if and only if

the columns of A form a basis for R n .

Thus, when A is nonsingular, its columns form a basis for R n , and solving
Ax = b is equivalent to finding the weights that express b as a linear combination
of this basis. This fact answers the following important question.9 Suppose we
have a basis YI, v 2 , . . . , vn for Rn and a vector b G Rn. Then, of course, b is a
linear combination of the basis vectors. How do we find the weights in this linear
combination? How expensive is it to do so (that is, how much work is required)?
To find the scalars #1, #2, • • • , xn in the equation

we define10

and solve

via Gaussian elimination. The expense of computing x can be measured by count-

ing the number of arithmetic operations—the number of additions, subtractions,
multiplications, and divisions—required. The total number of operations required
to solve Ax = b is a polynomial in n, and it is convenient to report just the leading
term in the polynomial, which can be shown to be

(the lower-order terms are not very significant when n is large). We usually express
this saying that the operation count is

("on the order of (2/3)n3").

In the next section, we discuss a certain special type of basis for which it is
much easier to express a vector in terms of the basis.
9
If the importance of this question is not apparent to the reader at this point, it will be after
he or she reads the next two sections.
10
This notation means that A is the matrix whose columns are the vectors vi, V 2 , . . . , v n .
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54 Chapter 3. Essential linear algebra

Exercises

Compute bote ax and

and verify that they are equal,

(b) Let A 6 R n x n and x e R n , and suppose the columns of A are

so that the (i, j)-entry of A is (vj)j. Compute both (Ax)j and (#iVi +
x2V2 + 1- xnvn)i, and verify that they are equal.

2. Is

a basis for R3? (Hint: As explained in the last paragraphs of this section, the
three given vectors form a basis for Rn if and only if Ax = b has a unique
solution for every b 6 R n , where A is the 3 x 3 matrix whose columns are the
three given vectors.)
3. Is

a basis for R3? (See the hint for the previous exercise.)

4. Show that

is a basis for P%, the space of polynomials of degree 2 or less. (Hint: Verify
directly that the definition holds.)

5. Show that {L1? L 2 , L3}, defined in Example 3.28, is a basis for P2- (Hint: Use
(3.9) to show that
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3.4. Orthogonal bases and projections 55

6. Let V be the space of all continuous, complex-valued functions defined on the

real line:

Define W to be the subspace of V spanned by elx and e lx, where i = ^/^l.

Show that {cos (x), sin (x}} is another basis for W. (Hint: Use Euler's formula:

3.4 Orthogonal bases and projections

At the end of the last section, we discussed the question of expressing a vector in
terms of a given basis. This question is important for the following reason, which
we can only describe in general terms at the moment: Many problems that are
posed in vector spaces admit a special basis, in terms of which the problem is easy
to solve. That is, for many problems, there exists a special basis with the property
that if all vectors are expressed in terms of that basis, then a very simple calculation
will produce the final solution. For this reason, it is important to be able to take a
vector (perhaps expressed in terms of a standard basis) and express it in terms of a
different basis. In the latter part of this section, we will study one type of problem
for which it is advantageous to use a special basis, and we will discuss another such
problem in the next section.
It is quite easy to express a vector in terms of a basis if that basis is orthogonal
We wish to describe the concept of an orthogonal basis and show some important
examples. Before we can do so, we must introduce the idea of an inner product,
which is a generalization of the Euclidean dot product.
The dot product plays a special role in the geometry of R2 and R3. The
reason for this is the fact that two vectors x,y in R2 or R3 are perpendicular if
and only if

Indeed, one can show that

where 9 is the angle between the two vectors (see Figure 3.2).
From elementary Euclidean geometry, we know that, if x and y are perpen-
dicular, then

(the Pythagorean theorem). Using the dot product, we can give a purely algebraic
proof of the Pythagorean theorem. By definition,
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56 Chapter 3. Essential linear algebra

Figure 3.2. The angle between two vectors.

This calculation shows that

holds if and only if x • y = 0.

Seen this way, the Pythagorean theorem is an algebraic property that can be
deduced in R n , n > 3, even though in those spaces we cannot visualize vectors or
what it means for vectors to be perpendicular. We prefer to use the word orthogonal
instead of perpendicular: Vectors x and y in Rn are orthogonal if x • y = 0.
In the course of solving differential equations, we deal with function spaces
in addition to Euclidean spaces, and our methods are heavily dependent on the
existence of an inner product—the analogue of the dot product in more general
vector spaces. Here is the definition:

Definition 3.32. Let V be a real vector space. A (real) inner product on V is a

function, usually denoted (•,•) or ( - , - ) v > taking two vectors from V and producing
a real number. This function must satisfy the following three properties:
1. (u, v) = (v, u) for all vectors u and v;
2. (cm + /?v, w) = a(u, w) + /?(v, w) and (w, cm + /?v) = a(w, u) + /?(w, v) for
all vectors u, v, and w, and all real numbers a and /3;
3. (u, u) > 0 for all vectors u, and (u, u) = 0 if and only if u is the zero vector.

It should be easy to check that these properties hold for the ordinary dot
product on Euclidean n-space.
Given an inner product space (a vector space with an inner product), we define
orthogonality just as in Euclidean space: two vectors are orthogonal if and only if
their dot product is zero. It can then be shown that the Pythagorean theorem holds
(see Exercise 3).
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3.4. Orthogonal bases and projections 57

An orthogonal basis for an inner product space V is a basis {vi, v 2 ,..., vn}
with the property that

(that is, every vector in the basis is orthogonal to every other vector in the basis).
We now demonstrate the first special property of an orthogonal basis. Suppose
{vi, v 2 , . . . , vn} is an orthogonal basis for an inner product space V and x is any
vector in V. Then there exist scalars ai, 0:2, • • • , an such that

To deduce the value of Q:J, we take the inner product of both sides of (3.10) with
Vi:

The last step follows from the fact that every inner product (v^, YJ) vanishes except
(vj,Vj). We then obtain

and so

This formula shows that it is easy to express a vector in terms of an orthogonal

basis. Assuming that we compute (vi, vi), (v2, V 2 ) , . . . , (v n , v n ) once and for all, it
requires just n inner products to find the weights in the linear combination. In the
case of Euclidean n-vectors, a dot product requires 2n — 1 arithmetic operations (n
multiplications and n — I additions), so the total cost is just

If n is large, this is much less costly than the O(2n 3 /3) operations required for a
nonorthogonal basis. We also remark that if the basis is orthonormal—each basis
vector is normalized to have length one—then (3.11) simplifies to

Example 3.33. The basis {vi,v 2 ,v 3 } forH3, where

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58 Chapter 3. Essential linear algebra bra

is orthonormal, as can be verified directly. If

3.4.1 The L2 inner product

We have seen that functions can be regarded as vectors, at least in a formal sense:
functions can be added together and multiplied by scalars. (See Example 3.4 in
Section 3.1.) We will now show more directly that functions are not so different
from Euclidean vectors. In the process, we show that a suitable inner product can
be defined for functions.
Suppose we have a function g G C[a, b]—a continuous function defined on the
interval [a, &]. By sampling g on a grid, we can produce a vector that approximates
the function g. Let Xi = a + iAx, A# = (b — a)/N, and define a vector G G RN by

Then G can be regarded as an approximation to g (see Figure 3.3). Given another

function f(x) and the corresponding vector F € R N , we have

Refining the discretization (increasing N) leads to a sampled function that obviously

represents the original function more accurately. Therefore, we ask: What happens
to F • G as N ->• oo? The dot product

does not converge to any value as N —>• oo, but a simple modification induces
convergence. We replace the ordinary dot product by the following scaled dot
product, for which we introduce a new notation:
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3.4. Orthogonal bases and projections 59

Figure 3.3. Approximating a function g(x] by a vector G € R N .

Then, when F and G are sampled functions as above, we have

Based on this observation, we argue that a natural inner product (•, •) on

C[a, b] is

Just as the dot product defines a norm on Euclidean n-space (\\x\\ = ^/x • x], so the
inner product (3.13) defines a norm for functions:

For completeness, we give the definition of norm. Norms measure the size or magni-
tude of vectors, and the definition is intended to describe abstractly the properties
that any reasonable notion of size ought to have.

Definition 3.34. Let V be a vector space. A norm on V is a real-valued function

with domain V, usually denoted by \\ • \\ or \\ • \\v, and satisfying the following
properties:
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60 Chapter 3. Essential linear algebra

The last property is called the triangle inequality.

For Euclidean vectors in the plane, the triangle inequality expresses the fact
that one side of a triangle cannot be longer than the sum of the other two sides.
The inner product defined by (3.13) is the so-called L2 inner product.11 Two
functions in C[a, b] are said to be orthogonal if (/,#) = 0. This condition does
not have a direct geometric meaning, as the analogous condition does for Euclidean
vectors in R2 or R3, but, as we argued above, orthogonality is still important
algebraically.
When we measure norm in the L2 sense, we say that functions / and g are
close (for example, that g is a good approximation to /) if

is small. This does not mean that (/(#) - g(x})2 is small for every x € [a, b]
((f(x) —g(x))2 can be large in places, as long as this difference is large only over very
small intervals), but rather it implies that (f(x) — g(x)}2 is small on the average over
the interval [a, 6]. For this reason, we often -use the term "mean-square" in referring
to the L2 norm (for example, we might say "# is close to / in the mean-square
sense"}.

Example 3.35. // / : [0,1] —> R is defined by f ( x ) = x(l — x), then

With g : [0,1] -» R defined by

we have

These two functions differ by less than 4% in the mean-square sense (cf. Figure
3.4).
11
The "L" refers to the French mathematician Lebesgue, and the "2" to the exponent in the
formula for the L2 norm of a function. The symbol L2 is read "L-two."
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3.4. Orthogonal bases and projections 61

Figure 3.4. The functions of Example 3.35.

3.4.2 The projection theorem

The projection theorem is about approximating a vector v in a vector space V by
a vector from a subspace W. More specifically, the projection theorem answers the
question: Is there a vector w £ W closest to v (the best approximation to v from
W), and if so, how can it be computed? Since this theorem is so important, and its
proof is so informative, we will formally state and prove the theorem.

Theorem 3.36. Let V be a vector space with inner product (-,-), let W be a
finite-dimensional subspace o f V , and letv^V.

1. There is a unique u G W such that

That is, there is a unique best approximation to v from W. We also call u

the projection o/v onto W, and write

2. A vector u E W is the best approximation to v from W if and only if

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62 Chapter 3. Essential linear algebra

3. If {wi, w 2 ,..., wn} is a basis for W, then

where

The equations represented by Gx = b are called the normal equations, and

the matrix G is called the Gram matrix.
4- If (w1; w 2 , . . . , wn} is an orthogonal basis for W, then the best approximation
to v from W is

If the basis is orthonormal, this simplifies to

Proof. We will prove the second conclusion first. Suppose that u e W, and z is any
other vector in W. Then, since W is closed under addition and scalar multiplication,
we have that u + tz € W for all real numbers t. On the other hand, every other
vector w in W can be written as u + tz for some z £ W and some t € R (just take
z — w — u and t = 1). Therefore, u € W is closest to v if and only if

Since ||x||2 = (x,x), this last inequality is equivalent to

or to

If we regard z as fixed, then

is a simple quadratic in t, and the inequality holds if and only if (v - u, z) = 0.

It follows that the inequality holds for all z and all t if and only if (3.15) holds.
In addition, provided z / 0, (3.20) holds as an equation only when t = 0 (since
(z, z) > 0 for z ^ 0). That is, if w € W and w ^ u, then
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3.4. Orthogonal bases and projections 63

Thus, if the best approximation problem has a solution, it is unique.

We now prove the remaining conclusions to the theorem. Since W is a finite-
dimensional subspace, it has a basis {wi, w 2 , . . . , wn}. A vector u e W solves the
best approximation problem if and only if (3.15) holds; moreover, it is straightfor-
ward to show that (3.15) is equivalent to

(see Exercise 5). Any vector u G W can be written as

Thus, u 6 W is a solution if and only if (3.22) holds and

which simplifies to

If we define G 6 R n x n by Gy = (w j? Wj) and b 6 Rn by bt = (w i? v), then (3.24)

is equivalent to

It can be shown that G is nonsingular (see Exercise 6), so the unique best approx-
imation to v from W is given by (3.22), where x solves Gx = b.
If the basis is orthogonal, then (wj, w;) = 0 unless j = i. In this case, G is
the diagonal matrix with diagonal entries

and Gx — b is equivalent to the n simple equations

that is, to

This completes the proof.

We now present two examples of best approximation problems that commonly

occur in scientific and computational practice.
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64 Chapter 3. Essential linear algebra

Example 3.37. We assume that data points

(xi,yi) = (0.10,1.7805),
(z 2 ,!fe) = (0.30,2.2285),
(z 3 ,2/ 3 ) = (0.40,2.3941),
(0:4,2/4) = (0.75,3.2226),
(a*,2/5) -(0.90,3.5697)

have been collected in the laboratory, and there is a theoretical reason to believe
that yi = axi + b ought to hold for some choices of a, b 6 R. Of course, due to
measurement error, this relationship is unlikely to hold exactly for any choice of a
and b, but we would like to find a and b that come as close as possible to satisfying
it. If we define

then one way to pose this problem is to choose a and b so that ax + be is as close
as possible to y in the Euclidean norm. That is, we find the best approximation to
y from W = span{x, e).
The Gram matrix is

and the right-hand side of the normal equations is

Solving the normal equations yields

The resulting linear model is displayed, together with the original data, in Figure
3.5.

Example 3.38. One advantage of working with polynomials instead of transcen-

dental functions like ex is that polynomials are very easy to evaluate—only the basic
arithmetic operations are required. For this reason, it is often desirable to approx-
imate a more complicated function by a polynomial. Considering f(x] = ex as a
function in (7[0,1], we find the best quadratic approximation, in the mean-square
sense, to f . A basis for the space V^ of polynomials of degree 2 or less is {l,x,x2}.
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3.4. Orthogonal bases and projections 65

Figure 3.5. The data from Example 3.37 and the approximate linear re-
lationship.

It is easy to verify that the normal equations for the problem of finding the best
approximation to f from p2 are (in matrix-vector form)
Ga = b,
where

Since

the best quadratic approximation is

The exponential function and the quadratic approximation are graphed in Figure
3.6.

Example 3.39. An orthonormal basis for p2 (on the interval [0,1]J is {^1,^25^3};
where
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66 Chapter 3. Essential linear algebra

Figure 3.6. The function f(x) — ex and the best quadratic approximation
y — Pi(x) (see Example 3.38).

The best approximation p^ to ex (which was calculated in the previous exercise) can
be computed by the formula

P2(x) = (qij)qi(x) + (q2,f}qi(x) + (tfs,/)^).

A direct calculation shows that the same result is obtained. (See Exercise 10.)

The concept of best approximation is central in this book, since the two main
solution techniques we discuss, Fourier series and finite elements, both produce a
best approximation to the true solution of a BVP.

Exercises
1. (a) Show that the basis {vi,v 2 ,V3} from Example 3.33 is an orthonormal
basis for R3.
(b) Express the vector

as a linear combination of YI , V2, \s.

2. Is the basis {1/1,1/2,1/3} for P2 (on the interval [0,1]) given in Example 3.28
an orthogonal basis?
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3.4. Orthogonal bases and projections 67

3. Let V be an inner product space. Prove that x, y e V satisfy

if and only if (x, y) = 0.

4. Use the results of this section to show that any orthonormal set containing
n vectors in Rn is a basis for R n . (Hint: Since the dimension of Rn is n, it
suffices to show either that the orthogonal set spans Rn or that it is linearly
independent. Linear independence is probably easier.)
5. Let W be a subspace of an inner product space V and let {wi, w 2 , . . . , w n }
be a basis for W. Show that, for y e V,

(y, z) = 0 for all z G W

holds if and only if

holds.
6. Let {w1; w 2 , . . . , w n } be a linearly independent set in an inner product space
y, and define G e R n x n by

Gij = (wj-jWj), i,j = 1 , 2 , . . . , n .

Prove that G is invertible. Hint: By the Fredholm alternative, it suffices to

show that the only solution to Gx = 0 is x = 0. Assume that x E Rn satisfies
Gx = 0. This implies that

Show that x • Gx = (u, u), where u € V is given by

and show that u cannot be the zero vector unless x = 0.

7. Consider the following data:

X y
1.0000 2.0087
1.2500 2.4907
1.4000 2.8363
1.5000 2.9706
1.9000 3.9092
2.1000 4.1932
2.2500 4.5057
2.6000 5.2533
2.9000 5.8030
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68 Chapter 3. Essential linear algebra

Find the relationship y = mx + c that best fits these data. Plot the data and
the best fit line.

8. Consider the following data:

X y
1.0000 1.2475
1.2500 1.6366
1.4000 1.9823
1.5000 2.2243
1.9000 3.4766
2.1000 4.2301
2.2500 4.8478
2.6000 6.5129
2.9000 8.2331

Find the relationship y = c^x2 +C\X + CQ that best fits these data. If possible,
plot the data and the best fit parabola.

9. Using the orthonormal basis {^1,^2,^3} for P% given in Example 3.39, find
the quadratic polynomial p(x] that best approximates g(x) — sin (TTX), in the
mean-square sense, over the interval [0,1]. Produce a graph of g and the
quadratic approximation.

10. (a) Verify that (<7i, #2) #3}, defined in Example 3.39, is an orthonormal basis
for P2 on the interval [0,1].
(b) Using this orthonormal basis, find the best approximation to f ( x ) = ex
(on the interval [0,1]) in the mean-square sense, and verify that the same
result is obtained as in Example 3.38.

3.5 Eigenvalues and eigenvectors of a symmetric

matrix
The eigenvectors of a matrix operator are special vectors for which the action of
the matrix is particularly simple. In this section, we discuss the properties of
eigenvalues and eigenvectors of symmetric matrices. Understanding this topic will
set the stage for the Fourier series method for solving differential equations, which
takes advantage of the simple action of a differential operator on its eigenfunctions.

Definition 3.40. Let A 6 R n x n . We say that the scalar A is an eigenvalue of A

if there exists a nonzero vector x such that

As we discuss below, the scalar A may be complex even if A has only real entries;
if A is complex, then x must have complex entries.
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3.5. Eigenvalues and eigenvectors of a symmetric matrix 69

As we are about to demonstrate, eigenvalues are naturally expressed as the

roots of a polynomial, with the coefficients of the polynomial computed from the
entries in the matrix. A polynomial with real coefficients can have complex roots.
For this reason, it is natural to allow complex eigenvalues and eigenvectors in the
above definition. However, we will show below that a symmetric matrix can have
only real eigenvalues, which will simplify matters. Moreover, the eigenvalues and
eigenvectors of a symmetric matrix have other useful properties, which we also
explore below.
The following calculation is essential for understanding eigenvalues and eigen-
vectors:

This last condition is possible if and only if AI — A is a singular matrix; that is, if
and only if

where det(B) is the determinant12 of the square matrix B. In principle, then, we

can find the eigenvalues of A by solving the equation det (AI — A) = 0.
It is not hard to show that PA (A) = det (AI — A) is a polynomial of degree n
(the characteristic polynomial of A), and so A has n eigenvalues (counted according
to multiplicity as roots of PA (A)). Any or all of the eigenvalues can be complex,
even if A has real entries, since a polynomial with real coefficients can have complex
roots.

Then

Therefore, the eigenvalues are

12
We assume that the reader is familiar with the elementary properties of determinants (such as
the computation of determinants of small matrices). The most important of these is that a matrix
is singular if and only if its determinant is zero. Any introductory text on linear algebra, such as
[34], can be consulted for details.
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70 Chapter 3. Essential linear algebra

Example 3.42. Let

Then

Therefore, the eigenvalues are

where i = ^f—^..

Example 3.43. Let

Then

Therefore, the only eigenvalue is I, which is an eigenvalue of multiplicity 3. In this

example, it is instructive to compute the eigenvectors. We must solve (XI — A.)x = 0
for A = 1, that is, (I — A)x = 0. We have

and a straightforward calculation shows that the solution space (the eigenspace) is

Thus, in spite of the fact that the eigenvalue has multiplicity 3, there is only one
linearly independent eigenvector corresponding to the eigenvalue.

The fact that the matrix in the previous example has only one eigenvector for
an eigenvalue of multiplicity 3 is significant. It means that there is not a basis of
R3 consisting of eigenvectors of A.
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3.5. Eigenvalues and eigenvectors of a symmetric matrix 71

3.5.1 The transpose of a matrix and the dot product

The theory of eigenvalues and eigenvectors is greatly simplified when a matrix A e
R n x n is symmetric, that is, when AT = A. In order to appreciate this, we need
to understand the relationship of the transpose of a matrix to the Euclidean inner
product (or dot product).
We consider a linear operator defined by A e R m x n , and perform the following
calculation:

(The above manipulations are just applications of the elementary properties of

arithmetic—basically that numbers can be added in any order, and multiplication
distributes over addition.) Thus the transpose AT of A € R m x n satisfies the
following fundamental property:

For a symmetric matrix A e R n x n , this simplifies to

When we allow for complex scalars and vectors with complex entries, we must
modify the dot product. If x, y 6 C n , then we define

The second vector in a dot product must thus be conjugated; this is necessary so
that x-x will be real, allowing the norm to be defined. We will use the same notation
for the dot product whether the vectors are in Rn or C n . The complex dot product
has the following properties, which form the definition of an inner product on a
complex vector space:
1. x • x > 0 for all x 6 C n , and x • x = 0 if and only if x = 0.
2. x • y = y • x for all x, y 6 C n .
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72 Chapter 3. Essential linear algebra

3. (ax + /3y) • z = ax • z + 0y • z for all x,y, z 6 C n , a, ft £ C. Together with

the second property, this implies that

for all x,y,z £ C n , a,/3 £ C.

Complex vector spaces and inner products are discussed in more detail in Section
9.1.

3.5.2 Special properties of symmetric matrices

We can now derive the special properties of the eigenvalues and eigenvectors of a
symmetric matrix.

Theorem 3.44. //A e R n x n is symmetric, then every eigenvalue of A is real.

Moreover, each eigenvalue corresponds to a real eigenvector.

Proof. Suppose Ax = Ax, x / 0, where for the moment we do not exclude the
possibility that A and x might be complex. Then

and

But (Ax) • x = x • (Ax) when A is symmetric, so

Since x • x / 0, this yields

which implies that A is real.

Let x = u + iv, where u, v £ R n . Then

Since x 7^ 0, we must have either u / 0 or v ^ 0 (or both), so one of u, v (or both)

must be a real eigenvector of A corresponding to A.

Prom this point on, we will only discuss eigenvalues and eigenvectors for real
symmetric matrices. According to the last theorem, then, we will not need to use
complex numbers or vectors.

Theorem 3.45. Let A £ R n x n be symmetric, and let xi, x2 be eigenvectors of A

corresponding to distinct eigenvalues \i, \2- Then xi and X2 are orthogonal.
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3.5. Eigenvalues and eigenvectors of a symmetric matrix 73

Proof. We have

But

and

Therefore

and since AI ^ A 2 , this implies that (xi,x 2 ) = 0.

Example 3.46. Consider

A straightforward calculation shows that

so the eigenvalues of A are 0,0,1. Another straightforward calculation shows that

there are two linearly independent eigenvectors corresponding to X — 0, namely,

and a single (independent) eigenvector for A = 1,

We can verify by observation that the eigenvectors for X = 0 are orthogonal to the
eigenvector for A = 1.

Here is another special property of symmetric matrices. Example 3.43 shows

that this result is not true for nonsymmetric matrices.

Theorem 3.47. Let A 6 R n x n be symmetric, and suppose A has an eigenvalue

IJL of (algebraic) multiplicity k (meaning that fj, is a root of multiplicity k of the
characteristic polynomial of A). Then A has k linearly independent eigenvectors
corresponding to [L.
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74 Chapter 3. Essential linear algebra

The proof of this theorem is rather involved and does not generalize to differ-
ential operators (as do the proofs given above). We therefore relegate it to Appendix
A.
If n is an eigenvalue of multiplicity k, as in the previous theorem, then we can
choose the k linearly independent eigenvectors corresponding to // to be orthonor-
mal.13 We thus obtain the following corollary.

Corollary 3.48. (The spectral theorem for symmetric matrices) Let A G

R n x n be symmetric. Then there is an orthonormal basis {ui,u 2 ,... ,u n ) of Rn
consisting of eigenvectors of A.

3.5.3 The spectral method for solving Ax = b

When A e R nxn is symmetric and the eigenvalues and eigenvectors of A are known,
there is a simple method14 for solving Ax = b.
Let A be symmetric with eigenvalues AI , \2,..., An and orthonormal eigen-
vectors ui, U 2 , . . . , un. For any b e R n , we can write

We can also write

(Of course, o,i = Uj • x, but, as we are thinking of x as the unknown, we cannot

compute o>i from this formula.) We then have

Since b can have only one expansion in terms of the basis {ui,... ,un}, we must
have

that is,

Thus we obtain the solution

13
It is always possible to replace any linearly independent set with an orthonormal set spanning
the same subspace. The technique for doing this is called the Gram-Schmidt procedure; it is
explained in elementary linear algebra texts such as [34].
14
This method is not normally taught in elementary linear algebra courses or books, because it
is more difficult to find the eigenvalues and eigenvectors of A than to just solve Ax = b by other
means.
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3.5. Eigenvalues and eigenvectors of a symmetric matrix 75

We see that all of the eigenvalues of A must be nonzero in order to apply this
method, which is only sensible: if 0 is an eigenvalue of A, then A is singular and
Ax = b either has no solution or has infinitely many solutions.
If we already have the eigenvalues and eigenvectors of A, then this method for
solving Ax = b is simpler and less expensive than the usual method of Gaussian
elimination.

Example 3.49. Let

A direct calculation shows that the eigenvalues of A are

and the corresponding (orthonormal) eigenvectors are

(According to Theorem 3.45, the eigenvectors are automatically orthogonal in this

case; however, we had to ensure that each eigenvector was normalized.) The solution
to Ax = b is

Exercises
1. Let

Compute, by hand, the eigenvalues and eigenvectors of A, and use them to

solve Ax — b for x (use the "spectral method").
2. Repeat Exercise 1 for
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76 Chapter 3. Essential linear algebra

3. Repeat Exercise 1 for

4. Repeat Exercise 1 for

5. Let A € R n x n be symmetric, and suppose the eigenvalues and (orthonormal)

eigenvectors of A are already known. How many arithmetic operations are
required to solve Ax = b using the spectral method?

6. A symmetric matrix A e R n x n is called positive definite if

Use the spectral theorem to show that A is positive definite if and only if all
of the eigenvalues of A are positive.

7. Let L be the n x n matrix defined by the condition that

where h = l/(n + 1). For example, with n = 5,

(a) For each j = 1,2,..., n, define the discrete sine wave s^ of frequency j
by

Show that s(J) is an eigenvector of L, and find the corresponding eigen-

value Xj. (Hint: Compute Ls(J) and apply the addition formula for the
sine function.)
(b) What is the relationship between the frequency j and the magnitude of
A,-?
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3.6. Preview of methods for solving ODEs and PDEs 77

(c) The discrete sine waves are orthogonal (since they are the eigenvectors
of a symmetric matrix corresponding to distinct eigenvalues) and thus
form an orthogonal basis for R n . Moreover, it can be shown that every
s(^ has the same norm:

Therefore, I V2hs^l\ ^/2hs^2\ . . . , \/2hs^ > is an orthonormal basis for

R n . We will call a vector x e Rn smooth or rough depending on whether
its components in the discrete sine wave basis are heavily weighted toward
the low or high frequencies, respectively. Show that the solution x of
Lx = b is smoother than b.

3.6 Preview of methods for solving ODEs and PDEs

The close formal relation between the concepts of linear differential equation and
linear algebraic system suggests that ideas about linear operators might play a role
in solving the former, as is the case for the latter. In order to make this parallel
explicit, we will apply the machinery of linear algebra in the context of differential
equations: view solutions as vectors in a vector space, identify the linear operators
which define linear differential equations, and understand how facts such as the
Fredholm alternative appear in the context of differential equations.
In the chapters to follow we will accomplish all of this. In the process, we will
develop three general classes of methods for solving linear ODEs and PDEs, each
one closely analogous to a method for solving linear algebraic systems:
1. The method of Fourier series: Differential operators, like d?/dx2, can have
eigenvalues and eigenfunctions; for example

The method of Fourier series is a spectral method, using the eigenfunctions

of the differential operator.

2. The method of Green's functions: A Green's function for a differential

equation is the solution to a special form of the equation (just as A"1 is the
solution to AB = /) that allows one to immediately write down the solution
to the equation (just as we could write down x = A-1b).

3. The method of finite elements: This is a direct numerical method that

can be used when (1) or (2) fails (or is intractable). It can be compared
with Gaussian elimination, the standard direct numerical method for solving
Ax = b. Like Gaussian elimination, finite element methods do not produce
a formula for the solution; however, again like Gaussian elimination, they are
broadly applicable.
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In this book, we concentrate on Fourier series and finite element methods. We

will also explain the idea of a Green's function and derive a few specific Green's
functions that we will find useful.

3.7 Suggestions for further reading

A good introductory text, which assumes no prior knowledge of linear algebra and
is written at a very accessible level, is Lay [34]. An alternative is Strang [44]; this
book also assumes no background in linear algebra, but it is written at a somewhat
more demanding level. It is noteworthy for its many insights to the applications of
linear algebra and for its conversational tone. A more advanced text is Meyer [40].
Anyone seriously interested in applied mathematics must become familiar with
the computational aspects of linear algebra. The text by Strang mentioned above
includes material on the numerical aspects of the subject. There are also more
specialized references. A good introductory text is Hager [23], while more advanced
treatments include Demmel [13] and Trefethen and Bau [49]. An encyclopedic
reference is Golub and Van Loan [19].
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Chapter 4

Jsseiitial ordinary
differential equations

In an ordinary differential equation (ODE), there is a single independent variable.

Commonly ODEs model change over time, so the independent variable is t (time).
Our interest in ODEs derives from the following fact: both the Fourier series method
and the finite element method reduce time-dependent PDEs into systems of ODEs.
In the case of the Fourier series method, the system is completely decoupled, so the
"system" is really just a sequence of scalar ODEs. In Section 4.2, we learn how to
solve the scalar ODEs that arise in the Fourier series method.
The finite element method, on the other hand, results in coupled systems of
ODEs. In Section 4.3, we discuss the solution of linear, coupled systems of first-
order ODEs. Although we present an explicit solution technique in that section,
the emphasis is really on the properties of the solutions, as the systems that arise
in practice are destined to be solved by numerical rather than analytical means. In
Sections 4.4 and 4.5, we introduce some simple numerical methods that are adequate
for our purposes.
We close this chapter by interpreting our simple solutions in terms of Green's
functions. Although we do not emphasize the method of Green's function in this
book, we do explain the basic idea in Section 4.6.

4.1 Converting a higher-order equation to a

first-order system
We begin our discussion of ODEs with a simple observation: It is always possible
to convert a single ODE of order two or more to a system of first-order ODEs. We
illustrate this on the following second-order equation:

We define

79
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80 Chapter 4. Essential ordinary differential equations

Then we have

We can write this as a first-order system using matrix-vector notation:

In (4.2), x is the vector-valued function

The same technique will convert any scalar equation to a first-order system.
If the unknown is u and the equation is order m, we define

The first m — 1 equations will be

and the last equation will be the original ODE (expressed in the new variables). If
the original scalar equation is linear, then the resulting system will also be linear,
and it can be written in matrix-vector form if desired.
An mth-order ODE typically has infinitely many solutions; in fact, an mth-
order linear ODE has an m-dimensional subspace of solutions. To narrow down
a unique solution, m auxiliary conditions are required. When the independent
variable is time, the auxiliary conditions are initial conditions:

These initial conditions translate immediately into initial conditions for the new
unknowns x\, x%,..., xm:

We can apply a similar technique to convert an mth-order system of ODEs

to a first-order system. For example, suppose x(i) is a vector-valued function, say
x(£) 6 R n . Consider a second-order system:
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l.l. Converting a higher-order equation to a first-order system 81

We define

We then have

The original system (4.3) consists of n second-order ODEs in n unknowns (the

components of x(i)). We have rewritten this original system as In first-order ODEs
in In unknowns (the n components of y(t) and the n components of z(t)).
The fact that any ODE can be written as a first-order system has the follow-
ing benefit: Any theory or algorithm developed for first-order systems of ODEs is
automatically applicable to any ODE. This leads to a considerable simplification in
the study of this subject.

Exercises
1. Write the ODE

as a system of first-order ODEs.

2. Write the ODE

as a system of first-order ODEs.

3. Write the ODE

as a system of first-order ODEs.

4. Write the ODE

as a system of first-order ODEs.

5. Write the following system of second-order ODEs as a system of first-order
ODEs:
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82 Chapter 4. Essential ordinary differential equations

Here mi and m^ are constants, and j\ and /2 are real-valued functions of four
variables.

4.2 Solutions to some simple ODEs

In this section, we show how to solve some simple first- and second-order ODEs
that will arise later in the text.

4.2.1 The general solution of a second-order homogeneous ODE

with constant coefficients
In the ensuing chapters, we will often encounter the second-order linear homoge-
neous ODE with constant coefficients,

so we will present a simple method for computing its general solution. The method
is based on the following idea: When faced with a differential equation, one can
sometimes guess the general form of the solution and, by substituting this general
form into the equation, determine the specific form.
In this case, we assume that the solution of (4.4) is of the form

Substituting into (4.4) yields

since the exponential is never zero, this equation holds if and only if

This quadratic is called the characteristic polynomial of the ODE (4.4), and its roots
are called the characteristic roots of the ODE.
The characteristic roots are given by the quadratic formula:

We distinguish three cases.

1. The characteristic roots are real and unequal (i.e. 62 — 4ac > 0). In
this case, since the equation is linear, any linear combination of erit and er2t
is also a solution of (4.4). In fact, as we now show, every solution of (4.4) can
be written as
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4.2. Solutions to some simple ODEs 83

for some choice of ci, C2- In fact, we will show that, for any &i, £2, the initial
value problem (IVP)

has a unique solution of the form (4.5).

With u given by (4.5), we have

and we wish to choose c\, c^ to satisfy

that is,

The coefficient matrix in this equation is obviously nonsingular (since r\ / r-2),

and so there is a unique solution c\,C2 for each fci, fo •
Since every solution of (4.4) can be written in the form (4.5), we call (4.5) the
qeneral solution of (4.4).
2. The characteristics roots are complex (i.e. b2 — 4ac < 0). In this
case, the characteristics roots are also unequal; in fact, they form a complex
conjugate pair. The analysis of the previous case applies, and we could write
the general solution in the form (4.5) in this case as well. However, with 7*1, r<2
complex, e ri *,e r2 * are complex-valued functions, and this is undesirable.

and so

This shows (because the equation is linear) that

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84 Chapter 4. Essential ordinary differential equations

are also solutions of (4.4) in this case. We will write the general solution in
the form

As in the previous case, we can show that every solution of (4.4) can be written
in this form (see Exercise 2).
3. The characteristic polynomial has a single (repeated) real root (i.e.
b2 — 4ac = 0). In this case the root is r — —b/(2a). We cannot write the
general solution with the single solution ert; by an inspired guess, we try tert
as the second solution. Indeed, with u(t) — tert, we have

and so

This shows that tert is also a solution of (4.4), and we write the general
solution in this case as

where r = —b/(2a). Once again, it is not hard to show that every solution of
(4.4) can be written in this form (see Exercise 3).

Example 4.1. The characteristic polynomial of

is r2 — r + I, which has roots

Therefore this example falls in case 2 above, and the general solution of the ODE is

Example 4.2. The ODE

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4.2. Solutions to some simple ODEs 85

has characteristic polynomial r2 — 2r + 1. The characteristic roots are

ri = r2 = 1,

so case 3 above applies. The general solution is

4.2.2 A special inhomogeneous second-order linear ODE

In Chapter 7, we will encounter the following inhomogeneous IVP:

The coefficient 02 is a positive real number. In this section, we will present a

surprisingly simple formula for the solution.
By the principle of superposition, we can solve the two IVPs

and

and add the solutions to get the solution to (4.7). It is straightforward to apply the
techniques of Section 4.2.1 to derive the solution of (4.8):

(see Exercise 12).

The solution of (4.9) is more difficult to derive, although the final answer has
a pleasingly simple form:
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86 Chapter 4. Essential ordinary differential equations

The derivation of this formula is outlined in Exercise 4.3.10 of the next section.
For now, we will content ourselves with verifying that (4.11) really solves (4.9).
To verify the solution, we must differentiate W2(i), which is a bit tricky since the
independent variable appears both in the integrand and as an integration limit. To
make the computation of the derivative clear, we write

and note that u^t) = h(t,t). By the chain rule, then,

By the fundamental theorem of calculus,

and, by Theorem 2.1,

Therefore,

A similar calculation then shows that

We then have
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4.2. Solutions to some simple ODEs 87

Thus U2 solves (4.9), which is what we wanted to show.

We have now shown that the solution to (4.7) is

Example 4.3. The solution to

i<t
to

(the integral can be computed using the subtraction formula for sine and simplified
using other trigonometric identities).

4.2.3 First-order linear ODEs

Another type of ODE for which we can find the general solution is the first-order
linear ODE:

(We could treat the case of a nonconstant coefficient similarly; however, we have n
need to.)
The solution is based on the idea of an integrating factor: we multiply th
equation by a special function that allows us to solve by direct integration. We not
that

Therefore, we have

This immediately gives us the solution to the IVP

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88 Chapter 4. Essential ordinary differential equations

Example 4.4. The IVP

has solution

(the integral can be computed by two applications of integration by parts).

It should be appreciated that, although we have an explicit formula for the

solution of (4.13), it will be impossible in many cases to explicitly evaluate the
integrals involved in terms of elementary functions.

Exercises
1. Let 5 be the solution set of (4.4).
(a) Show that S is a subspace of C2 (R), the set of twice-continuously differ-
entiable function defined on R.
(b) Use the results of this section to show S is two-dimensional for any values
of a, 6, and c, provided only that a ^ 0.
2. Suppose (4.4) has characteristic roots /z± \i, where /i, A e R and A / 0. Show
that, for any ki, £2, there is a unique choice of ci, C2 such that the solution oi
(4.6) is

3. Suppose (4.4) has the single characteristic root r = -b/(2a). Show that, for
any fei, fo, there is a unique choice of ci,C2 such that the solution of (4.6) is

4. For each of the following IVPs, find the general solution of the ODE and use
it to solve the IVP:
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4.2. Solutions to some simple ODEs 89

5. The following differential equations are accompanied by boundary conditions—

auxiliary conditions that refer to the boundary of a spatial domain rather
than to an initial time. By using the general solution of the ODE, determine
whether a nonzero solution to the boundary value problem (BVP) exists, and
if so, whether the solution is unique.
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90 Chapter 4. Essential ordinary differential equations

6. Determine the values of A e R such that the BVP

has a nonzero solution.

7. Prove directly (that is, by substituting u into the differential equation and
initial condition) that

solves

8. Solve the following IVPs:

9. Find the solution to the IVP

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4.3. Linear systems with constant coefficients 91

10. Find the solution to the IVP

11. Find the solution to the IVP

12. Use the techniques of Section 4.2.1 to derive the solution to (4.8), and verify
that you obtain (4.10). (Hint: One way to do this is to write the general
solution of the ODE as u(t) = c\ cos (9t] + 02 sin (Ot) and then solve for c\
and C2- If you do this, you will then have to apply trigonometric identities
to put the solution in the form given in (4.10). It is simpler to recognize
at the beginning that the general solution could just as well be written as
u(t) = ci cos (0(t - t0}) + c2 sin (0(t - t 0 ) ) . )

4.3 Linear systems with constant coefficients

We now consider a first-order linear system of ODEs with constant coefficients.
Such a system can be written

As with a linear algebraic system, there is a great advantage in using matrix-vector

notation. System (4.15) can be written as

where
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92 Chapter 4. Essential ordinary differential equations

Although it is possible to develop a solution technique that is applicable for any

matrix A € R n x n , it is sufficient for our purposes to discuss the case in which there
is a basis for Rn consisting of eigenvectors of A, notably the case in which A is
symmetric. In this case, we can develop a spectral method, much like the spectral
method for solving Ax = b in the case that A is symmetric.15
As we develop an explicit solution for (4.16), the reader should concentrate on
the qualitative properties (of the solution) that are revealed. These properties turn
out to be more important (at least in this book) than the formula for the solution.

4.3.1 Homogeneous systems

We begin with the homogeneous version of (4.16),

We will look for solutions to (4.16) of the special form

where u ^ 0 is a constant vector. We have

This last equation states that two vectors are equal, which means that Au must
be a multiple of u (otherwise, the two vectors would point in different directions,
which is not possible if they are equal). Therefore, u must be an eigenvector of A:

We then obtain

where C is a constant. Therefore, if A, u is any eigenvalue-eigenvector pair, then

is a solution of (4.17).

Example 4.5. Let

Then the eigenvalues of A are \i = 0, A2 = —1, and AS = —2, and the corresponding
eigenvectors are

15
See Section 3.5.3.
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4.3. Linear systems with constant coefficients 93

We therefore know three independent solutions of

namely,

If, as in the previous example, there is a basis for Rn consisting of eigenvectors

{ui, u 2 , . . . , un} of A, with corresponding eigenvalues AI, A 2 , . . . , A n , then we can
write the general solution of (4.17). Indeed, it suffices to show that we can solve

Since {ui, 112,..., un} is a basis for R n , there exists a vector c G Rn such that

The solution to (4.18) is then

We also have

by construction.

Example 4.6. Let A be the matrix in Example 4-5, and let

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94 Chapter 4. Essential ordinary differential equations

Since the basis of eigenvectors {111,112,113} o/A is orthonormal, as is easily checked,

we have

We can then immediately write down the solution to

It is

If, as in the previous example, A is symmetric, then the eigenvectors

{ui,u 2 ,...,u n }

can be chosen to be orthonormal, in which case it is particularly simple to compute

the coefficient ci,C2,.. - ,cn expressing x0 in terms of the eigenvectors. We obtain
the following simple formula for the solution of (4.18):

We have derived the solution to (4.18) in the case that A has n linearly in-
dependent eigenvectors. We remark that formula (4.19) might involve complex
numbers if A is not symmetric. However, we have a complete and satisfactory
solution in the case that A is symmetric—there are n linearly independent eigen-
vectors, the eigenvalues are guaranteed to be real, and the basis of eigenvectors can
be chosen to be orthonormal.
We now discuss the significance of solution (4.19). The interpretation is very
simple: The solution to (4.18) is the sum of n components, one in each eigendirec-
tion, and component i is
exponentioally increasing (if yi > 0);
exponentioally decreasing (if yi < 0); or
constant (if yi = 0).
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4.3. Linear systems with constant coefficients 95

Moreover, the rate of increase or decrease of each component is governed by the

magnitude of the corresponding eigenvalue.
We can therefore draw the following conclusions:
1. If all of the eigenvalues of A are negative, then every solution x of (4.18)
satisfies

2. If all of the eigenvalues of A are positive, then every solution x of (4.18)

(except the zero solution) satisfies

3. If any of the eigenvalues of A is positive, then, for most initial values XQ, the
solution x of (4.18) satisfies

The only statement which requires justification is the third. Suppose an eigenvalue
\j of A is positive, and suppose A has k linearly independent eigenvectors corre-
sponding to \j. Then, unless XQ lies in the (n — k)-dimensional subspace of Rn
spanned by the other n — k eigenvectors, the solution x of (4.18) will contain a
factor of e Aj (*~*°), guaranteeing the

||x(£)|| —> oo as t —> oo.

Even if k = 1, an (n — fc)-dimensional subspace of Rn is a very small part of Rn

(comparable to a plane or a line in R3). Therefore, most initial vectors do not lie
in this subspace.

Example 4.7. Let

Then the eigenvalues of A are AI = 1, A2 = —1, and \s = —2, and the corresponding
eigenvectors are

The solution of (4-18) is

where
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96 Chapter 4. Essential ordinary differential equations

The only initial values that lead to a solution x that does not grow without bound
are

But S is a plane, which is a very small part of Euclidean 3-space. Thus almost
every initial value leads to a solution that grows exponentially.

Another conclusion that we can draw is somewhat more subtle than those
given above, but it will be important in Chapter 6.
4. If A has eigenvalues of very different magnitudes, then solutions of (4.18) have
components whose magnitudes change at very different rates. Such solutions
can be difficult to compute efficiently using numerical methods.
We will discuss this point in more detail in Section 4.5.

4.3.2 In homogeneous systems and variation of parameters

We can now explain how to solve the inhomogeneous system

again only considering the case in which there is a basis of Rn consisting of eigen-
vectors of A. The method is a spectral method, and the reader may wish to review
Section 3.5.3.
If {ui, u 2 ,..., un} is a basis for R n , then every vector in Rn can be written
uniquely as a linear combination of these vectors. In particular, for each £, we can
write f(t) as a linear combination of ui, 112,..., un:

Of course, since the vector f (t) depends on £, so do the weights c\ (£), C2(t),..., cn(t).
These weights can be computed explicitly from f, which of course is considered to
be known.
We can also write the solution of (4.20) in terms of the basis vectors:

Since x(£) is unknown, so are the weights ai(i),«2(*), • • • ,a,n(t). However, when
these basis vectors are eigenvectors of A, it is easy to solve for the unknown weights.
Indeed, substituting (4.21) in place of x yields
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4.3. Linear systems with constant coefficients 97

The ODE

then implies that

which can only hold if

Thus, by representing the solution in terms of the eigenvectors, we reduced the

system of ODEs to n scalar ODEs that can be solved independently.16 The com-
putation of the functions ci(£), C 2 ( t ) , . . . , cn(t) is simplest when A is symmetric, so
that the eigenvectors can be chosen to be orthonormal. In that case,

We will concentrate on this case henceforth.

The initial condition x(£0) = x0 provides initial values for the unknowns
ai(t],a-2,(t},... ,an(t}. Indeed, we can write

so x(£ 0 ) = XQ implies that

or

When the basis is orthonormal, the coefficients & i , & 2 j - - - > & n can be computed in
the usual way:

Example 4.8. Consider the IVP

16
This is just what happened in the spectral method for solving Ax = b—the system of n
simultaneous equations was reduced to n independent equations.
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98 Chapter 4. Essential ordinary differential equations

where

The matrix A is symmetric, and an orthonormal basis for R2 consists of the vectors

The corresponding eigenvalues are \i = 0, X% = 2.

We now express f(t) in terms of the eigenvectors:

The solution is

where

We obtain

and

Finally,

The technique for solving (4.20) presented in this section, which we have
described as a spectral method, is usually referred to as the method of variation of
parameters.
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4.3. Linear systems with constant coefficients 99

Exercises
1. Consider the IVP (4.18), where A is the matrix in Example 4.5. Find the
solution for

2. Consider the IVP (4.18), where A is the matrix in Example 4.5.

(a) Explain why, no matter what the value of x0, the solution x(£) converges
to a constant vector as t —> oo.
(b) Find all values of x0 such that the solution x is equal to a constant vector
for all values of t.

3. Find the general solution to

where

4. Find the general solution to

where

5. Let A be the matrix in Exercise 3. Find all values of XQ such that the solution
to (4.18) decays exponentially to zero.

6. Let A be the matrix in Exercise 4. Find all values of XQ such that the solution
to (4.18) decays exponentially to zero.

7. Let A be the matrix of Example 4.5. Solve the IVP

where
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100 Chapter 4. Essential ordinary differential equations

8. Let

Solve the IVP

where

9. The following system has been proposed as a model of the population dynam-
ics of two species of animals that compete for the same resource:

Here o, 6, c, d are positive constants, x(t] is the population of the first species
at time £, and y(t] is the corresponding population of the second species
(x and y are measured in some convenient units, say thousands or millions
of animals). The equations are easy to understand: either species increases
(exponentially) if the other is not present, but, since the two species compete
for the same resources, the presence of one species contributes negatively to
the growth rate of the other.
(a) Solve the IVP with 6 = c = 2, o = d = l , x(0) = 2, and j/(0) = 1, and
explain (in words) what happens to the populations of the two species
in the long term.
(b) With the values of a, 6, c, d given in part 9a, is there an initial condition
which will lead to a different (qualitative) outcome?
10. The purpose of this exercise is to derive the solution (4.11) of the IVP

The solution

can be found using the techniques of this section, although the computations
are more difficult than any of the examples we have presented.
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4.4. Numerical methods for initial value problems 101

(a) Rewrite (4.23) in the form

Notice that the matrix A is not symmetric.

(b) Find the eigenvalues AI, A2 and eigenvectors Ui,u 2 of A.
(c) Write the vector-valued function F(t) in the form

Since the eigenvectors ui and u2 are not orthogonal, this will require
solving a (2 x 2) system of equations to find c\ (t} and c2 (t).
(d) Write the solution in the form

and solve the scalar IVPs to get ai (t}, a2 (t}.

(e) The desired solution is u(t] = xi(t). Show that the result is (4.11).

4.4 Numerical methods for initial value problems

So far in this chapter, we have discussed simple classes of ODEs, for which it is
possible to produce an explicit formula for the solution. However, most differential
equations cannot be solved in this sense. Moreover, sometimes the only formula that
can be found is difficult to evaluate, involving integrals that cannot be computed in
terms of elementary functions, eigenvalues and eigenvectors that cannot be found
exactly, and so forth.
In cases like these, it may be that the only way to investigate the solution is to
approximate it using a numerical method, which is simply an algorithm producing
an approximate solution. We emphasize that the use of a numerical method always
implies that the computed solution will be in error. It is essential to know something
about the magnitude of this error; otherwise, one cannot use the solution with any
confidence.
Most numerical methods for IVPs in ODEs are designed for first-order scalar
equations. These can be applied, almost without change, to first-order systems, and
hence to higher-order ODEs (after they have been converted to first-order systems).
Therefore, we begin by discussing the general first-order scalar IVP, which is of the
form

We shall discuss time-stepping methods, which seek to find approximations to

n(ti),^(£2), • • • ,u(tn}, where to < ti < t^ < • • • < tn define the grid. The quantities
ti — to,t2 — ti,..., tn — tn-i are called the time steps.
The basic idea of time-stepping methods is based on the fundamental theorem
of calculus, which implies that if
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102 Chapter 4. Essential ordinary differential equations

then

Now, we cannot (in general) hope to evaluate the integral in (4.25) analytically;
however, any numerical method for approximating the value of a definite integral
(such methods are often referred to as quadrature rules) can be adapted to form the
basis of a numerical method of IVPs. By the way, equation (4.25) explains why the
process of solving an IVP numerically is often referred to as integrating the ODE.

4.4.1 Euler's method

The simplest method of integrating an ODE is based on the left-endpoint rule:

Applying this to (4.25), we obtain

Of course, this is not a computable formula, because, except possibly on the first
step (i = 0), we do not know u(ti) exactly. Instead, we have an approximation,
Ui = u(ti). Formula (4.26) suggests how to obtain an approximation m+\ to u(ti+i):

The reader should notice that (except for i = 0) there are two sources of error in
the estimate MJ+I. First of all, there is the error inherent in using formula (4.26) to
advance the integration by one time step. Second, there is the accumulated error
due to the fact that we do not know u(ti] in (4.26), but rather only an approximation
to it.
The method (4.27) is referred to as Euler's method.

Example 4.9. Consider the IVP

The exact solution is

and we can use this formula to determine the errors in the computed approximation
to u(t). Applying Euler's method with the regular grid t{ = iAt, Ai = 10/n, we
have
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4.4. Numerical methods for initial value problems 103

For example, with UQ = 1 and n = 100, we obtain

In Figure 4-1, we graph the exact solution and the approximations computed using
Euler's method for n = 10,20,40. As we should expect, the approximation produced
by Euler's method gets better as At (the time step) decreases. In fact, Table 4-1,
where we collect the errors in the approximations to w(10), suggests that the global
error (which comprises the total error after a number of steps) is O(At). The symbol
0(At) ("big-oh of At") denotes a quantity that is proportional to or smaller than
At as At ->• 0.

Figure 4.1. Euler's method applied to (4-28).

Proving that the order of Euler's method is really O(At) is beyond the scope
of this book, but we can easily sketch the essential ideas of the proof. It can be
proved that the left-endpoint rule, applied to an interval of integration of length
At, has an error that is O(At 2 ). In integrating an IVP, we apply the left-endpoint
rule repeatedly, in fact, n = 0(l/At) times. Adding up I/At errors of order At2
gives a total error of 0(At). (Proving that this heuristic reasoning is correct takes
some rather involved but elementary analysis that can be found in most numerical
analysis textbooks.)
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104 Chapter 4. Essential ordinary differential equations

n Error in w(10) Error in w(io)

At
1
10 -3.3384 • 1Q- -3.3384 • 1Q-1
20 -1.8507 -KT 1 -3.7014 -10-1
40 -1.0054 -HT 1 -4.0218 -HT 1
80 -5.2790 • 1Q-2 -4.2232 - HT1
160 -2.7111 -1Q- 2 -4.3378 • lO"1
320 -1.3748 -HT 2 -4.3992 • 1Q-1
640 -6.9235 • 10~3 -4.4310 • 1Q-1

Table 4.1. Global error in Euler's method for (4-28).

4.4.2 Improving on Euler's method: Runge-Kutta methods

If the results suggested in the previous section are correct, Euler's method can
be used to approximate the solution to an IVP to any desired accuracy by simply
making At small enough. Although this is true (with certain restrictions), we might
hope for a more efficient method—one that would not require as many time steps
to achieve a given accuracy.
To improve Euler's method, we choose a numerical integration technique that
is more accurate than the left-endpoint rule. The simplest is the midpoint rule:

If At = b — a (and the integrand / is sufficiently smooth), then the error in the

midpoint rule is O(A£3). Following the reasoning in the previous section, we expect
that the corresponding method for integrating an IVP would have O(A£ 2 ) global
error.
It is not immediately clear how to use the midpoint rule for quadrature to
integrate an IVP. The obvious equation is

However, after reaching time ti in the integration, we have an approximation for

u(ti), but none for u(ti + A£/2). To use the midpoint rule requires that we first
generate an approximation for u(ti + Ai/2); the simplest way to do this is with an
Euler step:

Putting this approximation together with the midpoint rule, and using the approx-
imation Ui = u(ti), we obtain the improved Euler method:
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4.4. Numerical methods for initial value problems 105

n Error in it (10) Error in2 «(io)

At
2
10 -2.1629 • 10~ -2.1629-1Q-2
20 -1.2535 -Mr 2 -5.0140 -1Q- 2
40 -4.7603 • 1Q-33 -7.6165 -1Q- 2
80 -1.4746 -nr 4 -9.4376 • 10~2
160 -4.1061 • 10~ -10.512 -1Q- 2
320 -1.0835 • 10-4 -11.095 -i(r 22
640 -2.7828 • 10~5 -11.398 -10-

Table 4.2. Global error in the improved Euler method for (4-28).

Figure 4.2 shows the results of the improved Euler method, applied to (4.28) with
n — 10, n = 20, and n = 40. The improvement in accuracy can be easily seen by
comparing to Figure 4.1. We can see the O(At2) convergence in Table 4.2—when
At is divided by two (i.e. n is doubled), the error is divided by approximately four.

Figure 4.2. Improved Euler method applied to (4-28).

The improved Euler method is a simple example of a Runge-Kutta (RK)

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106 Chapter 4. Essential ordinary differential equations

method. An (explicit) RK method takes the following form:

with certain restrictions on the values of the parameters ctj, PM, and 7^ (e.g. a\ +
h am — !)• Although (4.29) looks complicated, it is not hard to understand the
idea. A general form for a quadrature rule is

where wi,W2,.--, wm are the quadrature weights and xi, x%,..., xm G [a, b] axe the
quadrature nodes. In the formula for Ui+i in (4.29), the weights are

and values fci, £2, • • • ,km are estimates of f ( t , u ( t ) ) at ra nodes in the interval
[ti,ti+i]. We will not use the general formula (4.29), but the reader should ap-
preciate the following point: there are many RK methods, obtained by choosing
various values for the parameters in (4.29). This fact is used in designing algo-
rithms that attempt to automatically control the error. We discuss this further in
Section 4.4.4 below.
The most popular RK method is analogous to Simpson's rule for quadrature:

Simpson's rule has an error of O(A£ 5 ) (At = b — a), and the following related
method for integrating an IVP has global error of O(A£ 4 ):
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4.4. Numerical methods for initial value problems 107

n Error in w(10) Error in4 u(io)

At
2
10 1.9941 • 10~ 1.9941 • 10~2
20 1.0614 -Hr 3 1.6982 • 10~2
40 6.5959 • 10~5 1.6885 • 10~2
80 4.0108 • 10~6 1.6428 • 10~2
160 2.4500 • 1Q-7 1.6057 -10- 2
320 1.5100 -l(r 8 1.5833 -10-2
640 9.3654 • 10-10 1.5712 -ID" 2

Table 4.3. Global error in the fourth-order Runge-Kutta method (RK4)

for (4.28).

We call this the RK4 method. Figure 4.3 and Table 4.3 demonstrate the accuracy
of RK4; dividing A£ by two decreases the error by (approximately) a factor of 16.
This is typical for O(At 4 ) convergence.

Figure 4.3. Fourth-order Runge-Kutta method (RK4) applied to (4-28).

We must note here that the improvement in efficiency of these higher-order

methods is not as dramatic as it might appear at first glance. For instance, com-
paring Tables 4.1 and 4.3, we notice that just 10 steps of RK4 gives a smaller error
than 160 steps of Euler's method. However, the improvement in efficiency is not a
factor of 16, since 160 steps of Euler's method use 160 evaluations of f ( t , u ) , while
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108 Chapter 4. Essential ordinary differential equations

10 steps of RK4 use 40 evaluations of f ( t , u ) . In problems of realistic complexity,

the evaluation of f ( t , u ] is the most expensive part of the calculation (often / is
defined by a computer simulation rather than a simple algebraic formula), and so
a more reasonable comparison of these results would conclude that RK4 is 4 times
as efficient as Euler's method for this particular example and level of error. Higher-
order methods tend to use enough fewer steps than lower-order methods that they
are more efficient even though they require more work per step.

4.4.3 Numerical methods for systems of ODEs

The numerical methods presented above can be applied directly to a system of
ordinary differential equations. Indeed, when the system is written in vector form,
the notation is virtually identical. We now present an example.

Example 4.10. Consider two species of animals that share a habitat, and suppose
one species is prey to the other. Let x\ (t) be the population of the predator species
at time t, and let X2(t) be the population of the prey at the same time. The Lotka-
Volterra predator-prey model for these two populations is

where ei, 62, #, r are positive constants. The parameters have the following interpre-
tations:
BI describes the attack rate of the predators (the rate at which the prey are
killed bv the vredators is e^ x-\ x? );
62 describes the growth rate of the predator population based on the number of
prey killed (the efficiency of predators at converting predators to prey);
q is the rate at which the predators die;
r is the intrinsic growth rate of the prey population.
The equations describe the rate of population growth (or decline) of each species.
The rate of change of the predator population is the difference between the rate of
growth due to feeding on the prey and the rate of death. The rate of change of
the prey population is the difference between the natural growth rate (which would
govern in the absence of predators) and the death rate due to predation.
Define f : R x R2 -» R2 by

(f is actually independent of t; however, we include t as an independent variable

so that this example fits into the general form discussed above). Then, given initial
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4.4. Numerical methods for initial value problems 109

values #1,0 and #2,0 of the predator and prey populations, respectively, the IVP of
interest is

where

Suppose

el = 0.01, e2 = 0.2, r = 0.2, q = 0.4, XI,Q = 40, x2,o = 500.

usmg the RK4 method described above, we estimated the solution of (4-31) on the
time interval [0,50]. The implementation is exactly as described in (4-30), except
that now the various quantities (lcj,Uj,f(tj,Ui)J are vectors. The time step used was
At = 0.05 (for a total of 1000 steps). In Figure 4-4> w& plot the two populations
versus time; this graph suggests that both populations vary periodically.

Figure 4.4. The variation of the two populations with time (Example 4-10).

Another way to visualize the results is to graph x^ versus x\; such a graph
is meaningful because, for an autonomous ODE (one in which t does not appear
explicitly), the curve (xi(t)jX^(t}} is determined entirely be the initial value XQ (see
Exercise 5 for a precise formulation of this property). In Figure 4-5, we graph x%
versus x\. This curve is traversed in the clockwise direction (as can be determined
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110 Chapter 4. Essential ordinary differential equations

by comparing with Figure 4-4)- F°r example, when the prey population is large
and the predator population is small (the upper left part of the curve), the predator
population will begin to grow. As it does, the prey population begins to decrease
(since more prey are eaten). Eventually, the prey population gets small enough that
it cannot support a large number of predators (far right part of the curve), and the
predator population decreases rapidly. When the predator population gets small, the
prey population begins to grow, and the whole cycle begins again.

Figure 4.5. The variation of the two populations (Example 4-10).

4.4.4 Automatic step control and Runge-Kutta-Fehlberg

methods
As the above examples show, it is possible to design numerical methods which give a
predictable improvement in the error as the time step is decreased. However, these
methods do not allow the user to choose the step size in order to attain a desired
level of accuracy. For example, we know that decreasing At from 0.1 to 0.05 will
decrease the error in an 0(At 4 ) method by approximately a factor of 16, but this
does not tell us that either step size will lead to a global error less than 10~3.
It would be desirable to have a method that, given a desired level of accuracy,
could choose the step size in an algorithm so as to attain that accuracy. While no
method guaranteed to do this is known, there is a heuristic technique that is usually
successful in practice. The basic idea is quite simple. When an algorithm wishes
to integrate from tn to tn+i, it uses two different methods, one of order Aife and
another of order A£fc+1. It then regards the more accurate estimate (resulting from
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4.4. Numerical methods for initial value problems 111

the O(At fe+1 ) method) as the exact value, and compares it with the estimate from
the lower-order method. If the difference is sufficiently small, then it is assumed
that the step size is sufficiently small, and the step is accepted. (Moreover, if the
difference is too small, then it is assumed that the step size is smaller than it needs
to be, and it may be increased on the next step.) On the other hand, if the difference
is too large, then it is assumed that the step is inaccurate. The step is rejected, and
At, the step size, is reduced. This is called automatic step control, and it leads to
an approximate solution computed on an irregular grid, since At can vary from one
step to the next. This technique is not guaranteed to produce a global error below
the desired level, since the method only controls the local error (the error resulting
from a single step of the method). However, the relationship between the local and
global error is understood in principle, and this understanding leads to methods
that usually achieve the desired accuracy.
A popular class of methods for automatic step control consists of the Runge-
Kutta-Fehlberg (RKF) methods, which use two RK methods together to control
the local error as described in the previous paragraph. The general form of RK
methods, given in (4.29), shows that there are many possible RK formulas; indeed,
for a given order At fc , there are many different RK methods that can be derived.
This fact is used in the RKF methodology to choose pairs of formulas that evaluate
/, the function defining the ODE, as few times as possible. For example, it can be
proved that every RK method of order At5 requires at least six evaluations of /.
It is possible to choose six points (i.e. the values ti,ti + 72/1,... , t j + ^h in (4.29))
so that five of the points can be used in an O(At 4 ) formula, and the six points
together define an O(At 5 ) formula. (One such pair of formulas is the basis of the
popular RKF45 method.) This allows a very efficient implementation of automatic
step control.

Exercises
1. The purpose of this exercise is to estimate the value of u(0.5), where u(t) is
the solution of the IVP

The solution is w(t) = te*, and so w(0.5) = e 1 / 2 /2 = 0.82436.

(a) Estimate w(0.5) by taking 4 steps of Euler's method.

(b) Estimate w(0.5) by taking 2 steps of the improved Euler's method.
(c) Estimate w(0.5) by taking 1 step of the classical fourth-order RK method.

Which estimate is more accurate? How many times did each evaluate f ( t , u) =
u + ete?

2. Reproduce the results of Example 4.10.

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112 Chapter 4. Essential ordinary differential equations

17
3. The system of ODEs

where

models the orbit of a satellite about two heavenly bodies, which we will assume
to be the earth and the moon.
In these equations, (x(t),y(t)) are the coordinates of the satellite at time t.
The origin of the coordinate system is the center of mass of the earth-moon
system, and the ar-axis is the line through the centers of the earth and the
moon. The center of the moon is at the point (1 — /^i,0) and the center of
the earth is at (—//i, 0), where IJL\ = 1/82.45 is the ratio of mass of the moon
to the mass of the earth. The unit of length is the distance from the center
of the earth to the center of the moon. We write ^2 = 1 — A*i •
If the satellite satisfies the following initial conditions, then its orbit is known
to be periodic with period T = 6.19216933:

(a) Convert the system (4.33) of second-order ODEs to a first-order system.

(b) Use a program that implements an adaptive (automatic step control)
method18 (such as RKF45) to follow the orbit for one period. Plot the
orbit in the plane, and make sure that the tolerance used by the adaptive
algorithm is small enough that the orbit really appears in the plot to be
periodic. Explain the variation in time steps with reference to the motion
of the satellite.
(c) Assume that, in order to obtain comparable accuracy with a fixed step
size, it is necessary to use the minimum step chosen by the adaptive
algorithm. How many steps would be required by an algorithm with
fixed step size? How many steps were used by the adaptive algorithm?19
17
Adapted from [16], pages 153-154.
18
Both MATLAB and Mathematica provide such routines, ode45 and NDSolve, respectively.
19
It is easy to determine the number of steps used by MATLAB's ode45 routine. It is possible
but tricky to determine the number of steps used by Mathematica's NDSolve routine.
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4.4. Numerical methods for initial value problems 113

4. Let

The problem is to produce a graph, on the interval [0,20], of the two compo-
nents of the solution to

where

(a) Use the RK4 method with a step size of At = 0.1 to compute the solution.
Graph both components on the interval [0,20].
(b) Use the techniques of the previous section to compute the exact solution.
Graph both components on the interval [0,20].
(c) Explain the difference.

5. (a) Suppose t0 G [a, &] and f : Rn ->• R n , u : [a, 6] ->• Rn satisfy

satisfies

Moreover, show that the curves

and

are the same.

(b) Show, by producing an explicit example (a scalar IVP will do), that the
above property does not hold for a differential equation that depends
explicitly on t (that is, for a nonautonomous ODE).
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114 Chapter 4. Essential ordinary differential equations

6. Consider the IVP

Use both Euler's method and the improved Euler method to estimate #(10),
using step sizes 1,1/2,1/4,1/8, and 1/16. Verify that the error in Euler's
method is O(A£), while the error in the improved Euler method is O(Ai 2 ).

7. Consider the IVP

(a) Use the RK4 method with step sizes 1/4,1/8,1/16,1/32,1/64, and 1/128
to estimate x(l/2) and verify that the error is O(Af 4 ).
(b) Use the RK4 method with step sizes 1/4,1/8,1/16,1/32,1/64, and 1/128
to estimate x(2). Is the error O(A£ 4 ) in this case as well? If not, speculate
as to why it is not.

8. Let

The matrix A has an eigenvalue A = —0.187; let x be a corresponding eigen-

vector. The problem is to produce a graph on the interval [0,20] of the five
components of the solution to

(a) Solve the problem using the RK4 method (in floating point arithmetic)
and graph the results.
(b) What is the exact solution?
(c) Why is there a discrepancy between the computed solution and the exact
solution?
(d) Can this discrepancy be eliminated by decreasing the step size in the
RK4 method?
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4.5. Stiff systems of ODEs 115

4.5 Stiff systems of ODEs

The numerical methods described in the last section, while adequate for many IVPs,
can be unnecessarily inefficient for some problems. We begin with a comparison of
two IVPs, and the performance of a state-of-the-art automatic step-control algo-
rithm on them.

Example 4.11. We consider the following two IVPs:

For both IVPs, the initial value is the same:

We will describe the matrices AI and A2 by their spectral decompositions. The two
matrices are symmetric, with the same eigenvectors but different eigenvalues. The
eigenvectors are

while the eigenvalues of AI are AI = —I, A2 = —1, X3 = —3 and the eigenvalues of

A2 are AI = -I, A2 = -10, A3 = -100.
Since the initial value x0 is an eigenvector of both matrices, corresponding to
the eigenvalue —I in both cases, the two IVPs have exactly the same solution:

We solved both systems using the MATLAB command ode45, which implements a
state-of-the-art automatic step-control algorithm based on a fourth-fifth-order scheme.20
The results are graphed in Figure 4-6, where, as expected, we see that the two com-
puted solutions are the same (or at least very similar).
However, examining the results of the computations performed by ode45 re-
veals a surprise: the algorithm used only 52 steps for IVP (4-35) but 1124 steps for
(4-36)1
20
The routine ode45 was implemented by Shampine and Reichelt. See [42] for details.
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116 Chapter 4. Essential ordinary differential equations

Figure 4.6. The computed solutions to IVP (4.35) (top) and IVP (4-36)
(bottom). (Each graph shows all three components of the solution; however, the
exact solution, which is the same for the two IVPs, satisfies xi(t] = £ 2 (£) = xs(t)•)

A detailed explanation of these results is beyond the scope of this book, but
we briefly describe the reason for this behavior. These comments are illustrated
by an example below. Explicit time-stepping methods for ODEs, such as those
that form the basis of ode45, have an associated stability region for the time step.
This means that the expected O(At fc ) behavior of the global error is not observed
unless A£ is small enough to lie in the stability region. For larger values of At,
the method is unstable and produces computed solutions that "blow up" as the
integration proceeds. Moreover, this stability region is problem dependent and gets
smaller as the eigenvalues of the matrix A get large and negative.21
If A has large negative eigenvalues, then the system being modeled has some
transient behavior that quickly dies out. It is the presence of the transient behavior
21
If the system of ODEs under consideration is nonlinear, say

then it is the eigenvalues of the Jacobian matrix df/dx that determine the behavior.
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4.5. Stiff systems of ODEs 117

that requires a small time step—initially, the solution is changing over a very small
time scale, and the time step must be small to model this behavior accurately.
If, at the same time, there are small negative eigenvalues, then the system also
models components that die out more slowly. Once the transients have died out,
one ought to be able to increase the time step to model the more slowly varying
components of the solution. However, this is the weakness of explicit methods like
Euler's method, RK4, and others: the transient behavior inherent in the system
haunts the numerical method even when the transient components of the solution
have died out. A time step that ought to be small enough to accurately follow the
slowly varying components produces instability in the numerical method and ruins
the computed solution.
A system with negative eigenvalues of widely different magnitudes (that is, a
system that models components that decay at greatly different rates) is sometimes
called stiff.22 Stiff problems require special numerical methods; we give examples
below in Section 4.5.2. First, however, we discuss a simple example for which the
ideas presented above can be easily understood.

4.5.1 A simple example of a stiff system

The IVP

has solution

and the system qualifies as stiff according to the description given above. We will
apply Euler's method, since it is simple enough that we can completely understand
its behavior. However, similar results would be obtained with RK4 or another
explicit method.
To understand the behavior of Euler's method on (4.37), we write it out ex-
plicitly. We have

with

that is,

22
Stiffness is a surprisingly subtle concept. The definition we follow here does not capture all of
this subtlety; moreover, there is not a single, well-accepted definition of a stiff system. See [33],
Section 6.2, for a discussion of the various definitions of stiffness.
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118 Chapter 4. Essential ordinary differential equations

It follows that

and, similarly,

Clearly, the computation depends critically on

If one of these quantities is larger than 1, the corresponding component will grow
exponentially as the iteration progresses. At the very least, for stability (that is, to
avoid spurious exponential growth), we need

The first inequality determines the restriction on At, and a little algebra shows that
we must have

Thus a very small time step is required for stability, and this restriction on Af is
imposed by the transient behavior in the system.
As we show below, it is possible to avoid the need for overly small time steps
in a stiff system; however, we must use implicit methods. Euler's method and the
RK methods discussed in Section 4.4 are explicit, meaning that the value w(n+1) is
defined by a formula involving only known quantities. In particular, only u^ ap-
pears in the formula; in some explicit methods (multistep methods), u^n~l\ u^n~2\
... may appear in the formula, but w(n+1) itself does not.
On the other hand, an implicit method defines u^n+l^ by a formula that in-
volves w(n+1) itself (as well as u^ and possibly earlier computed values of u). This
means that, at each step of the iteration, an algebraic equation (possibly nonlinear)
must be solved to find the value of u( n+1 ). In spite of this additional computational
expense, implicit methods are useful because of their improved stability properties.

4.5.2 The backward Euler method

The simplest implicit method is the backward Euler method. Recall that Euler's
method for the IVP
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4.5. Stiff systems of ODEs 119

was derived from the equivalent formulation

by applying the left-endpoint rule for quadrature:

The result is

(see Section 4.4.1). To obtain the backward Euler method, we apply the right-hand
rule,

instead. The result is

This method is indeed implicit. It is necessary to solve the equation (4.38) for
un+i. In the case of a nonlinear ODE (or a system of nonlinear ODEs), this may be
difficult (requiring a numerical root-finding algorithm such as Newton's method).
However, it is not difficult to implement the backward Euler method for a linear
system. We illustrate this for the linear, constant-coefficient system:

The backward Euler method takes the form

Example 4.12. Applying the backward Euler method to the simple example (4-37)
gives some insight into the difference between the implicit and explicit methods. We
obtain the following iteration for the first component:
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120 Chapter 4. Essential ordinary differential equations

Similarly, for the second component, we obtain

For any positive value of A£; we have

and so no instability can arise. The step size A£ will still have to be small enough
for the solution to be accurate, but we do not need to take Ai excessively small to
avoid spurious exponential growth.

Example 4.13. We will apply both Euler's method and the backward Euler method
to the IVP

where A.% is the matrix from Example 4-11 o,nd

We integrate over the interval [0,2] with a time step of At — 0.05 (40 steps) in both
algorithms. The results are shown in Figure 4-7- Euler's method "blows up" with
this time step, while the backward Euler method produces a reasonable approximation
to the true solution.

Remark There are higher-order methods designed for use with stiff ODEs, no-
tably the trapezoidal method. It is also possible to develop automatic step-control
methods for stiff systems.23

Exercises
1. Let

and consider the IVP

(a) Find the exact solution x(£).

23
MATLAB includes such routines.
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4.5. Stiff systems of ODEs 121

Figure 4.7. The computed solutions to IVP (4-40) using Euler's method
(top) and the backward Euler method (bottom). (Each graph shows all three com-
ponents of the solution.)

(b) Estimate x(l) using 10 steps of Euler's method and compute the norm
of the error.
(c) Estimate x(l) using 10 steps of the backward Euler method and compute
the norm of the error.
2. Repeat Exercise 1 for

3. Let

Find the largest value of At such that Euler's method is stable. (Use numerical
experimentation.)
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122 Chapter 4. Essential ordinary differential equations

4. Let f : R x R2 ->• R2 be defined by

The nonlinear IVP

has solution

(a) Show by example that Euler's method is unstable unless At is chosen

small enough. Determine (by trial and error) how small At must be in
order that Euler's method is stable.
(b) Apply the backward Euler method. Is it stable for all positive values of
At?
5. Let

(a) Find the exact solution to

(b) Determine experimentally (that is, by trial and error) how small At must
be in order that Euler's method behaves in a stable manner on this IVP.
(c) Euler's method takes the form

Let the eigenpairs of A be AI, ui and A2, 112. Show that Euler's method
is equivalent to

where

Find explicit formulas for y^', y% , and derive an upper bound on At that
guarantees stability of Euler's method. Compare with the experimental
rpsiilt.
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4.6. Green's functions 123

(d) Repeat with the backward Euler method in place of Euler's method.
6. Let A € R n x n be symmetric with negative eigenvalues AI, A 2 , . . . , A n .
(a) Consider Euler's method and the backward Euler method applied to the
homogeneous linear system

Show that Euler's method produces a sequence xo,xi,X2,... where

while the backward Euler method produces a sequence x 0 ,xi,x 2 ,...

where

(b) What are the eigenvalues of I + AtA?

(c) What condition must At satisfy in order that Euler's method be stable?
(Hint: See the previous exercise.)
(d) What are the eigenvalues of (I — At A)"1?
(e) Show that the backward Euler method is stable for all positive values of
At.

4.6 Green's functions

The Green's function for an IVP, BVP, or IBVP has a fairly simple meaning, al-
though the details can get complicated, particularly for PDEs. A homogeneous
linear ODE always has the zero solution; nonzero solutions arise only when the ini-
tial conditions are not zero, or when the differential equation has a nonzero forcing
function (that is, is inhomogeneous). The initial values and the forcing function can
be called the data of the problem. The Green's function represents the contribution
to the solution of the datum at each point in time.
In the remainder of this section, we explain this statement for two IVPs that
we first considered in Section 4.2. We also explain how the Green's function can
be interpreted as a special solution to the differential equation, and introduce the
concept of the Dirac delta function. Finally, we comment on how the form of the
Green's function will change when we consider PDEs.

4.6.1 The Green's function for a first-order linear ODE

The solution to
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124 Chapter 4. Essential ordinary differential equations

as derived in Section 4.2, is

We define

Then we can write the formula for the solution u as

The function G is called the (causal) Green's function for (4.41), and formula (4.43)
already hints at the significance of G. The effect of the initial datum UQ on the
solution u at time t is G(t] to)uo, while the effect of the datum f ( s ) on the solution
u at time t is G(t] s)/(s)ds. 24
As a concrete example, the IVP (4.41) models the growth of a population (of a
country, say), where a is the natural growth rate and f ( t ) is the rate of immigration
at time t.25 For the sake of definiteness, suppose the population is measured in
millions of people and t is measured in years. Then UQ is the population at time to
(in millions) and f ( t ) is the rate, in millions of people per year, of immigration at
time t. We can see that u(t) = G(t;to) is the solution to the following IVP:

That is, u(t) = G(t;to) is the population function resulting from an initial popula-
tion of 1 (million) and no immigration (here consider only times t after to). We can
also recognize u(t) = G(t; s) as the population function corresponding to a certain
pattern of immigration, namely, when 1 million people immigrate at the instant
t = si Of course, this is an idealization, but there are many situations when we
wish to model a phenomenon that takes place at an instant in time or at a sin-
gle point in space (such as a point force in mechanics). We now explore this idea
further.
We consider a country whose population is modeled by the differential equation

We assume that initially there are no people in the country (u(to) = 0), and 1 million
people immigrate over the time interval [s,s + At] (at a constant rate, during that
24
The data represented by the function / has different units than that represented by UQ. Indeed,
an examination of the differential equation shows that the units of / are the units of UQ divided
by time. Therefore, / is a rate, and it must be multiplied by the time "interval" ds prior to being
multiplied by G(t; s).
25
This model of population growth is not a particularly good one, since it assumes that the
growth rate remains constant over time. In reality, the growth rate changes due to changing birth
rates, life spans, etc.
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4.6. Green's functions 125

interval, of I/At people per year). We assume that s > to. The resulting population
satisfies the IVP

where

The solution is

This last expression is the average of G(t; r] over the interval [s, s + At]. As we take
At smaller and smaller, we obtain

But what forcing function do we obtain in the limit?

4.6.2 The Dirac delta function

The function d&t has the following properties, the first two of which are just the
definition:

which is the average value of g on the interval [0, At].

Since the limit, as At ->• 0, of the average value of g over [0, At] is <?(0) when g is
continuous, these properties suggest that we define the limit 6 of d&t as At —^ 0 by
the properties
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126 Chapter 4. Essential ordinary differential equations

There is no ordinary function 6 satisfying the above properties; for example,

if 8(t) = 0 for all t / 0, then J 6(t) dt = 0 should hold. However, it is useful to
consider 6, as defined by the above properties, to be a generalized function. It is
called the Dirac delta function, and sometimes referred to as a unit point source or
unit impulse. The last property implies that, when g is continuous,

(see Exercise 6). Moreover, 6 is formally an even function, 6(—t) = 6(t] for all t, so
viro a1cr» Vicnro

This is called the sifting property of the Dirac delta function. Incidentally, a se-
quence of functions such as {di/n}, which converges to the delta function, is called
a delta-sequence.
Our analysis now suggests that the IVP

has solution u(t) = G(t; s).

Indeed, this follows from our formula for the solution of (4.41) (with UQ = 0)
and from the sifting property of the delta function:

Since G(t',s) is zero for t < s anyway, we obtain simply u(t) = G(t]s). This
again emphasizes the meaning of G(t;s): it is the response (of the system under
consideration) at time t to a (unit) point source at time s > to-

4.6.3 The Green's function for a second-order IVP

In Section 4.2.2, we saw that the solution to
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4.6. Green's functions 127

is

Therefore, the (causal) Green's function for (4.47) is

4.6.4 Green's functions for PDEs

We can now briefly preview the form of the Green's function for an IVP or IBVP
defined by a PDE. We will assume that any boundary conditions are homogeneous
for simplicity. Both the initial values and the forcing function will be prescribed over
the spatial domain of the problem, and we will have to "add up" the contributions
across space as well as across time. Therefore, the Green's function will have the
form G(x, £; £, s), giving the influence of the datum at the space-time point (£, s) on
the solution at (x, t}. Moreover, the solution formula will involve an integral over
space as well as time, since we must add up the contributions across the spatial
domain as well as over the time interval. A similar notion of Green's function
applies in the case of static problems, that is, PDEs in which the independent
variables are only space variables; then G(x; £) defines the influence of the datum
at the space point £ on the solution at x. This reasoning also hints at one of the
analogies mentioned in Section 3.6. The inverse matrix A~l defines the influence
of each component bj in the data (right-hand side) of the linear system Ax. = b on
component Xi of the solution: bj contributes (A~1)ijbj to Xj, and we get the full
result by adding up over the position j of the datum component. This story is in
precise correspondence with the way in which the Green's function G(£; s) defines
the influence of the datum at "position" (time) s on the solution at "position"
(time) t. So G is presumably in some sense an inverse operator; we will develop
this point of view further in Chapter 5.

Exercises
1. Find the Green's function for the following IVP:

2. Suppose a certain population grows according to the ODE

where / is the immigration. If the population at the beginning of 1990 is 55.5

million and immigration during the next 10 years is given by the function
f ( t ) = 1 — Q.2t (in millions), where t = 0 represents the beginning of 1990,
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128 Chapter 4. Essential ordinary differential equations

what will the population be at the beginning of 2000 (t = 10)? Use the
Green's function to find P(t) and then P(10).
3. A certain radioactive isotope decays exponentially according to the law

where k = In (2)/2. Here m(t) is the mass of the isotope at time t (seconds),
and the differential equation indicates that a constant fraction of the atoms are
disintegrating at each point in time. The above differential equation holds, of
course, when none of the isotope is being added or taken away by other means.
Suppose that initially 10 g of the isotope are present, and mass is added from
an external source at the constant rate of 0.1 g/s. Solve the IVP modeling this
situation, using the Green's function, and determine the long-time behavior
of m(t).
4. Find the Green's function for the IVP

5. Use the Green's function from the previous exercise to solve

6. Use the property

and a change of variables to justify (4.45),

4.7 Suggestions for further reading

There are many introductory textbooks on ODEs, such as the text by Goldberg and
Potter [18]. An introductory text with a particularly strong emphasis on applied
mathematics is Boyce and DiPrima [5]. A more advanced book that focuses on
the theory of ODEs (and the necessary linear algebra) is Hirsch and Smale [26].
The reader is referred to Hirsch and Smale for a complete description of the theory
of linear, constant-coefficient systems. (We covered only a special case, albeit an
important one, in Section 4.3.)
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4.7. Suggestions for further reading 129

For more information on numerical methods for ODEs, the reader is referred to
Shampine [43] or Lambert [33]. Most books on numerical analysis, such as Atkinson
[2] and Kincaid and Cheney [30], also cover numerical methods for ODEs, as well
as the background material on quadrature and interpolation.
The text by Mattheij and Molenaar [38] gives an integrated presentation of the
theory and numerical analysis of ODEs, as well as their use for modeling physical
systems.
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Chapter 5

Boundary
In statice

Our first examples of partial differential equations (PDEs) will arise in the study of
static (equilibrium) phenomena in mechanics and heat flow. To make our introduc-
tion to the subject as simple as possible, we begin with one-dimensional examples;
that is, all of the variation is assumed to occur in one spatial direction. Since the
phenomena are static, time is not involved, and the single spatial variable is the only
independent variable. Therefore, the "PDEs" are actually ODEs! Nevertheless, the
techniques we develop for the one-dimensional problems generalize to real PDEs.

5.1 The analogy between BVPs and linear algebraic

systems
As mentioned in Chapter 3, the solution methods presented in this book bear strong
resemblance, at least in spirit, to methods useful for solving a linear system of the
form Ax = b. In the exercises and examples of Chapter 3, we showed some of
the similarities between linear systems and linear BVPs. We now review these
similarities, and explain the analogy further.
We will use the equilibrium displacement u of a sagging string as our first
example. In Section 2.3, we showed that u satisfies the BVP

where T is the tension in the string and / is an external force density (in units of
force per length).
If A e R m x n , then A defines an operator mapping Rn into R m , and given
b e R m , we can ask the following questions:

Is there an x e Rn which is mapped to b by A?

131
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132 Chapter 5. Boundary value problems in statics

If so, is x unique?
How can such an x be computed?
In much the same way,

defines an operator—usually referred to as a differential operator. For convenience,

we will refer to this operator as L. It maps one function to another, and the
differential ermation

can be interpreted as the following question: Given a function / defined on the

interval [0,^], does there exist a function u which is mapped to / by L? That is,
does there exist a function u satisfying Lu = /?
The analogy between Ax = b and Lu = f is strengthened by the fact that
the differential operator L is linear, just as is the operator defined by the matrix A.
Indeed, if u and v are two functions and a and {3 are scalars, then

Underlying this calculation is the fact that a space of functions can be viewed as
a vector space—with functions as the vectors. The operator L is naturally defined
on the space (72[0,£| introduced in Section 3.1. Thus L takes as input a twice-
continuously differentiable function u and produces as output a continuous function
Tjii..

Example 5.1. Consider the function u : [0,1] —> R defined by

The function u is continuous on [0,1] (we need only check that the two cubic pieces
have the same value at x — 1/2, which they do). We have

and it is easy to see that both quadratic pieces defining du/dx have value 1/8 at
x — 1/2. Therefore, du/dx is continuous on [0,1]. Finally,
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5.1. The analogy between BVPs and linear algebraic systems 133

that is,

Thus d?u/dx2 is also continuous andu E C2[0,1]. In fact, u is "exactly" in C2[0,1],

in the sense that, because the third derivative of u is discontinuous, u $. Ck[Q, 1] for
any k > 2:

Figure 5.1 shows the graphs of u and its first three derivatives.

Figure 5.1. A function in (72[0,1] (see Example 5.1): y = u(x) (top left),
the first derivative of u (top right), the second derivative of u (bottom left), and the
third derivative of u (bottom right).

The reader should notice that the function u defined in Example 5.1 is the
solution of Lu = f for a certain / 6 C[0,1], namely,
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134 Chapter 5. Boundary value problems in statics

On the other hand, if we define v = du/dx, then v is not the solution of Lu = f

for any / £ C[0,1] (because d?v/dx2 is discontinuous). Indeed, Lv is not defined,
strictly speaking, since dv/dx is not differentiable on the entire interval [0,1]. Thus
it makes sense to regard the domain of L as (72[0,1]:

It is possible to take the analogy of Lu = f with Ax = b even further. If

A G R m x n , then Ax = b represents m equations in n unknowns, each equation
having the form

In the same way, Lu — j represents a collection of equations, namely, the conditions

that, the functions

and / must be equal at each x e [0,£J. Here, though, we see a major difference:
Lu = f represents an infinite number of equations, since there is an infinite number
of points x e [0,£j. Also, there are infinitely many unknowns, namely, the values
u(x),xe [0,4
The role of the boundary conditions is not difficult to explain in this context.
Just as a matrix A 6 R m x n can have a nontrivial null space, in which case Ax =
b cannot have a unique solution, so a differential operator can have a nontrivial
null space. It is easy to verify that the null space of L consists of all first-degree
polynomial functions:

Therefore, Lu = / cannot have a unique solution, since if u is one solution and

w(x] = ax + b, then u + w is another solution. On the other hand, Lu = f does
have solutions for every / e C^O,^]; for example,

solves Lu = f . This is equivalent to saying that the range of L is all of C[0,4

Example 5.2. Let f G C[0,1] be defined by f ( x ) — x. Then, for every a, b e R,

is a solution of Lu = f . That is, the general solution of Lu — f consists of

u(x) = —x 3 /(6T) plus any function from the null space of L. (See page 43.)

The fact that the null space of L is two-dimensional suggests that the operator
equation Lu = f is closely analogous to a linear algebraic equation Ax = b, where
A is an (n — 2) x n matrix and H(A) = R n ~ 2 (that is, the columns of A span R n ~ 2 ).
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5.1. The analogy between BVPs and linear algebraic systems 135

Such a matrix A has the property that Ax = b has a solution for every b € Rn 2 ,
but the solution cannot be unique. Indeed, in this case, M(A) is two-dimensional,
and therefore so is the solution set of Ax = b for every b e R n . In order to obtain
a unique solution, we must restrict the allowable vectors x by adding two equations.

Example 5.3. Let A e R 2 x 4 be defined by

Then it is easy to show that N (A) = span{vi,v<2}, where

(It is also easy to see that "^-(A) = R2; since the first two columns of A are linearly
independent.) Thus, «/x e R4 satisfies Ax = 0, then there exist s,t € R such that

In order to narrow down a unique solution, we must impose additional conditions

that force s and t to both be zero. If we are to preserve the linear nature of the
problem, these conditions will simply be two more linear equations, of the form

where w,z are two vectors in R4. There are many vectors w and z that will work;
indeed, as long as w; z, and the two rows of A form a linearly independent set,
then these additional equations will result in a unique solution.
For example, let w = ei = (1,0,0,0) and z = 64 = (0,0,0,1). Then (5.3) and
(5-4) together imply

and the only solution to this system is s = t = 0. Therefore, the only vector x G R
satisfying (5.3) and (5.4) is x = 0.
The matrix A e R 2 x 4 defines an operator mapping

(Kx. — Ax). One way to understand the role of the additional equations ei • x = 0
and 64 -x = 0 is that they allow us to define a matrix B e R 4x4 and a vector c 6 R4
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136 Chapter 5. Boundary value problems in statics

such that By = c has a unique solution related in a simple way to a solution of

Ax = b. The matrix B would be

However, this way of looking at the situation does not generalize in a natural way to
differential equations. Therefore, we interpret the two side equations as restricting
the domain of the operator.
The equations

are satisfied by vectors of the form

(and only by vectors of this form), where 62 = (0,1,0,0) and 63 = (0,0,1,0).

Therefore, by imposing the equations (5.5), we are allowing only solutions to Ax =
b that belong to the subspace

We define a new operator KS : S —> R2 by restriction: KS*. = Kx (so KS is

the same as K, except that we restrict the set of allowable inputs). We have then
shown that the operator KS has a trivial null space—the only solution to KSX = 0 is
x = 0. By the same token, for any b € R 2 , there is a unique solution to KS~X. = b.
The final step in this example is to interpret the operator equation K§x = b
as a matrix-vector equation. After all, KS is a linear operator defined on finite-
dimensional vector spaces, and it therefore must be representable by a matrix. We
write vectors x e 5 in terms of their coordinates with respect to the basis {62, e3}:

We can thus identify S with R2:

The matrix revresentinq K$ is therefore 2 x 2 , and the reader can show26 that this
matrix is

26
The reader should recall from Exercise 3.1.8 that there is a canonical method for computing
the matrix representing a linear operator on finite-dimensional spaces: The columns of the matrix
are the images under the operator of the standard basis vectors. If u = (1,0), then K$u = (2, —1),
and so the first column of C must be

The second column of C is determined by computing the image of (0,1) under KS-
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5.1. The analogy between BVPs and linear algebraic systems 137

By inspection, we can see that C is nonsingular, as expected, and, as an added

bonus, C is a symmetric matrix, whereas the matrix B; obtained from the other
point of view described above, is not symmetric.

We now show that the role of the boundary conditions in (5.1) is exactly
analogous to the role of the extra equations ei • x = 0, 62 • x = 0 in the above
example. We view the boundary conditions

as restricting the domain of the operator I/, and define

where

by

This new operator LD has a trivial null space. Indeed, if u e C2[0,l] satisfies

then u(x) = ax + b for some a, b e R. If u also satisfies w(0) = u(t] = 0, then

a = b = 0, and u is the zero function. The operator LD, like L, has the property
that LDU = f has a solution for each / € (7[0,1] (that is, the range of LD is C[0, £]),
and this solution is unique because the null space of LD is trivial.
We next show that LD is a symmetric operator, and, as such, it has many of
the properties of a symmetric matrix. Before we can demonstrate this, of course,
we must explain what symmetry means for a differential operator. In Section 3.5,
we saw that a matrix A € R n x n is symmetric if and only if

We can make the analogous definition for a differential operator, using the L2 inner
product in place of the dot product.

Definition 5.4. Let S be a subspace of Ck[a, b], and let K : S —>• C[a, b] be a linear
operator. We say that K is symmetric if

where (-,-) represents the L2 inner product on the interval [a,b]. That is, K is
symmetric if, whenever u,v € S, and w = Ku, z = Kv, then
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138 Chapter 5. Boundary value problems in statics

In working with differential operators and symmetry, integration by parts is

an essential technique, as the following examples show.

Example 5.5. Let LD be the operator defined above. Then, if u,v € Cf^O,^], we
have

Therefore, LD is a symmetric operator.

Example 5.6. Define

Then
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5.1. The analogy between BVPs and linear algebraic systems 139

Therefore, MD is not symmetric.

A symmetric matrix A G R n x n has the following properties (see Section 3.5):

All eigenvalues of A are real.
Eigenvectors of A corresponding to distinct eigenvalues are orthogonal.
There exists a basis of Rn consisting of eigenvectors of A.
Analogous properties exist for a symmetric differential operator. In fact, the first
two properties can be proved exactly as they were for symmetric matrices.27
In the following discussion, S is a subspace of Ck[a,b] and K : S —> C[a,b]
is a symmetric linear operator. A scalar A is an eigenvalue of K if there exists a
nonzero function u such that

Just as in the case of matrices, we cannot assume a priori that A is real, or that the
eigenfunction u is real-valued. When working with complex-valued functions, the
L2 inner product on [a, 6] is defined by

The properties

hold, just as for the complex dot product.

We immediately show that there is no need to allow complex numbers when
working with symmetric operators. Indeed, suppose u is a nonzero function and A
is a scalar satisfying

Then, since (Ku,u) = (u,Ku) holds for complex-valued functions as well as real-
valued functions (see Exercise 4), we have

It is easy to show that there must be a real-valued eigenfunction corresponding to

A (the proof is the same as for matrices; see Theorem 3.44). Therefore, we do not
need to consider complex numbers any longer when we are dealing with symmetric
operators.
27
The third property is more difficult. We discuss an analogous property for symmetric dif-
ferential operators in the subsequent sections and delay the proof of this property until Chapter
9.
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140 Chapter 5. Boundary value problems in statics

We now assume that AI, A2 € R are distinct eigenvalues of the operator K,

with corresponding eigenfunctions wi,W2 G S. We then have

Since AI ^ A2, this is only possible if (^1,^2) = 0, that is, if u\ and u^ are orthog-
onal. Therefore, a symmetric differential operator has orthogonal eigenfunctions.
The symmetric differential operator LD has a special property not shared by
every symmetric operator. Suppose A is an eigenvalue of LD and u is a corresponding
eigenfunction, normalized so that (u,u) — 1. Then

Therefore, every eigenvalue of LD is positive. (This explains why we prefer to work

with the negative second derivative operator—the eigenvalues are then positive.
Actually, in the computation above, it is only obvious that

and therefore that A > 0. How can we conclude that, in fact, the inequality must
be strict? See Exercise 5.)

Summary
We have now seen that the differential operator

subject to Dirichlet conditions, is symmetric, which means that any eigenvalues

must be real and the eigenfunctions will be orthogonal. We have also seen directly
that any eigenvalues must be positive. Assuming we can find the eigenvalues and
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5.1. The analogy between BVPs and linear algebraic systems 141

eigenfunctions of LD, and that there are "enough" eigenmnctions to represent u

and /, we can contemplate a spectral method for solving

We develop this method in the next two sections.

5.1.1 A note about direct integration

The BVP (5.9) is quite elementary; indeed, we already showed in Chapter 2 how
to solve this and similar problems by integrating twice (see Examples 2.2 and 2.3).
There are two reasons why we spend this chapter developing other methods for solv-
ing (5.9). First of all, the methods we develop, Fourier series and finite elements,
form the basis of methods for solving time-dependent PDEs in one spatial variable.
Such PDEs do not admit direct solution by integration. Second, both the Fourier se-
ries method and the finite element method generalize in a fairly straightforward way
to problems in multiple spatial dimensions, whereas the direct integration method
does not.

Exercises
1. Let MD be the operator defined in Example 5.6.
(a) Show that if / e C[0,£] is such that Mpu = f has a solution, then that
solution is unique.
(b) Show that Mpu — f has a solution only if / e C[0,^] satisfies a certain
constraint. What is that constraint?
2. Define C}[Q,t] = {u € Cl[Q,i] : u(0) = 0} and M7 : C)[0,£] ->• C[0,£] by

(a) Show that M/w = / has a unique solution for each / 6 C[0,^]. (Hint:
Use the fundamental theorem of calculus.) This is equivalent to showing
that JV(M/) is trivial and ft(M/) = C[Q,f\.
(b) Show that M/ is not symmetric.
3. Consider again the differential operator equation Lu — f discussed in Section
5.1. Suppose an equation LSU = / is produced by restricting the domain of
L to a subspace S of C2[0,£] (that is, by defining LSU = Lu for all u € 5).
(a) Show that LSU = / has at most one solution for each / e (7[0, t] provided
N(L)nS = {Q}.
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142 Chapter 5. Boundary value problems in statics

(b) Show that L$u — j has a unique solution for each / e C[0,1] for either
of the following choices of S:

4. Suppose 5 is a subspace of Ck[a, b] and K : S —>• C[a, 6] is a symmetric

linear operator. Suppose u, v are complex-valued functions, with u = / + ig,
v = w + iz, where /, g, w, z G 5. Show that

holds, where (•, •) is defined by (5.7).

5. Explain why, in the last step of the calculation (5.8), the integral

must be positive. (Hint: If du/dx is zero, then u must be constant. What

constant functions belong to C£)[0,^]?)

6. Define

(a) Show that the null space of Lm is trivial.

(b) Show that the range of Lm is all of (7[0,^].
(c) Show that Lm is symmetric.
(d) Show that all of the eigenvalues of Lm are positive.

8. Repeat Exercise 6 with K : C^[Q,f\ ->• C[Q,f\ defined by

where a and b are positive constants.

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5.1. The analogy between BVPs and linear algebraic systems 143

9. Consider the differential operator M : C^O, 1] —>• C[0,1] defined by

Show that M is not symmetric by producing two functions u, v 6 (7^(0,1]

such that

10. Define B : C4[0,l] -> C[Q,£\ by

(a) Determine the null space of B.

(b) Find a set of boundary conditions such that, if 5 is the subspace of
(74[0,1] consisting of functions satisfying these boundary conditions, then
B, restricted to 5, is symmetric and has a trivial null space.
11. In this exercise, we consider a new boundary condition, more complicated
than Dirichlet or Neumann conditions, that provides a more realistic model
of certain physical phenomena. This boundary condition is called a Robin
condition; we will introduce it in the context of steady-state heat flow in a
one-dimensional bar.
Suppose the ends of a bar are uninsulated and the heat flux through each end
is proportional to the difference between the temperature at the end of the bar
and the surrounding temperature (assumed constant). If we let a > 0 be the
constant of proportionality and TO, TI be the temperatures surrounding the
ends of the bar at x = 0 and x = i, respectively, then the resulting boundary
conditions are

These can be rewritten as

Define
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144 Chapter 5. Boundary value problems in statics

(As usual, we define the operator in terms of the homogeneous version of the
boundary conditions.)
(a) Prove that LR is symmetric.
(b) Find the null space of LR.

5.2 Introduction to the spectral method;

eigenfunctions
In this section and the next, we develop a "spectral" method for the BVP

This BVP can be written simply as Lpu = /, where LD is the symmetric linear
differential operator defined in the last section.
The spectral method for a symmetric linear system Ax = b is based on
the fact that a symmetric matrix A e R n x n has n orthonormal eigenvectors, and
therefore any vector in Rn (including the right-hand side b and the solution x) can
be written, in a simple way, as a linear combination of those eigenvectors. (The
reader may wish to review Section 3.5 at this time.) We have seen, at the end of
the last section, that any eigenvalues of LD must be real and positive and that
eigenfunctions of LD corresponding to distinct eigenvalues must be orthogonal. We
now find the eigenvalue-eigenfunction pairs (eigenpairs for short) of LD and explore
the following question: Can we represent the right-hand side f(x) and the solution
u(x) in terms of the eigenfunctions?

5.2.1 Eigenpairs of — -j^ under Dirichlet conditions

We will show that the operator LD has an infinite collection of eigenpairs. To
simplify the calculations, we may as well assume that T = 1, since if A,w is an
eigenpair of

(subject to Dirichlet conditions), then T\,u is an eigenpair of

under the same boundary conditions.

To find the eigenpairs, we need to solve
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5.2. Introduction to the spectral method; eigenfunctions 145

"Solving" this problem means identifying those special values of A such that the
BVP (5.11) has a nonzero solution u, and then determining u. (For any value of
A, the zero function is a solution of (5.11), just as x = 0 is a solution of Ax = Ax
for any A. In both cases, the eigenvalues are the scalars which lead to a nonzero
solution.) Since we know, from the previous section, that all such A are positive,
we write A = O2. We can use the results of Section 4.2 to write the general solution
of the ODE

and then try to satisfy the boundary conditions.

The characteristic roots of (5.12) are ±0i, and the general solution is

Therefore,

and the first boundary condition implies c\ — 0. We then have u(x] — C2sin(0x),
and the second boundarv condition becomes

This equation only holds in two cases:

1. The value of C2 is zero. But then u(x) is the zero function, which cannot be
an eigenfunction.
2. The value of A = O2 is such that sin (Of.) = 0. This holds in the cases

Solving for A, we have

(we discard the case that A = 0, for then u is the zero function). It turns out
that the value of c^ is immaterial; these values of A, and no others, produce
eigenfunctions with the correct boundary conditions.
We thus see that the operator LD has infinitely many eigenpairs:

We already know that, since the eigenvalues of LD are distinct, the eigenfunc-
tions listed above must be orthogonal. This can also be verified directly using the
trigonometric identity
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146 Chapter 5. Boundary value problems in statics

(see Exercise 1). Also, for each n,

that is,

Thus the eigenfunctions are orthogonal, and they can be normalized by multiplying
each by ^/2/l.
The first four eigenfunctions V>i, V>2, V's, V>4 a^6 graphed in Figure 5.2.

Figure 5.2. The first four eigenfunctions ^15^2,^85^4 ft — 1J-

5.2.2 Representing functions in terms of eigenfunctions

We have shown that the operator —d?/dx2, subject to Dirichlet boundary condi-
tions, has an infinite number of eigenpairs, and that the eigenfunctions are orthog-
onal. We now must answer the crucial question: is it possible to represent both the
solution and right-hand side of (5.10) in terms of the eigenfunctions?
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5.2. Introduction to the spectral method; eigenfunctions 147

Let us take any function / e <7[0,^]. We know, from Section 3.5, how to find
the best approximation to / from afinite-dimensionalsubspace. We define

The best approximation to / from FN is

Since (?/> n ,V>n) = ^/2 for all n, we have

We now show several examples of this approximation.28 In the following examples,

1 = 1.

Example 5.7. Let

Then

Figure 5.3 shows the errors in approximating /(#) by /N(X] for N = 10,20,40,80.
(The approximations are so good that, if we were to plot both f and /AT on the same
graph, the two curves would be virtually indistinguishable. Therefore, we plot the
difference f(x) — /N(X) instead.) In this example, the approximation error is small
and gets increasingly small as N increases. It is easy to believe that

Example 5.8. Let

Then

Figure 5.4 shows f(x) together with the approximations /jv(ar) for N = 10,20,40,80

28
Many specific integrals must be computed to compute these approximations. It is beyond the
scope of this book to discuss methods of integration; moreover, modern technology often allows us
to avoid this mechanical step. Computer algebra software, such as Mathematica, MATLAB, Maple,
etc., as well as the more powerful handheld calculators, will compute many integrals symbolically.
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148 Chapter 5. Boundary value problems in statics

Figure 5.3. Error in approximating f(x} = x(l—x) by /N(X) (see Example

5.7). The value of N is 10 (top left), 20 (top right), 40 (bottom left), and 80 (bottom
right).

The fact that the approximation is worst near x = 0 is due to the fact that
f does not satisfy the Dirichlet condition there. Indeed, this example shows that
/AT need not converge to f at every x e [0,€j; here /(O) = 1, but /Ar(0) = 0 for
every N. However, it seems clear from the graphs that fw approximates f in some
meaningful sense, and that this approximation gets better as N increases.
The oscillation near x = 0 is known as Gibbs's phenomenon.

In Chapter 9, we justify the following fact: /jv converges to / as N —> oo, in

the sense that ||/ — /AT|| —> 0 (that is, the L2 norm of the error / — /AT goes to zero).
We write

to indicate this fact. As we saw in Example 5.8, this does not necessarily imply
the /N(X) ->• f ( x ) for all x e [0,^]. It does imply, however, that /N gets arbitrarily
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5.2. Introduction to the spectral method; eigenfunctions 149

Figure 5.4. Approximating /(#) = 1 — x by /N(X) (see Example 5.8). The

value of N is 10 (top left), 20 (top right), 40 (bottom left), and 80 (bottom right).

close to /, over the entire interval, in an average sense. This type of convergence
(in the L2 norm) is sometimes referred to as mean-square convergence.
The resulting representation,

is referred to as the Fourier sine series of /, and the scalars c i , C 2 , . . . are called the
Fourier sine coefficients of /.
In the next section, we will show how to use the Fourier sine series to solve the
BVP (5.10). First, however, we discuss other boundary conditions and the resulting
Fourier series.
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150 Chapter 5. Boundary value problems in statics

5.2.3 Eigenfunctions under other boundary conditions; other

Fourier series
We now consider the BVP with mixed boundary conditions,

which models, for example, a hanging bar with the bottom end free. In order to
consider a spectral method, we define the subspace

and the operator Lm : C^[0,€] —> C[0,l], where

The operator Lm is symmetric with positive eigenvalues, it has a trivial null space,
and the range of Lm is all of C[0,^] (see Exercise 5.1.6). Therefore, Lmu = f has
a unique solution for every / e C[0,^], and we will show, in the next section, how
to compute the solution by the spectral method. First, however, we must find the
eigenvalues and eigenfunctions of Lm.
Since Lm has only positive eigenvalues, we define A = 0 2 , where 9 > 0, and
solve

The general solution of the differential equation is

The first boundary condition, u(Q) = 0, implies that c\ — 0, and hence any nonzero
eigenfunction must be a multiple of

The second boundary condition.

yields the condition that

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5.2. Introduction to the spectral method; eigenfunctions 151

Since 0 > 0 by assumption, this is possible only if

or

Solving for A, we obtain eigenvalues AI, A 2 , . . . , with

The corresponding eigenfunctions are

The eigenfunctions are orthogonal, as is guaranteed since Lm is symmetric,

and as can be verified directly by computing (0 n ,^> TO ). The best approximation to
/ G C[0,£], using 0i,02,...,0jv, is

Since

(5.17) becomes

where

The resulting representation,

is referred to as the Fourier quarter-wave sine series. It is valid in the mean-square

sense.

Example 5.9. Let f(x) = x and i = 1. Then

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152 Chapter 5. Boundary value problems in statics

and the best approximation to f using the first N eigenfunctions is

The error in approximating f on [0,1] by /N, for N = 10,20,40,80, is graphed in

Figure 5.5.

Figure 5.5. Approximating f ( x ) — x by a quarter-wave sine series (see

Example 5.9). The value of N is 10 (top left), 20 (top right), 40 (bottom left), and
80 (bottom right).

In the exercises, the reader is asked to derive other Fourier series, including
the appropriate series for the boundary conditions

In Chapter 6, we will present Fourier series for the Neumann conditions

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5.2. Introduction to the spectral method; eigenfunctions 153

and the periodic boundary conditions

(for the interval [ — i , f \ ) . Generally speaking, given a symmetric differential opera-

tor, a sequence of orthogonal eigenfunctions exists, and it can be used to represent
functions in a Fourier series. However, it may not be easy to find the eigenfunctions
in some cases (see Exercise 4).

Exercises
1. Use the trigonometric identity

to verify that, if n / m, then (V>n? V'm) — 0, where ^1,^25^3? • • • are given in

(5.13).
2. Define K as in Exercise 5.1.8. We know (from the earlier exercise) that K has
only real, positive eigenvalues. Find all of the eigenvalues and eigenvectors of
K

3-. Repeat Exercise 2 for the differential operator Lfh defined in Exercise 5.1.7.
The resulting eigenfunctions are the quarter-wave cosine functions.
4. (Hard) Define LR as in Exercise 5.1.11.
(a) Show that LR has only positive eigenvalues.
(b) Show that LR has an infinite sequence of positive eigenvalues. Note:
The equation that determines the positive eigenvalues cannot be solved
analytically, but a simple graphical analysis can be used to show that
they exist and to estimate their values.
(c) For o: = K = 1, find the first two eigenpairs by finding accurate estimates
of the two smallest eigenvalues.
5. (Hard) Consider the differential operator M : C^[0,1] ->• C[0,1] defined by

(recall that C£[0,1] = {u e C2[0,1] : u(0) = g(l) = 0}). Analyze the eigen-
pairs of M as follows:
(a) Write down the characteristic polynomial of the ODE

Using the quadratic formula, find the characteristic roots.

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154 Chapter 5. Boundary value problems in statics

(b) There are three cases to consider, depending on whether the discriminant
in the quadratic formula is negative, zero, or positive (that is, depending
on whether the characteristic roots are complex conjugate, or real and
repeated, or real and distinct). In each case, write down the general
solution of (5.18).
(c) Show that in the case of real roots (either repeated or distinct), there is
no nonzero solution.
(d) Show that there is an infinite sequence of values of A, leading to complex
conjugate roots, each yielding a nonzero solution of (5.18). Note: The
equation that determines the eigenvalues cannot be solved analytically.
However, a simple graphical analysis is sufficient to show the existence
of the sequence of eigenvalues.
(e) Find the first two eigenpairs (that is, those corresponding to the two
smallest eigenvalues), using some numerical method to compute the first
two eigenvalues accurately.
(f) Show that the first two eigenfunctions are not orthogonal.

6. Define

Find necessary and sufficient conditions on the coefficients an,012,021? #22 for
the operator L^ to be symmetric.

7. Compute the Fourier sine series, on the interval [0,1], for each of the following
functions:29

Graph the error in approximating each function by 10 terms of the Fourier

sine series.
29
The use of Mathematica or some other program to compute the necessary integrals is recom-
mended.
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5.3. Solving the BVP using Fourier series 155

8. Explain why a Fourier sine series, if it converges to a function on [0, £], defines
an odd function of x € R. (A function / : R ->• R is odd if f(—x) = —f(x)
for all x e R.)
9. What is the Fourier sine series of /(#) = sin (3-rrx) on the interval [0,1]?
10. Repeat Exercise 7 using the quarter-wave sine series (see Section 5.2.S).29
11. Repeat Exercise 7 using the quarter-wave cosine series (see Exercise 3).29

5.3 Solving the BVP using Fourier series

We now return to the problem of solving the BVP

which can be expressed simply as LDU = f .

5.3.1 A special case

We begin with a special case that is easy to solve. Suppose / is of the form

where the coefficients ci, C 2 , . . . , CN are known. We then look for the solution in the
form

By construction, u G C|j[0,£], and so u satisfies the boundary conditions (regardless

of the values of bi, 62, • • • , &w)- We therefore choose the coefficients &i, 6 2 , . . . , &AT so
that the differential equation is satisfied.
Since u is expressed in terms of the eigenfunctions, the expression for LDU is
very simple:

The equation LDU = f then becomes

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156 Chapter 5. Boundary value problems in statics

It is easy to find the coefficients &i, 62, • • • ? &AT satisfying this equation; we need

or

We then have the following solution:

Example 5.10. Suppose t — I, T = I, and

The solution to (5.19), with this right-hand side f , is

where

In Figure 5.6, we display both the right-hand side f and the solution u.

When / is of the special form (5.20), the solution technique described above
is nothing more than the spectral method explained for matrix-vector equations in
Section 3.5. Writing

we simply express the right-hand side / in terms of the (orthogonal) eigenfunctions,

and then divide the coefficients by the eigenvalues to get the solution:

5.3.2 The general case

Now suppose that / is not of the special form (5.20). We learned in Section 5.2
that we can approximate / by
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5.3. Solving the BVP using Fourier series 157

Figure 5.6. The right-hand side f (top) and solution u (bottom) from
Example 5.10.

where

This approximation gets better and better (at least in the mean-square sense) as
TV -»• oo.
We know how to solve Lpu — /AT; let us call the solution UN-

It is reasonable to believe that, since /N gets closer and closer to / as N —> oo, the
function UN will get closer and closer to the true solution u as N —> oo.

Example 5.11. We consider the BVP

The exact solution is easily computed (by integration) to be

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158 Chapter 5. Boundary value problems in statics

(see Exercise 5). We begin by computing the Fourier sine coefficients of f(x] = x.
We have

The solution to L&U — /N, with

is then

We can now compare UN with the exact solution u. In Figure 5.7, we show
the graphs of u anduw; on this scale, the two curves are indistinguishable. Figure
5.8 shows the approximation error u(x) — UIQ(X).
The fact that UN approximates u so closely is no accident. If we compute the
Fourier sine coefficients ai, 02, as,... of u directly, we find that

These are precisely the coefficients of UN'- Therefore, UN is the best approximation
to u using the first N eigenfunctions.

The last example is typical: By solving LDU = /N, where /AT is the best ap-
proximation to / using the first N eigenfunctions, we obtain the best approximation
UN to the solution u of LDU = /. We can demonstrate this directly. We assume
that u satisfies w(0) = u(C) = 0, and we write ai,012,03,... for the Fourier (sine)
coefficients of u:

We can then compute the Fourier sine coefficients of

by using integration by parts:

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5.3. Solving the BVP using Fourier series 159

Figure 5.7. The exact solution u of (5.21) and the approximation UIQ.

Figure 5.8. The error in approximating the solution u of (5.21) with UIQ.
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160 Chapter 5. Boundary value problems in statics

We thus see that the Fourier sine series of

is

Since —Td?u/dx2 = f by assumption, the Fourier sine series of the two functions
must be the same, and so we obtain

or

This is exactly what we obtained by the reasoning presented earlier.

Example 5.12. Consider an elastic string that, when stretched by a tension of10 N,
has a length 50 cm. Suppose that the density of the (stretched) string is p = 0.2 g/ cm.
If the string is fixed horizontally and sags under gravity, what shape does it assume*
We let u(x), 0 < x < 50, be the vertical displacement (in cm) of the string.
To use consistent units, we convert 10 Newtons to 106 dynes (gcm/s2). Then u
satisfies the BVP

or
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5.3. Solving the BVP using Fourier series 161

(using 980 cm/s2for the gravitational constant). To solve this, we first compute the
Fourier sine coefficients of the right-hand side:

We can then find the Fourier sine coefficients of the solution u:

We plot the approximate solution u^o in Figure 5.9. The maximum deflection of
the string is quite small, less than half of a millimeter. This is to be expected, since
the tension in the string is much more than the total gravitational force acting on
it.

Figure 5.9. The shape of the sagging string in Example 5.12.

5.3.3 Other boundary conditions

We can apply the Fourier series method to BVPs with boundary conditions other
than Dirichlet conditions, provided the differential operator is symmetric under the
boundary conditions, and provided we know the eigenvalues and eigenfunctions.
For example, we consider the BVP
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162 Chapter 5. Boundary value problems in statics

Written as a differential operator equation, this takes the form Lmu = /, where Lm
is defined as in Section 5.2.3, but including the factor of T:

We saw, in that section, that the eigenvalues and eigenfunctions of Lm are

Therefore, we write

where

We represent the solution as

where the coefficients 01,02,03,... are to be determined. The Fourier series of

Lmu = —Td?u/dx2 is then

The fact that these are the correct Fourier coefficients can be verified by a calculation
exactly like (5.23) (see Exercise 7) and is also justified below in Section 5.3.5 (see
(5.29)).
The BVP (5.24) can now be written as

From this equation, we see that

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5.3. Solving the BVP using Fourier series 163

or

Thus the solution to (5.24) is

Example 5.13. Consider a circular cylindrical bar, of length 1 m and radius 1

cm, made from an aluminum alloy with stiffness 70 GPa and density 2.64g/cm 3 .
Suppose the top end of the bar (x = Oj is fixed and the only force acting on the bar
is the force due to gravity. We will find the displacement u of the bar and determine
the change in length of the bar (which is just u(\}).
The BVP describing u is

where k = 7 • 1010, p — 2640 kg/m3, and g = 9.8 m/s2. The Fourier quarter-wave
sine coefficients of the constant function pg are

and the eigenvalues of the differential operator are

Therefore, the solution is

We then have
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164 Chapter 5. Boundary value problems in statics

Thus the bar stretches by only about 1.85 • 10~7 m, or less than two ten-thousandths
of a millimeter.

The Fourier series method is a fairly complicated technique for solving such
a simple problem as (5.13). As we mentioned in Section 5.1.1, we could simply
integrate the differential equation twice and use the boundary conditions to deter-
mine the constants of integration. The Fourier series method will prove its worth
when we apply it to PDEs, either time-dependent problems (Chapters 6 and 7) or
problems with multiple spatial dimensions (Chapter 8). We introduce the Fourier
series method in this simple context so that the reader can understand its essence
before dealing with more complicated applications.

5.3.4 In homogeneous boundary conditions

We now consider the following BVP with inhomogeneous boundary conditions:

(T constant). To apply the Fourier series method to this problem, we make a

transformation of the dependent variable u to obtain a BVP with homogeneous
boundary conditions. We notice that the linear function

satisfies the boundary conditions (p(0) = a, p(t) = b). If we define v(x) = u(x) —
#(V), then

since the second derivative of a linear function is zero. Also,

Thus v(x) solves (5.10), so we know how to compute v(x). We then have u(x) =
v(x] +p(x).
This technique, of transforming the problem to one with homogeneous bound-
ary conditions, is referred to as the method of shifting the data.

Example 5.14. Consider

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5.3. Solving the BVP using Fourier series 165

Let p(x] = I — x, the linear function satisfying the boundary conditions, and define
v(x) — u(x] —p(x). Then v(x) solves (5.21), and so

We then have

Example 5.15. Consider again the bar of Example 5.13, and suppose that now a
mass of 1000 kg is hung from the bottom end of the bar. Assume that the mass is
evenly distributed over the end of the bar, resulting in a pressure of

on the end of the bar. The BVP satisfied by the displacement u is now

where k — 7 • 1010, p = 2640 kg/m3, and g = 9.8 m/s2. To solve this problem using
the Fourier series method, we shift the data by finding a linear function satisfying
the boundary conditions. The function

satisfies

so we define v = u — q. It then turns out that, since d q/dx = 0, that v satisfies

(5.25), so

and

We then obtain

This is 1.4 millimeters. The displacement due to gravity ("1.85 • 10millimeters)

is insignificant compared to the displacement due to the mass hanging on the end of
the bar.
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166 Chapter 5. Boundary value problems in statics

5.3.5 Summary
We can now summarize the method of Fourier series for solving a BVP. We assume
that the BVP has been written in the form Ku — /, where, as usual, the boundary
conditions form part of the definition of the domain of the differential operator K.
For the Fourier series method to be applicable, it must be the case that
K is symmetric;

K has a sequence of eigenvalues AI, A2, AS, ..., with corresponding eigenfunc-
tions Vi? V% V'S) • • • (which are necessarily orthogonal);

any function g in (7[0, f] can be written in a Fourier series

where

It then follows that the function Ku is given by the series

where ai, 02,03,... are the Fourier coefficients of u. This follows from the symmetry
of K and the definition of the Fourier coefficients &i, 62,63,... of Ku:

The BVP Ku = f then takes the form

whence we obtain
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5.3. Solving the BVP using Fourier series 167

and

Here is a summary of the Fourier series method for solving BVPs.

0. Pose the BVP as a differential operator equation.

1. Verify that the operator is symmetric, and find the eigenvalue/eigenfunction

pairs.

2. Express the unknown function u as a series in terms of the eigenfunctions.

The coefficients are the unknowns of the problem.

3. Express the right-hand side / of the differential equation as a series in terms

of the eigenfunctions. Use the formula for the projection of / onto the eigen-
functions to compute the coefficients.

4. Express the left-hand side of the differential equation in a series in terms of

the eigenfunctions. This is done by simply multiplying the Fourier coefficients
of u by the corresponding eigenvalues.

5. Equate the coefficients in the series for the left- and right-hand sides of the
differential equation, and solve for the unknowns.

As mentioned above, the Fourier series method is analogous to what we called

(in Section 3.5) the spectral method for solving Ax = b. This method is only
applicable if the matrix A is symmetric, so that the eigenvectors are orthogonal. In
the same way, the method described above fails at the first step if the eigenfunctions
are not orthogonal, that is, if the differential operator is not symmetric.
An even more pertinent observation is that one rarely uses the spectral method
to solve Ax = 6, for the simple reason that computing the eigenpairs of A is more
costly, in most cases, than solving Ax = b directly by other means. It is only in
special cases that one knows the eigenpairs of a matrix. In the same way, it is only
for very special differential operators that the eigenvalues and eigenfunctions can be
found. Therefore, the method of Fourier series, which works very well when it can
be used, is applicable to only a small set of problems. On most problems, such as
the BVP

when k(x) is nonconstant, it is more work to find the eigenfunctions than to just
solve the problem using a different method. For this reason, we discuss a more
broadly applicable method, the finite element method, beginning in Section 5.4.
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168 Chapter 5. Boundary value problems in statics

Example 5.16. (Homogeneous Dirichlet conditions) We will solve the fol-

lowing BVP, applying the procedure given above:

1. We have already seen that the eigenfunctions of the negative second derivative
operator, on the interval [0,2] and subject to Dirichlet conditions, are

The effect of multiplying the operator by 3 is to multiply the eigenvalues by 3,

so the eigenvalues are

2. We write the unknown solution u as

The problem now reduces to computing 0,1,0,3,0,3, —

3. The Fourier sine coefficients of f(x] = x3 on the interval [0,2] are

4- The Fourier sine coefficients of —3d?u/dx2 are just

Thus

5. Finally, the differential equation can be written as

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5.3. Solving the BVP using Fourier series 169

so we have

This yields

and so

is the solution to (5.30)

Example 5.17. (Inhomogeneous Dirichlet conditions) Next we solve a BVP

with inhomoqeneous boundary conditions:

We must first shift the data to transform the problem to one with homogeneous
boundary conditions. The function p(x] — 3 — Sx satisfies the boundary conditions,
so we define v = u — p and solve the BVP

1. The eigenfunctions are now

and the eigenvalues are

2. We write the solution v in the form

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170 Chapter 5. Boundary value problems in statics

3. The Fourier sine coefficients of f ( x ) = 1 — x are

and so

4- The Fourier sine coefficients of —d?v/dx2 are

and so

5. We thus obtain

which implies that

or

The solution v is then

This yields

Exercises
In Exercises 1-4, solve the BVPs using the method of Fourier series, shifting the data
if necessary. If possible,30 produce a graph of the computed solution by plotting a
partial Fourier series with enough terms to give a qualitatively correct graph. (The
number of terms can be determined by trial and error; if the plot no longer changes,
qualitatively, when more terms are included, it can be assumed that the partial
series contains enough terms.)
30
That is, if you have the necessary technology.
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5.3. Solving the BVP using Fourier series 171

3. The results of Exercises 5.2.2 and 5.2.3 will be useful for these problems:

4. The results of Exercises 5.2.2 and 5.2.3 will be useful for these problems:

5. Solve (5.21) to get (5.22).

6. Suppose u satisfies

and the Fourier sine series of u is

Show that it is not possible to represent the Fourier sine coefficients of —d?u/dx2
in terms of 61,62, &3, — This shows that it is not possible to use the "wrong"
eigenfunctions (that is, eigenfunctions corresponding to different boundary
conditions) to solve a BVP.
7. Suppose u satisfies

and has Fourier quarter-wave sine series

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172 Chapter 5. Boundary value problems in statics

Show that the Fourier series of —Td?u/dx2 is

(Hint: The computation of the Fourier coefficients of —Td?u/dx2 is similar to

(5.23)).
8. Consider an aluminum bar of length 1 m and radius 1 cm. Suppose that the
side of the bar is perfectly insulated, the ends of the bar are placed in ice baths,
and heat energy is added throughout the interior of the bar at a constant
rate of 0.001 W/cm3. The thermal conductivity of the aluminum alloy is
1.5W/(cmK). Find and graph the steady-state temperature of the bar. Use
the Fourier series method.
9. Repeat the previous exercise, assuming that the right end of the bar is per-
fectly insulated and the left is placed in an ice bath.
10. Consider the string of Example 5.12. Suppose that the right end of the string is
free to move vertically (along a frictionless pole, for example), and a pressure of
2200 dynes per centimeter, in the upward direction, is applied along the string
(recall that a dyne is a unit of force—one dyne equals one gram-centimeter
per square second). What is the equilibrium displacement of the string? How
does the answer change if the force due to gravity is taken into account?

5.4 Finite element methods for BVPs

As we mentioned near the end of the last section, the primary utility of the Fourier
series method is for problems with constant coefficients, in which case the eigenpairs
can be found explicitly. (For problems in two or three dimensions, in order for the
eigenfunctions to be explicitly computable, it is also necessary that the domain
on which the equation is to be solved be geometrically simple. We discuss this
further in Chapter 8.) For problems with nonconstant coefficients, it is possible to
perform analysis to show that the Fourier series method applies in principle—the
eigenfunctions exist, they are orthogonal, and so forth. The reader can consult
Chapter 5 of Haberman [22] for an elementary introduction to this kind of analysis,
which we also discuss further in Section 9.7. However, without explicit formulas for
the eigenfunctions, it is not easy to apply the Fourier series method.
These remarks apply, for example, to the BVP

(where k is a positive function). The operator K : C?JO,£] —> C[Q,l] defined by

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5.4. Finite element methods for BVPs 173

is symmetric (see Exercise 1), and there exists an orthogonal sequence of eigenfunc-
tions. However, when the coefficient k(x] is not a constant, there is no simple way
to find these eigenfunctions. Indeed, computing the eigenfunctions requires much
more work than solving the original BVP.
Because of the limitations of the Fourier series approach, we now introduce the
finite element method, one of the most powerful methods for approximating solutions
to PDEs. The finite element method can handle both variable coefficients and, in
multiple spatial dimensions, irregular geometries. We will still restrict ourselves to
symmetric operators, although it is possible to apply the finite element method to
nonsymmetric problems.
The finite element method is based on three ideas:
1. The BVP is rewritten in its weak or variational form, which expresses the
problem as infinitely many scalar equations. In this form, the boundary con-
ditions are implicit in the definition of the underlying vector space.
2. The Galerkin method is applied to "solve the equation on a finite-dimensional
subspace." This results in an ordinary linear system (matrix-vector equation)
that must be solved.
3. A basis of piecewise polynomials is chosen for the finite-dimensional subspace
so that the matrix of the linear system is sparse (that is, has mostly zero
entries).
We describe each of these ideas in the following sections, using the BVP (5.32) as
our model problem. We always assume that the coefficient k(x] is positive, since
it represents a positive physical parameter (stiffness or thermal conductivity, for
example).

5.4.1 The principle of virtual work and the weak form of a BVP
When an elastic material is deformed, it stores potential energy due to internal
elastic forces. It is not obvious from first principles how to measure (quantitatively)
this elastic potential energy; however, we can deduce the correct definition from the
equations of motion and the principle of conservation of energy.
Suppose an elastic bar, with its ends fixed, is in motion, and its displacement
function u(x, t) satisfies the homogeneous wave equation:

We now perform the following calculation (a trick—multiply both sides of the wave
equation by du/dt and integrate):
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174 Chapter 5. Boundary value problems in statics

Applying integration by parts,

Also,

Therefore, we obtain

Applying Theorem 2.1 to (5.35) yields

This equation implies that the sum of the two integrals is constant with respect to
time, that is, that

is conserved. Obviously, the first integral represents the kinetic energy (one-half
mass times velocity squared), and we define the second integral to be the elastic
potential energy. The elastic potential energy is the internal energy arising from
the strain du/dx.
We now return to the bar in equilibrium, that is, to the bar satisfying the
BVP (5.32). We have an expression for the elastic potential energy of the bar:

The bar possesses another form of potential energy, due to the external force /
acting upon it. The proper name of this energy depends on the nature of the force;
if it were the force due to gravity, for example, it would be called the gravitational
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5.4. Finite element methods for BVPs 175

potential energy. We will call this energy the external potential energy. This energy
is different in a fundamental way from the elastic potential energy: it depends on the
absolute position of the bar, not on the relative position of parts of the bar to other
parts. For this reason, we do not know the external potential energy of the bar in its
"reference" (zero displacement) position (whereas the bar has zero elastic potential
energy in the reference position). We define £Q to be the external potential energy of
the bar in the reference position, and we now compute the change of energy between
the bar in its reference position and the bar in its equilibrium position. The change
in potential energy due to the external force / is equal to the work done by / when
the bar is deformed from its reference position to its equilibrium position.
The work done by / acting on the part P of the bar originally between x and
x + Ax is approximately

(recall that u(x) is the displacement of the cross-section of the bar originally at
x—thus u(x) is the distance traveled by that cross-section). To add up the work
due to the external force acting on all little parts of the bar, we integrate:

We now have an expression for the total potential energy of the bar in its
equilibrium position:

If / and u are both positive, for instance, then the bar has less potential energy in
its equilibrium position (think of gravity). This accounts for the sign on the second
integral.
Next we wish to prove the following fact: the equilibrium displacement u of
the bar is the displacement with the least potential energy. That is, if w ^ u is any
other displacement satisfying the Dirichlet conditions, then

We can write any displacement w as w = u + v (just take v = w — w), and

the conditions u(Q) — 0, w;(0) = 0 imply that v(0) — 0, and similarly at x = t.
Thus v must belong to C|)[0, ^]. For brevity, we shall write V = Cf^O,^], the set of
allowable displacements v. Therefore, we wish to prove that

We have
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176 Chapter 5. Boundary value problems in statics

that is,

Using integration by parts, we have

(The boundary term disappears in the above calculation since v(0] = v(t] = 0.)
The equilibrium displacement u satisfies

the differential equation from (5.32), as we derived in Section 2.2. Therefore, the
integral above vanishes, and we have

If v is not identically zero, then neither is dv/dx (only a constant function has
a zero derivative, and v cannot be constant unless it is identically zero, because
v(Q) =v(l) = G). Since

whenever v ^ 0 (the integral of a nonzero, nonnegative function is positive), we

have obtained the desired result:
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5.4. Finite element methods for BVPs 177

This result gives us a different understanding of the equilibrium state of the

bar—the bar assumes the state of minimal potential energy. This complements our
earlier understanding that the bar assumes a state in which all forces balance.
The potential energy £poi defines a function mapping the space of physically
meaningful displacements into R, and the equilibrium displacement u is its mini-
mizer. A standard result from calculus is that the derivative of a real-valued function
must be zero at a minimizer. Above we computed

(see (5.38)). The linear term in this expression must be D£pot(u)v, the directional
derivative of £pot at u in the direction of v. The minimality of the potential energy
then implies that D£poi(u} = 0, or, equivalently,

This yields

(as we saw above), which is called the principle of virtual work. (The term linear
in u dominates the work £pot (u + v} — £pot (u) when the displacement v is arbitrarily
small ("virtual"), and is called the virtual work. The principle says that the virtual
work is zero when the bar is at equilibrium.)
The principle of virtual work is also called the weak form of the BVP; it is
the form that the BVP would take if our basic principle were the minimality of
potential energy rather than the balance of forces at equilibrium. By contrast, we
will call the original BVP,

the strong form. We can show directly that the two forms of the BVP are equivalent,
in the sense that, for / 6 C[0, I], u satisfies the strong form if and only if it satisfies
the weak form.

5.4.2 The equivalence of the strong and weak forms of the BVP
The precise statement of the weak form of the BVP is:

We have already seen the proof of the following fact: If u satisfies (5.39), the
strong form of the BVP, then u also satisfies (5.40), the weak form. This was proved
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178 Chapter 5. Boundary value problems in statics

just below (5.38), using integration by parts. Indeed, the simplest way of deriving
the weak form is to start with the differential equation

multiply by an arbitrary "test function" v e V to get

and then integrate both sides from 0 to i:

Integrating by parts on the left and applying the boundary conditions yield the
weak form.
Now suppose u satisfies (5.40), the weak form of the BVP. Then, by definition
of V, w(0) = u(i] = 0. We now use integration by parts to show that u satisfies the
strong form of the differential equation. We have

The boundary terms vanish because of the boundary conditions v(Qi) = v(i] = 0.
We have

This condition can only be true if

on the interval [0, i]. The proof is simple, given the following fact: If 0 < c < d < I,
then there exists a function V[c^] £ V such that v^c^(x) > 0 for all x € (c,d) and
v
[c,d](x) = 0 for all x in [0,c] or [d,i\. (Exercise 3 asks the reader to construct such
a function v\c &.} If
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5.4. Finite element methods for BVPs 179

were positive on a small interval [c, d] C [0,£], then

would be positive on [c, d\ and zero on the rest of [0, ^], and hence

would be positive. Since this integral is zero for all v £ V, this shows that

cannot be positive on any small interval. By the same reasoning, it cannot be

negative on any small interval. It follows that (5.42) must hold.
Thus, to solve (5.39), it suffices to solve the weak form (5.40). The weak form
consists of infinitely many equations, since there are infinitely many "test functions"
v £ V. The original PDE also implies an infinite number of equations, since the
equation must hold for each of the infinitely many values of x £ [0, i\. In either case,
we cannot find the solution directly, since any practical computational procedure
must reduce to a finite number of steps. The weak form admits the use of the
Galerkin method, which reduces the infinitely many equations to a finite collection
of equations whose solution provides an approximate solution to the BVP.

Exercises
1. Show that the differential operator

defined by

is symmetric:

2. Suppose that k(x) > 0 for all x £ [0,1]. Show that if the operator K, defined in
the previous exercise, has an eigenvalue, then it must be positive. (Hint: Let
A be an eigenvalue and u a corresponding eigenfunction. Compute (Ku,u)
two ways, once using the fact that u is an eigenfunction and again using
integration by parts once.)
3. Let 0 < c < d < t hold. Find a function V[CJ(Q that is twice-continuously
differentiate on [0, i] and satisfies the conditions that
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180 Chapter 5. Boundary value problems in statics

and

Hint: Let p(x] be a polynomial such that

Then define

4. Show that both of the integrals

have units of energy (force times distance).

5. Consider the damped wave equation

where c > 0 is a constant. By modifying the calculation beginning on page

173, show that the total energy (kinetic energy plus elastic potential energy)
is decreasing with time.

5.5 The Galerkin method

As we stated earlier, the Galerkin method defines an approximate solution to the
weak form of the BVP by restricting the problem to a finite-dimensional subspace.
This has the effect of reducing the infinitely many equations contained in (5.40) to
a finite system of equations. To describe the Galerkin method, it is convenient to
introduce the following notation. We define the symmetric bilinear form a(-, •) by

The function is called bilinear because, holding one argument fixed, the function is
linear in the other:
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5.5. The Galerkin method 181

The bilinear form is called symmetric because

Bilinearity and symmetry are two of the properties of an inner product (see Section
3.4). The third property also holds if we restrict a(-, •) to vectors in V = Cf^O,^]:

and

From the definition of a(-, •), we have

Since the integrand is nonnegative, we clearly have a(u, u) > 0 for all u. Moreover,
the integral of a nonnegative function can only be zero when the function (the
integrand) is the zero function. Thus,

where C is a constant. But we already know that w(0) = 0 and u is continuous on

[0,1]. Therefore, C must be zero, which is what we wanted to prove. Thus o(-, •)
defines an inner product on V.
We recall that

where (-, •) is the L2 inner product. Thus, the weak form (5.40) of the model BVP
(5.39) can be written as

The Galerkin idea is simple. Choose a finite-dimensional subspace Vn of V, and

reduce (5.43) to the subspace:

Below we show that (5.44) has a unique solution that can be found by solving a
matrix-vector equation (that is, a system of linear algebraic equations). First we
show that solving (5.44) is useful: the Galerkin approximation is the best approxi-
mation, from Vn, to the true solution.
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182 Chapter 5. Boundary value problems in statics

Suppose u 6 V is the solution to (5.43), Vn is a finite-dimensional subspace of

V, and vn e Vn is the solution to (5.44). Then we have

Subtracting the second equation from the first, we see that

or, using the bilinearity of a(-,-),

Since o(-, •) defines an inner product on V, the projection theorem (see Theorem
3.36 in Section 3.4) shows that vn is the best approximation to u from Vn, when
"best" is defined by the norm induced by o(-, •):

where

We usually refer to || • \\E as the energy norm and to «(-,-) as the energy inner
product.
To compute vn, suppose {</>i,02, • • • ,^n} is a basis for Vn. Then (5.44) is
equivalent to

Since vn belongs to Vn, it can be written as a linear combination of the basis vectors:

(We now have two meanings for the symbol "u." The function u is the exact
solution to the BVP, while the components of the vector u are the weights in the
representation of the approximation vn in terms of the basis 0i, 02, • • • , (f>n- We will
live with this ambiguity in order to adhere to standard notation.)
Finding vn is now equivalent to determining HI, 1*2,..., un. Substituting (5.46)
into (5.45) yields

or, using the bilinearity of o(-, •),

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5.5. The Galerkin method 183

This is a system of n linear equations for the unknowns wi, U2, • • • , un. We define a
matrix K € R n x n and a vector f e Rn by

(We now also have two meanings for the symbol "f": the function / is the right-hand
side of the differential equation, while the vector f has components fi — (/,&).}
Finding vn is now equivalent to solving the linear system

The matrix K is usually called the stiffness matrix, since, when applied to problems
in mechanics, the entries in K depend on the stiffness k(x) of the material. For
analogous reasons, the vector f is usually called the load vector.31
The reader will recall that, in computing a best approximation, it is advan-
tageous to have an orthogonal basis, since then the stiffness (or Gram) matrix is
diagonal, and the projection is computed by n inner products. However, the basis
for Vn must be orthogonal with respect to the energy inner product, and with a
nonconstant coefficient k ( x ) , it is usually difficult32 to find an orthogonal basis.
Therefore, in the finite element method, we will use a nonorthogonal basis.
We now illustrate the Galerkin method by applying it to two BVPs, one with
constant coefficients and the other with nonconstant coefficients.

Example 5.18. Let FN be the subspace ofV spanned by the basis

This basis is orthogonal with respect to the ordinary L2 inner product on the interval
[0,1].
Consider the BVP

(this is (5.39) with k(x) = I ) . The exact solution is

31
The stiffness matrix is precisely the Gram matrix appearing in the projection theorem; see
page 62. If we apply the projection theorem directly to compute vn, we need to compute the
right-hand-side vector f whose components are a(u, </>i); the weak form allows us to compute these
components without knowing u, since a(it,(fo) = (/, </>i).
32
That is, in the sense that it is computationally expensive to compute an orthogonal basis.
Given any basis, it is simple in principle to apply the Gram-Schmidt procedure to obtain an or-
thogonal basis. The reader can consult any introductory book on linear algebra for an explanation
of the Gram-Schmidt procedure.
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184 Chapter 5. Boundary value problems in statics

Since k(x) = I , we see that

and

Therefore,

and the basis turns out to be orthogonal with respect to the energy inner product as
well. We also have

These form the entries of the matrix K and the vector f. Since K is diagonal, we
can solve the system Ku = f immediately to obtain

The resulting approximation, for N = 20, is displayed in Figure 5.10. The energy
inner product, for a constant function k ( x ) , is just the L2 inner product applied to
the derivatives, and so the calculations are intimately related to those we perform
in computing a Fourier series solution; indeed, the final result is the same!

Example 5.19. Consider the BVP

The exact solution is

We will apply the Galerkin method with the same approximating subspace and basis
as in the previous exercise. The calculations are similar, but the bilinear form
changes to

and the basis functions are no longer orthogonal in the energy inner product.
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5.5. The Galerkin method 185

We have

and

These form the entries of the matrix K and the vector f. We cannot solve Ku = f
explicitly; that is, we cannot derive a useful formula for the coefficients Ui,i =
1,2,..., N, in the formula

However, we can solve for the unknowns numerically using Gaussian elimination,
and thereby produce the approximation w from FN. The result, for N = 20, is
shown in Figure 5.10.

Figure 5.10. Solving BVPs (5.47) (left) and (6.48) (right) using the
Galerkin method. The solutions are graphed in the top figures and the errors in
the solutions in the bottom.
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186 Chapter 5. Boundary value problems in statics

The results in these two examples are of roughly the same quality, showing
that the Galerkin method can be as effective as the Fourier method. The most
significant difference in these two methods is the need to form the matrix K in the
second example and solve the N x N system Ku = f. This is very time-consuming
compared to the computations required in the first example (where the system of
linear equations is diagonal). This question of efficiency is particularly important
when we have two or three spatial dimensions; in a problem of realistic size, it may
take impossibly long to solve the resulting linear system if the coefficient matrix is
dense. A dense matrix is a matrix in which most or all of the entries are nonzero.
A sparse matrix, on the other hand, has mostly zero entries.
The finite element method is simply the Galerkin method with a special choice
for the subspace and its basis; the basis leads to a sparse coefficient matrix. The
ultimate sparse, nonsingular matrix is a diagonal matrix. Obtaining a diagonal
matrix requires that the basis for the approximating subspace be chosen to be
orthogonal with respect to the energy inner product. As mentioned earlier, it is too
difficult, for a problem with variable coefficients, to find an orthogonal basis. The
finite element method uses a basis in which most pairs of functions are orthogonal;
the resulting matrix is not diagonal, but it is quite sparse.

Exercises
1. Determine whether the bilinear form

defines an inner product on each of the following subspaces of (72[0,^]. If it

does not, show why.

2. Show that if FN is the subspace defined in Example 5.18, and the Galerkin
method is applied to the weak form of

with FJV as the approximating subspace, the result will always be the partial
Fourier sine series (with N terms) of the exact solution u.
3. Define 5 to be the set of all polynomials of the form ax + bx2, considered as
functions defined on the interval [0,1].
(a) Explain why 5 is a subspace of C2[0,1].
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5.5. The Galerkin method 187

(b) Explain why the bilinear form

defines an inner product on S.

(c) Compute the best approximation from S, in the energy norm, to f(x] =
ex .
(d) Explain why the best approximation from P-2, in the energy norm, to
f ( x ) = ex is not unique. (The subspace PI is defined in Exercise 3.1.3d.)
4. Repeat Exercise 3 with

5. Define

and regard ¥2 as a subspace of C|j[0,1]. Apply the Galerkin method, using

¥2 as the approximating subspace, to estimate the solution of

Find the exact solution and graph the exact and approximate solutions to-
gether.

6. Repeat Exercise 5 using the subspace

7. The standard Gaussian elimination algorithm for solving Ax = b requires

arithmetic operations when A e R n x n . (The exact number is a cubic poly-

nomial in n, and 2n 3 /3 is the leading term. When n is large, the lower degree
terms are negligible in comparison to the leading term.)
(a) Suppose that, on a certain computer, it takes 1 second to solve a 100 x 100
dense linear system by Gaussian elimination. How long will it take to
solve a 1000 x 1000 system? A 10000 x 10000 system?
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188 Chapter 5. Boundary value problems in statics

(b) Now suppose A e R n x n is tridiagonal, that is, suppose AIJ — 0 whenever

\i — j\ > 1. About how many arithmetic operations does it take to solve
Ax = b by Gaussian elimination, assuming that the algorithm takes
advantage of the fact that most of the entries of A are already zero?
(The student should work out a small example by hand and count the
number of operation taken at each step. A short calculation gives this
operation count as a function of n.)
(c) Finally, suppose that, on a certain computer, it takes 0.01 s to solve a
100 x 100 tridiagonal linear system by Gaussian elimination. How long
will it take to solve a 1000 x 1000 system? A 10000 x 10000 system?

5.6 Piecewise polynomials and the finite element

method
To apply the Galerkin method to solve a BVP accurately and efficiently, we must
choose a subspace Vn of C2[0,^] and a basis for Vn with the following properties:
1. The stiffness matrix K and the load vector f can be assembled efficiently.
This means that the basis for Vn should consist of functions that are easy to
manipulate, in particular, differentiate and integrate.
2. The basis for Vn should be as close to orthogonal as possible so that K will
be sparse. Although we do not expect every pair of basis functions to be
orthogonal (which would lead to a diagonal stiffness matrix), we want as
many pairs as possible to be orthogonal so that K will be as close to diagonal
as possible.
3. The true solution u of the BVP should be well approximated from subspace
V^, with the approximation becoming arbitrarily good as n —> oo.
We will continue to use the BVP

as our model problem.

Finite element methods use subspaces of piece wise polynomials; for simplicity,
we will concentrate on piece wise linear functions. To define a space of piecewise
linear functions, we begin by creating a mesh (or grid) on the interval [0,^]:

The points XQ , Xi,..., xn are called the nodes of the mesh. Often we choose a regular
mesh, with xi — ih, h = t/n. A function p : [0,^] —>• R is piecewise linear (relative
to the given mesh) if, for each i = l , 2 , . . . , n , there exist constants d{, b{, with
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5.6. Piecewise polynomials and the finite element method 189

See Figure 5.11 for an example of a continuous piecewise linear function.

Figure 5.11. A piecewise linear function relative to the mesh XQ =

0.0,31 = 0.25, x2 = 0.5, x3 = 0.75, z4 = 1.0.

We define, for a fixed mesh on [0,£],

We now argue that the subspace Sn satisfies the three requirements for an approx-
imating subspace that are listed above. Two of the properties are almost obvious:
1. Since the functions belonging to Sn are piecewise polynomials, they are easy
to manipulate—it is easy to differentiate or integrate a polynomial.
3. Smooth functions can be well-approximated by piecewise linear functions. In-
deed, in the days before hand-held calculators, the elementary transcendental
functions like sin (x) or ex were given in tables. Only a finite number of func-
tion values could be listed in a table; the user was expected to use piecewise
linear interpolation to estimate values not listed in the table.
The fact that smooth functions can be well-approximated by piecewise linear
functions can also be illustrated in a graph. Figure 5.12 shows a smooth func-
tion on [0,1] with two piecewise linear approximations, the first corresponding
to n = 10 and the second to n = 20. Clearly the approximation can be made
arbitrarily good by choosing n large enough.
In order to discuss Property 2, that the stiffness matrix should be sparse,
we must first define a basis for Sn. The idea of piecewise linear interpolation
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190 Chapter 5. Boundary value problems in statics

Figure 5.12. A smooth function and two piecewise linear approximations.

The top approximation is based on 11 nodes, while the bottom is based on 21 nodes.

suggests the natural basis: a piecewise linear function is completely determined by

its nodal values (that is, the values of the function at the nodes of the mesh). For
n = 1,2, . . . , n — 1, define fa £ Sn to be that piecewise linear function satisfying

Then each p e Sn satisfies

To prove this, we merely need to show that p and

have the same nodal values, since two continuous piecewise linear functions are equal
if and only if they have the same nodal values. Therefore, we substitute x = Xj into
(5.52):
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5.6. Piecewise polynomials and the finite element method 191

This shows that (5.51) holds.

Thus every p 6 Sn can be written as a linear combination of {</»i, 02, • • • , 0n-i} 5
that is, this set spans Sn. To show that {0i, <fe, • • • , <^n-i} is linearly independent,
suppose

Then, in particular,

This implies that all of the coefficients c\, c^,..., c n _i are zero, so {(f>i, 02, • • • ? (f>n-i}
is a linearly independent set. A typical basis function (f)i(x) is displayed in Figure
5.13.

Figure 5.13. A typical basis function for Sn.

The entries of the stiffness matrix are

Here is the fundamental observation concerning the finite element method: since
each fa is zero on most of the interval [0,£], most of the inner products a(0j,^>j)
are zero because the product
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192 Chapter 5. Boundary value problems in statics

turns out to be zero for all x € [0,^].

To be specific, fa is zero except on the interval [ori_i,£i+i]. (We say that the
support33 of fa is the interval [xj_i,Xj+i].) From this we see that

can be nonzero, but

since in that case, for any x G [O,/], either

is zero. Therefore, the matrix K turns out to be tridiagonal, that is, all of its entries
are zero except (possibly) those on three diagonals (see Figure 5.14).

Figure 5.14. A schematic view of a tridiagonal matrix; the only nonzeros

are on the main diagonal and the first sub- and super-diagonal.

We now see that the subspace Sn of continuous piecewise linear functions

satisfies all three requirements for a good approximating subspace. However, the
attentive reader may have been troubled by one apparent shortcoming of Sn- it
is not a subset of Cf>[0,^], because most of the functions in Sn are not continu-
ously differentiate, much less twice-continuously differentiable. This would seem
33
The support of a continuous function is the closure of the set on which the function is nonzero,
that is, the set on which the function is nonzero, together with its boundary. In the case of </>i,
the function is nonzero on (xi-i,Xi+i). The closure of this open interval is the closed interval.
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5.6. Piecewise polynomials and the finite element method 193

to invalidate the entire context on which the Galerkin method depends. In fact,
however, this presents no difficulty—the important fact is that equations defining
the weak form are well-defined, that is, that we can compute

Since <fo is piecewise linear, its derivative dfa/dx is piecewise constant and hence
integrable.
The key to a mathematically consistent treatment of finite element methods
is to use a larger space of functions, one that includes both Cf)[0,l] and Sn as
subspaces. This will show that the basic property of the Galerkin method still holds
when we use Sn as the approximating subspace: the Galerkin method produces the
best approximation from Sn, in the energy norm, to the true solution u. We sketch
this theory in Section 10.3. For a more complete exposition of the theory, we refer
the reader to more advanced texts, for example, Brenner and Scott [6].

5.6.1 Examples using piecewise linear finite elements

Let us apply the Galerkin method, with the subspace Sn defined in the previous
section, to (5.49). As we showed in Section 5.5, the Galerkin approximation is

where the coefficients MI, U2, • • • , w n -i satisfy

Example 5.20. We apply the finite element method to the BVP

The exact solution is u(x] = —ex + (e — l)x + 1. We use a regular mesh with n
subintervals and h = l/n. We then have
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194 Chapter 5. Boundary value problems in statics

Therefore,

and

(These calculations are critical, and the reader should make sure he or she thoroughly
understands them. The basis function fa is nonzero only on the interval [(i — l)h, (i+
l)h], so the interval of integration reduces to this subinterval. The square of the
derivative of fa is l/h2 on this entire subinterval. This gives the result for KH. As
for the computation of Ki^+i, the only part of [0,1] on which both fa and fa+i are
nonzero is [ih,(i + l)h]. On this subinterval, the derivative of fa is —l/h and the
derivative of fa+i is l/h.)
This gives us the entries on the main diagonal and first super-diagonal ofK;
since K is symmetric and tridiagonal, we can deduce the rest of the entries. We
also have

It remains only to assemble the tridiagonal matrix K and the right-hand-side vector
f, and solve Ku = f using Gaussian elimination.
For example, for n = 5, we have K G R 4x4 ;
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5.6. Piecewise polynomials and the finite element method 195

The corresponding piecewise linear approximation, together with the exact solution,
is displayed in Figure 5.15.

Figure 5.15. Exact solution and piecewise linear finite element approxima-
tion for -£-% = ex,u(Q) = w(l) = 0 (top). Error in piecewise linear approximation
(bottom).

Example 5.21. We now find an approximate solution to the BVP

The exact solution is u(x) = In (1 + x)/ln2 — x. We again use a regular mesh with
n subintervals and h — l/n.
The bilinear form a(-, •) now takes the form
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196 Chapter 5. Boundary value problems in statics

We obtain

and

As in the previous example, these calculations suffice to determine K. We also have

It remains only to assemble the tridiagonal matrix K and the right-hand-side vector
f, and solve Ku = f using Gaussian elimination.
For example, if n — 5, the matrix K is 4 x 4,

and f is a 4-vector,

The resulting u is

The piecewise linear approximation, together with the exact solution, is shown in
Figure 5.16.

Fundamental issues for the finite element method are:

How fast does the approximate solution converge to the true solution as n -»
oo?
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5.6. Piecewise polynomials and the finite element method 197

Figure 5.16. Piecewise linear finite element approximation to the solution

• How can the stiffness matrix K and the load vector f be computed efficiently
and automatically on a computer?
• How can the sparse system Ku = f be solved efficiently? (This is primarily an
issue when the problem involves two or three spatial dimensions, since then
K can be very large.)
Another issue that will be important for higher-dimensional problems is the descrip-
tion of the mesh—special data structures are needed to allow efficient computation.
A careful treatment of these questions is beyond the scope of this book, but we will
provide some answers in Chapter 10.

5.6.2 Inhomogeneous Dirichlet conditions

The inhomogeneous Dirichlet problem,

can be solved using the method of "shifting the data" introduced earlier. In this
method, we find a function g(x] satisfying the boundary conditions and define a
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198 Chapter 5. Boundary value problems in statics

new BVP for the unknown w(x) = u(x] — g(x). We can apply this idea to the weak
form of the BVP.
A calculation similar to that of Section 5.4.1 shows that the weak form of
(5.55) is

Here, however, we do not look for the solution u in V, but rather in g + V =

{g + v : v € V}. We now write u = g + w, and the problem becomes

But a(w + g, v) = a(w, v) + a(g, v ) , so we can write (5.56) as

It turns out that solving (5.57) is not much harder than solving the weak formulation
of the homogeneous Dirichlet problem; the only difference is that we modify the
right-hand-side vector f, as we explain below.
Shifting the data is easy because we can delay the choice of the function g until
we apply the Galerkin method; it is always simple to find a finite element function
gn which satisfies the boundary conditions on the boundary nodes (actually, for a
one-dimensional problem like this, it is trivial to find such a function g in any case;
however, this becomes difficult in higher dimensions, while finding a finite element
function to satisfy the boundary conditions, at least approximately, is still easy in
higher dimensions).
The Galerkin problem is:

We choose gn to be piece wise linear and satisfy gn(xo} = a, gn(xn) = /3- the simplest
such function has value zero at the other nodes of the mesh, namely gn = afio+ftfin.
Substituting wn = ^ii=i ai^i m*° (5-58), we obtain, as before, the linear system
Ku = f. The matrix K does not change, but f becomes

Example 5.22. We now solve an inhomogeneous version of Example 5.21; specif-

i.rnll.ii IIJP n.nnln the finite pl.pm.pni. mpthntt t.n
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5.6. Piecewise polynomials and the finite element method 199

As we have just explained, the approximate solution is given by

where the coefficients iti, «2,. • • , un-i satisfy

The stiffness matrix K is identical to the one calculated in Example 5.21, while the
load vector f is modified as indicated in (5.59). We obtain

Now,

so

and

With n = 5, we obtain

The results are shown in Figure 5.17. In this case, the computed solution equals the
exact solution (the error shown is Figure 5.17 is only due to round-off error in the
computer calculations) (see Exercise 2).
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200 Chapter 5. Boundary value problems in statics

Figure 5.17. Piecewise linear finite element approximation, with n = 5

subintervals in the mesh, to the solution of — -^ ((x + l)ff) = l,w(0) = 2,w(l) = 1.
The error shown in the bottom graph is due only to round-off error—the "approxi-
mation" is in fact equal to the exact solution.

Exercises
1. (a) Using direct integration, find the exact solution to the BVP from Exam-
ple 5.21.
(b) Repeat the calculations from Example 5.21, using an increasing sequence
of values of n. Produce graphs similar to Figure 5.16, or otherwise mea-
sure the errors in the approximation. Try to identify the size of the error
as a function of h.34

2. (a) Compute the exact solution to the BVP from Example 5.22.
(b) Explain why, for this particular BVP, the finite element method computes
the exact, rather than an approximate, solution.

3. Use piecewise linear finite elements and a regular mesh to solve the following
34
To perform these calculations for n much larger than 5 will require the use of a computer.
One could, of course, write a program, in a language such as Fortran or C, to do the calculations.
However, there exist powerful interactive software programs that integrate numerical calculations,
programming, and graphics, and these are much more convenient to use. MATLAB is particularly
suitable for the finite element calculations needed for this book, since it is designed to facilitate
matrix computations. Mathematica and Maple are other possibilities.
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5.6. Piecewise polynomials and the finite element method 201

problem:

Use n = 10,20,40,... elements, and determine (experimentally) an exponent

» so that the error is

Here error is defined to be the maximum absolute difference between the exact
and approximate solutions. (Determine the exact solution by integration; you
will need it to compute the error in the approximations.)
4. Repeat Exercise 3 for the BVP

The exact solution is

5. Derive the weak form of the BVP

where k and p satisfy k(x) > 0, p(x] > 0 for x G [0,^]. What is the bilinear
form for this BVP?
6. Repeat Exercise 3 for the BVP

The results of the last exercise will be required. The exact solution is
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202 Chapter 5. Boundary value problems in statics

where

5.7 Green's functions for BVPs

The zero function is always a solution of a linear homogeneous differential equation.
Suppose we have a BVP, defined by a linear differential equation and Dirichlet or
Neumann boundary conditions, satisfying the existence and uniqueness property.
Then the BVP has a nonzero solution only if the differential equation is inhomoge-
neous or the boundary conditions are inhomogeneous (or both). We will focus on
the differential equation, assuming the boundary conditions are homogeneous, and
present a formula that expresses the solution explicitly in terms of the right-hand
side of the differential equation.
As our first example, we consider the BVP

The "data" for (5.61) is the forcing function /, which is a function of the spatial
variable x. By two integrations, we can determine a formula for u in terms of /:

(To verify the last step, the reader should sketch the domain of integration for the
double integral, and change the order of integration.) We can thus write the solution
as
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5.7. Green's functions for BVPs 203

where

By inspection of formula (5.62), we see that, for a particular x, the value u(x) is
a weighted sum of the data / over the interval [0,£]. Indeed, for a given x and y,
g ( x ; y ) indicates the effect on the solution u at x of the data / at y. The function
g is called the Green's function for BVP (5.61).
To expose the meaning of the Green's function more plainly, we consider a
right-hand-side function / that is concentrated at a single point x = £. We define
dAx by

(see Figure 5.18) and let f&x(x) = d^x(x — ^). The solution of (5.61), with / = /A X)
is

Since

for all Ax, we see that u(x) is a weighted average of g(x; y) (considered as a function
of y) over the interval £ — Ax < y < £ + Ax. As Ax —>• 0, this weighted average
converges to <?(x;£).
We now interpret this result in terms of a specific application. We consider
an elastic bar of length I and stiffness k(x) hanging with one end fixed at x = 0
and the other end (at x = K) free. The displacement u of the bar is modeled by the
BVP (5.61), where / is the external force density (in units of force per volume).
The quantity

is the total force exerted on the entire bar. Since

and /AX is zero except on the interval [£ — Ax,£+Ax], we see that the total pressure
exerted on the bar is A and it is concentrated more and more at x = £ as Ax -> 0.
In the limit, the external force on the bar consists of a pressure of 1 unit acting
on the cross-section of the bar at x = £. The response of the bar, in the limit, is
w(x) =g(x]£).
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204 Chapter 5. Boundary value problems in statics

Figure 5.18. The function d&x (Ax = O.I).

Thus we see that, for a fixed £, g(x; £) is a solution to (5.61) for a special right-
hand side—a forcing function of magnitude 1 concentrated at x = £. However, this
forcing function is not a true function in the usual sense. Indeed, the function d^\x
has the following properties:

is a weighted average of g on the interval [—Ax, Ax].

Since the limit, as Ax —>• 0, of the weighted average of g over [—Ax, Ax] is #(0)
when g is continuous, these properties suggest that we define the limit 6 of d<\x as
Ax —>• 0 by the following properties:
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5.7. Green's functions for BVPs 205

If g is a continuous function and

The "function" 8 is not a function at all—any ordinary function d has the property
that if d is nonzero only at a single point on an interval, then the integral of d over
that interval is zero. However, it is useful to regard 8 as a generalized function. The
particular generalized function 8 is called the Dirac delta function (or simply the
delta function) and is defined by the siftinq property:
If g is a continuous function and 0 e [0,6], then Ja 8(x)g(x}dx =
c/(0). If 0 <£ [a, 6], then fc S(x}g(x) dx = 0.
By a simple change of variables, we see that the following property also holds:
If g is a continuous function and £ G [a, 6], then J 8(x)g(x — £} dx =
0(0-
Since S is formally an even function (8(—x) = 8(x)), we also have
If g is a continuous function and £ e [a, 6], then J 8(x)g(£ — x}dx =
0(0.
Since 6 is not a function, but a generalized function, we regard the last two properties
as assumptions.
From this discussion, we see that the Green's function g for (5.61) has the
property that u(x) = g(x; £) is the solution of the BVP

We can verify this result using physical reasoning; this is particularly simple
in the case of a homogeneous bar. We consider the following thought experiment:
We apply a unit pressure (in the positive direction) to the cross-section at x = £ 6
(0,^). (It is not obvious how such a pressure could actually be applied in a physical
experiment, which is why we term this a "thought experiment.") Since the bar is
fixed at x = 0, and the end at x — t is free, it is not hard to see what the resulting
displacement will be. The part of the bar originally between x = 0 and x — £ will
stretch from its original length of £ to a length of £ + A£, where

(the pressure, 1, is proportional to the relative change in length (A£/£)). Therefore,

A£, which is the displacement u(£), is £/fc. Since the bar is homogeneous, the
displacement in the Dart of the bar above x = £ is
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206 Chapter 5. Boundary value problems in statics

What about the part of the bar originally between x = £ and x = 11 This part of
the bar is not stretched at all; it merely moves because of the displacement in the
part of the bar above it. We therefore obtain

Combining these two formulas gives

or simply

(see Figure 5.19). Thus we see that u(x) = g(x;£), where g is given by (5.63)
(specialized to the case in which k is constant).

Figure 5.19. The Green's function g ( x ; y ] , y = 0.6, in the case of a

constant stiffness (k = 200, t = I ) .

Example 5.23. Consider BVP (5.61) with 1=1, k(x) = 1-x, and f ( x ) = 1. We
have
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5.7. Green's functions for BVPs 207

Therefore,

5.7.1 The Green's function and the inverse of a differential

operator
We write

Our results above show that, for each / € C[0,£], there is a unique solution to
Ku = f . In other words, K is an invertible operator. Moreover, the solution to
Ku = f is u = Mf, where M : C[0,l] -> C^[0,£] is denned by

x
Therefore, KM f = /, which shows that M = K , the inverse operator of K. It
follows that

must also hold. Thus the Green's function defines the inverse of the differential
operator.

Exercises
1. Use the Green's function to solve (5.61) when t = 1, /(#) = 1, and k(x) = ex.
2. Prove directly (by substituting u into the differential equation and boundary
conditions) that the function u defined by (5.62) and (5.63) solves (5.61).
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208 Chapter 5. Boundary value problems in statics

3. Consider the BVP

(a) Using physical reasoning (as on page 205), determine a formula for the
Green's function in the case that k is constant.
(b) Derive the Green's function for the BVP (with a possibly nonconstant
k} by integrating the differential equation twice and interchanging the
order of integration in the resulting double integral.
(c) Simplify the Green's function found in Exercise 3b in the case that the
stiffness k is constant. Compare to the result in part 3a.
(d) Use the Green's function to solve (5.66) for 1=1, f ( x ) = x, k(x) = 1 + x.
4. Consider the BVP

(a) Using physical reasoning (as in the text), determine a formula for the
Green's function in the case that k is constant. (Hint: Since the bar
is homogeneous, the displacement function u(x) = g(x; y) (y fixed) will
be piecewise linear, with w(0) = u(i) = 0. Determine the displacement
of the cross-section at x = y by balancing the forces and using Hooke's
law, and then the three values w(0), u(y], and u(i] will determine the
displacement function.)
(b) Derive the Green's function for the BVP, still assuming that k is constant,
by integrating the differential equation twice and interchanging the order
of integration in the resulting double integral. Verify that you obtain the
same formula for the Green's function.
(c) (Hard) Derive the Green's function in the case of a nonconstant stiffness
k(x).
5. Since the BVP (5.61) is linear, the principle of superposition holds, and the
solution to
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5.7. Green's functions for BVPs 209

is u(x) — w(x) + v(x), where w solves (5.61) (hence w is given by (5.62)) and
v solves

Solve (5.67) and show that the solution can be written in terms of the Green's
function (5.63).

6. Prove directly that (5.65) holds. (Hint: Write

and rewrite

as the sum of two integrals,

Then apply integration by parts to the first integral, and simplify.)

7. Let g(x; y) be the Green's function for the BVP

The purpose of this problem is to derive the Fourier sine series of g(x] y) in
three different ways. Since g depends on the parameter y, its Fourier sine
coefficients will be functions of y.

(a) First compute the Fourier sine series of g(x; y) directly (that is, using
the formula for the Fourier sine coefficients of a given function), using
the formula for g as determined in Exercise 4.
(b) Next, derive the Fourier sine series of g(x; y) as follows: Write down
the Fourier series solution to the BVP. Pass the summation through the
integral defining the Fourier coefficients of the right-hand side /. Identify
the Fourier sine series of the Green's function g(x; y).
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210 Chapter 5. Boundary value problems in statics

(c) Find the Fourier sine series of g ( x ; y ) by solving the BVP

using the Fourier series method. Use the sifting property of the delta
function to determine its Fourier coefficients.
Verify that all three methods give the same result.

5.8 Suggestions for further reading

We have now introduced the two primary topics of this book, Fourier series and
finite elements. Fourier analysis has been important in applied mathematics for 200
years, and there are many books on the subject. A classic introductory textbook
is Churchill and Brown [10], which has been in print for over 60 years! A classic
reference to the theory of Fourier series is Zygmund [53]. Two modern textbooks
that focus on Fourier series methods are Bick [4] and Hanna and Rowland [24].
One can also look to introductory books on PDEs for details about Fourier
series, in addition to other analytic and numeric techniques. Strauss [46] is a well-
written text that concisely surveys analytic methods. It contains a range of topics,
from elementary to relatively advanced. Another introduction to PDEs that covers
Fourier series methods, as well as many other topics, is Haberman [22].
The finite element method is much more recent, having been popularized
in the 1960s. Most textbooks on the subject are written at a more demanding
level than is ours. Brenner and Scott [6] is a careful introduction to the theory of
finite elements for steady-state problems, while Johnson [27] and Strang and Fix
[45] treat both steady-state and time-dependent equations. Ciarlet [11] is another
careful treatment of the theory of finite elements for steady-state problems. There
is also the six-volume Texas Finite Element Series by Becker, Carey, and Oden [3],
which starts at an elementary level.
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Chapter 6

Heat flow and diffusion

We now turn our attention to time-dependent problems, still restricting ourselves

to problems in one spatial dimension. Since both time (t) and space (x) are inde-
pendent variables, the differential equations will be PDEs, and we will need initial
conditions as well as boundary conditions.
We begin with the heat equation,

This PDE models the temperature distribution u(x,t) in a bar (see Section 2.1) or
the concentration w(ar, t] of a chemical in solution (see Section 2.1.3). Since the first
time derivative of the unknown appears in the equation, we need a single initial
condition.
Our first model problem will be the following initial-boundary value problem
(IBVP):

We apply the Fourier series method first and then turn to the finite element method
We close the chapter with a look at Green's functions for this and related problems
Along the way we will introduce new combinations of boundary conditions.

6.1 Fourier series methods for the heat equation

We now solve (6.1) using Fourier series. Since the unknown u(x,t] is a function
of both time and space, it can be represented as a Fourier sine series in which the
Fourier coefficients depend on t. In other words, for each £, we have a Fourier sine

211
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212 Chapter 6. Heat flow and diffusion

series representation of u(x,t) (regarded as a function of x). The series takes the
form

The function u will then automatically satisfy the boundary conditions in (6.1).
We must choose the coefficients an(t) so that the PDE and initial condition are
satisfied.
We represent the right-hand side f ( x , t ] in the same way:

We then express the left-hand side of the PDE as a Fourier series, in which the
Fourier coefficients are all expressed in terms of the unknowns ai(i), a^t], To
do this, we have to compute the Fourier coefficients of the functions

and

Just as with the function u itself, we are using the Fourier series to represent the
spatial variation (i.e. the dependence on x} of these functions. Since they also
depend on t, the resulting Fourier coefficients will be functions of t.
To compute the Fourier coefficients of

we integrate by parts twice, just as we did in the previous chapter, and use the
boundary conditions to eliminate the boundary terms:
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6.1. Fourier series methods for the heat equation 213

We used the conditions sin (0) = sin (n?r) = 0 and w(0, t] = u(l,t) = 0 in canceling
the boundary terms in the above calculation.
We now compute the Fourier sine coefficient of pcdu/dt. Using Theorem 2.1,
we have

Thus the nth Fourier coefficient of pcdu/dt is

We now see that

Since

the PDE implies

This is a sequence of ODEs for the coefficients ai(£),a2(£),a3(£), — Moreover, we

have

where 61,62; • • • are the Fourier sine coefficients of ijj(x). Therefore, we obtair

These conditions provide initial conditions for the ODEs. To find an(t), we solve
the IVP
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214 Chapter 6. Heat flow and diffusion

The coefficients cn(t] and bn are computable from the given functions f ( x , t ) and
$(%)•
The IVP (6.2) is of the type considered in Section 4.2.3, and we have a formula
for the solution:

6.1.1 The homogeneous heat equation

We will begin with examples of the homogeneous heat equation.

Example 6.1. We consider an iron bar, of length 50cm, with specific heat c —
0.437 J/(gK), density p = 7.88 g/cm3, and thermal conductivity K = 0.836 Wf(cmK).
We assume that the bar is insulated except at the ends and that it is (somehow) given
the initial temperature

where ^(x) is given in degrees Celsius. Finally, we assume that, at time t — 0, the
ends of the bar are placed in an ice bath (0 degrees Celsius). We will compute the
temperature distribution after 20, 60, and 300 seconds.
We must solve the IBVP

The solution is

where the coefficient an(t) satisfies the IVP

and

The coefficient an is given by

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6.1. Fourier series methods for the heat equation 215

where K, p, and c have the values given above. This gives us an explicit formula for
the solution u,

which can be approximated by a finite series of the form

In Figure 6.1, we display "snapshots" of the temperature distributions at the times

t = 20, t = 60, and t = 300; that is, we show the graphs of the function w(x,20),
u(x,QQ), and u(x,3QO). This is often the preferred way to visualize a function of
space and time.

Figure 6.1. The solution u(x,t) from Example 6.1 at times 0, 20, 60, and
300 (seconds). Ten terms of the Fourier series were used to create these curves.

We now make several observations concerning the homogeneous heat equation

and its solution.

1. For a fixed time t > 0, the Fourier coefficients an(t] decay exponentially as n —>•
oo (cf. equation (6.3), in which the second term is zero for the homogeneous
heat equation). Since larger values of n correspond to higher frequencies, this
shows that the solution u(x,t) is very smooth as a function of x for any t > 0.
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216 Chapter 6. Heat flow and diffusion

This can be seen in Figure 6.1; at t = 0, the temperature distribution has a

singularity (a point of nondifferentiability) at x = 25. This singularity is not
seen even after 10 seconds. In fact, it can be shown mathematically that the
solution u(x, t) is infinitely differentiate as a function of x for every t > 0,
and this holds for every initial temperature distribution ty £ (7[0,^].
The relationship between the smoothness of a function and the rate of decay
of its Fourier will be explained thoroughly in Section 9.5.1. For now, we will
content ourselves with a qualitative description of this relationship. A "rough"
function (one that varies rapidly with x] must have a lot of high frequency
content (because high frequency modes—sin (rnrx/l) with n large—change
rapidly with x), and therefore the Fourier coefficients must decay to zero
slowly as n -» oo. On the other hand, a smooth function, one that changes
slowly with x, must be made up mostly of low frequency waves, and so the
Fourier coefficients decay rapidly with x.
For example, a function with a discontinuity is "rough" in the sense that we
are discussing, and its Fourier coefficients go to zero only as fast as 1/n. A
function that is continuous but whose derivative is discontinuous has Fourier
coefficients that decay to zero like 1/n2 (assuming the function satisfies the
same boundary conditions as the eigenfunctions). This pattern continues:
Each additional degree of smoothness in the function corresponds to an addi-
tional factor of n in the denominator of the Fourier coefficients. For examples,
the reader is referred to Exercise 13 and, for a complete explanation, to Section
9.5.1.
The fact that the solution u(x, t} of the homogeneous heat equation is very
smooth can be understood physically as follows: If somehow a temperature
distribution that has a lot of high frequency content (meaning that the tem-
perature changes rapidly with x) is induced, and then the temperature dis-
tribution is allowed to evolve without external influence, the heat energy will
quickly flow from high temperature regions to low temperature regions and
smooth out the temperature distribution.

2. For each fixed n, the Fourier coefficient an(t) decays exponentially as t —>• oo.
Moreover, the rate of decay is faster for larger n. This is another implication of
the fact that the temperature distribution u becomes smoother as t increases,
and means that, as t grows, fewer and fewer terms in the Fourier series are
required to produce an accurate approximation to the solution u(x,t}. When
t is large enough, the first term from the Fourier series provides an excellent
approximation to the solution.
As an illustration of this, we graph, in Figure 6.2, the difference between
u(x, t) and the first term of its Fourier series for t = 10, t = 20, and t = 300.
(We used 10 terms of the Fourier series to approximate the exact solution.
Figure 6.2 suggests that this is plenty.)

3. The material characteristics of the bar appear in the formula for the solution
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6.1. Fourier series methods for the heat equation 217

Figure 6.2. The error in approximating, at times 0, 20, 60, and 300 (sec-
onds), the solution u(x,t) from Example 6.1 with only the first term in its Fourier
series.

onlv in the combination

For example, in the case of the iron bar of Example 6.1, we have

If the bar were made of aluminum instead, with p — 2.70, c = 0.875, and
K = 2.36, and still had length 50cm, we would have

An examination of the solution (formula (6.4)) shows that the temperature

u(x,t) will decay to zero faster for a bar made of aluminum than for a bar
made of iron. Figure 6.3 demonstrates this; it is exactly analogous to Figure
6.1, except the solution is for an aluminum bar instead of an iron bar.

6.1.2 Nondimensionalization
Point 3 above raises the following question: Suppose we cannot solve a PDE explic-
itly. Can we still identify the critical parameters (or combination of parameters)
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218 Chapter 6. Heat flow and diffusion

Figure 6.3. The temperature distribution u(x,t) for an aluminum bar at

times 0, 20, 60, and 300 (seconds). Ten terms of the Fourier series were used to
create these curves. The experiment is exactly as in Example 6.1, except the iron
bar is replaced by an aluminum bar.

in the problem? In the case of the homogeneous heat equation, the parameters p,
c, K, and t are not significant individually, but rather in the combination K/(pcl2).
Can we deduce this from the equation itself, rather than from its solution?
It turns out that this is often possible through nondimensionalization, which
is the process of replacing the independent variables (and sometimes the dependent
variable) with nondimensional variables. We continue to consider heat flow in a
bar. The independent variables are x and t. The spatial variable has dimensions of
cm, and it is rather obvious how to nondimensionalize x—we describe the spatial
location in terms of the overall length t of the bar. That is, we replace x with

Since both x and t have units of centimeters, y is dimensionless.

It is more difficult to nondimensionalize the time variable, but there is a general
technique for creating nondimensional variables: List all parameters appearing in
the problem, together with their units, and find a combination of the parameters
that has the same units as the variable you wish to nondimensionalize. In this
problem, the parameters and their units are as follows:
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6.1. Fourier series methods for the heat equation 219

parameter units
P g/cm3
c J/(gK)
K J/(scmK)
t cm

Then the ratio

is seen to have units of seconds, so we define a dimensionless time variable s by

We then define v ( y , s ) = u(x,t), where (y,s) and ( x , t ) are related by

Then, by the chain rule,

and

Therefore, the PDE

is equivalent to

which simplifies to
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220 Chapter 6. Heat flow and diffusion

Since x = iy and x — t corresponds to y = 1, the IBVP (6.1), with f ( x , t) = 0,

becomes

where s0 = Kt0/(pcl2). The solution of (6.5) is computed as above; the result is

The Fourier sine coefficients of if)(ly), considered as a function of y on the interval

[0,1], are the same as the Fourier sine coefficients of i})(x) as a function of x on the
interval [0,1] (see Exercise 6).
What did we gain from nondimensionalization? We identified the natural
time scale, namely, pcl2/K, for the experiment, and we did this without solving
the equation. Whether we have an iron or aluminum bar, the problem can be
written as (6.5). This shows that the evolution of the temperature will be exactly
the same for the two bars, except that the temperature evolves on different time
scales, depending on the material properties of the bars. Moreover, we see exactly
how this time scale depends on the various parameters, and this can give some
information that is not immediately obvious from the equation. For example, it
is obvious from the equation that, holding p constant, a bar with specific heat c
and thermal conductivity K will behave the same as a bar with specific heat 2c and
thermal conductivity 2«. However, it is not at all obvious that, holding p and c
constant, a bar of length t with thermal conductivity K will behave just as a bar of
length 21 with thermal conductivity 4«.35

6.1.3 The inhomogeneous heat equation

We now consider an inhomogeneous problem.

Example 6.2. The diffusion coefficient for carbon monoxide (CO) in air is D =
0.208cm 2 /s. We consider a pipe of length 100cm, filled with air, that initially
contains no CO. We assume that the two ends of the pipe open onto large reservoirs
of air, also containing no CO, and that CO is produced inside the pipe at a constant
rate of 10~7 g/cm3 per second. We write u(x, t}, 0 < x < 100, for the concentration
of CO in air, in units of g/cm3, and model u as the solution of the IBVP

35
For a thorough discussion of nondimensionalization and scale models, see [36], Chapter 6.
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6.1. Fourier series methods for the heat equation 221

We wish to determine the evolution of the concentration of CO in the pipe.

We write the solution u in the form

so that

We have

where

To find the coefficients an(t) of u(x,t), we must solve the IVPs

Using (6.3), we obtain

In Figure 6.4, we show the concentration of CO in the pipe at times t = 3600 (1

hour), t = 7200 (2 hours), t = 14400 (4 hours), t = 21600 (6 hours), andt = 360000
(100 hours). The graph suggests that the concentration approaches steady state (the
reader should notice how little the concentration changes between 4 hours and 100
hours of elapsed time). We discuss the approach to steady state below in Section
6.1.5.
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222 Chapter 6. Heat flow and diffusion

Figure 6.4. The concentration of CO in the pipe of Example 6.2 after 1,

2, 4, 6, and 100 hours. Ten terms of the Fourier series were used to create these
curves.

6.1.4 In homogeneous boundary conditions

Inhomogeneous boundary conditions in a time-dependent problem can be handled
by the method of shifting the data, much as in the steady-state problems discussed
in the last chapter. We illustrate with an example.

Example 6.3. We suppose that the iron bar of Example 6.1 is heated to a constant
temperature of 4 degrees Celsius, and that one end (x = 0) is placed in an ice bath
(0 degree Celsius), while the other end is maintained at 4 degrees. What is the
temperature distribution after 5 minutes ?
The IBVP is

Since p(x) = 4#/50 satisfies the boundary conditions, we will define v(x,t) =
u(x,t) — p(x). Then, as is easily verified, v satisfies
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6.1. Fourier series methods for the heat equation 223

The initial temperature satisfies

where

The solution

is determined by the IVPs

so the solution is

The solution u is then given by

The temperature distribution at t = 300 is shown in Figure 6.5.

In a time-dependent problem, inhomogeneous boundary conditions can them-

selves be time dependent; for example,

are valid inhomogeneous Dirichlet conditions. The function

satisfies these conditions. The reader should notice that the function v(x,i) =
u(x, t) —p(x, t] will not satisfy the same PDE as does w; the right-hand side will be
different. See Exercise 5.
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224 Chapter 6. Heat flow and diffusion

Figure 6.5. The temperature distribution after 300 seconds (see Example 6.3).

6.1.5 Steady-state heat flow and diffusion

We now discuss the special case of heat flow or diffusion in which the source function
/(#,£) appearing on the right-hand side of the differential equation is independent
of t (this is the case in Example 6.2). In this case, the Fourier coefficients of / are
constant with respect to t, and formula (6.3) can be simplified as follows:

As t —>• oo, the first term tends to zero for each n, and so

This implies that

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6.1. Fourier series methods for the heat equation 225

The limit us(x) is the steady-state temperature distribution. It is not difficult to

show that us is the solution to the BVP

(see Exercise 2). It should be noted that the initial temperature distribution is
irrelevant in determining the steady-state temperature distribution.
Similar results hold for the diffusion equation, which is really no different from
the heat equation except in the meaning of the parameters. Indeed, Example 6.2
is an illustration; the concentration u approaches a steady-state concentration, as
suggested by Figure 6.4 (see Exercise 1).
In the next section, we will turn our attention to two new sets of boundary
conditions for the heat equation and derive Fourier series methods that apply to
the new boundary conditions. First, however, we briefly discuss another derivation
of the Fourier series method.

6.1.6 Separation of variables

There is another way to derive Fourier series solutions of the heat equation, which
is called the method of separation of variables. It is in some ways more elementary
than the point of view we have presented, but it is less general.
To introduce the method of separation of variables, we will use the following
IBVP:

The reader should notice that the PDE is homogeneous; this is necessary and a
significant limitation of this technique.
Here is the key idea of the method of separation of variables: we look for
separated solutions: u(x, t) = X(x)T(t) (X and T are functions of a single variable).
Substituting; u into the PDE vields
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226 Chapter 6. Heat flow and diffusion

The last step follows upon dividing both sides of the equation by XT. The crucial
observation is the following:

is a function of x alone, while

is a function of t alone. The only way these two functions can be equal is if they
are both constants:

We now have ODEs for X(x) and T(t)

Moreover, the boundary conditions for u imply boundary conditions for X:

(the function T(t) cannot be zero, for otherwise u is the trivial solution).
We see that the function X must satisfy the eigenvalue problem

From our earlier work, we know that there is a sequence of solutions:

For each value of A n , we can solve the ODE

to find a corresponding function Tn:

(bn is an arbitrary constant).

We have now found a sequence of separated solutions to the homogeneous heat
equation, namely,
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6.1. Fourier series methods for the heat equation 227

By construction, each of these functions satisfies the homogeneous Dirichlet condi-

tions.
To satisfy the initial condition, we use the principle of superposition (which
applies because the heat equation is linear) to form the solution

We then have

If we choose 61, b%, 63,... to be the Fourier sine coefficients of i/»,

then u(x,to) = i^(x] will hold.

We thus see that the method of separation of variables yields the solution we
obtained earlier (see Section 6.1.1). However, the method requires that the PDE
and the boundary conditions be homogeneous, and this is a serious limitation. For
example, one cannot apply separation of variables to a problem with inhomogeneous,
time-dependent boundary conditions. The method does not apply directly, and one
cannot use the trick of shifting the data, since it would result in an inhomogeneous
PDE.
We will find separation of variables useful in Section 8.2, when we derive the
eigenvalues and eigenfunctions for a differential operator defined on a rectangle.

Exercises
1. What is the steady-state solution of Example 6.2? What BVP does it satisfy?
2. Find the Fourier sine series of the solution of (6.6) and show that it equals
u8(x).
3. Solve the following IBVP using the Fourier series method:

Produce an accurate graph of the "snapshot" w(-,0.1).

4. Solve the following IBVP using the Fourier series method:
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228 Chapter 6. Heat flow and diffusion

Produce an accurate graph of the "snapshot" w(-,0.1).

5. Consider the heat equation with inhomogeneous boundary conditions:

Define

and v(x,i) = u(x,t) — p ( x , t ) . What IBVP does v satisfy?

6. Suppose V e C[0,4 and (f> e C[0,1] is defined by (j>(y) = ^(iy). Show that
the sine coefficients of <j> on [0,1] are the same as the sine coefficients of ty on
[0,4
7. Use the method of shifting the data to solve the following IBVP with inho-
mogeneous Dirichlet conditions:

If possible, produce an accurate graph of the "snapshot" w(-, 1.0).

8. Consider an iron bar, of diameter 4cm and length 1m, with specific heat
c = 0.437 J/(gK), density p = 7.88g/cm3, and thermal conductivity K =
0.836 W/(cm K). Suppose that the bar is insulated except at the ends, is
heated to a constant temperature of 5 degrees Celsius, and the ends are placed
in an ice bath (0 degrees Celsius). Compute the temperature (accurate to 3
digits) at the midpoint of the bar after 20 minutes. (Warning: Be sure to use
consistent units.)
9. Repeat Exercise 8 with a copper bar: specific heat c = 0.379 J/(gK), density
p = 8.97g/cm3, thermal conductivity K = 4.04 W/(cmK).
10. Consider the bar of Exercise 8. Suppose the bar is completely insulated except
at the ends. The bar is heated to a constant temperature of 5 degrees Celsius,
and then the right end is placed in an ice bath (0 degrees Celsius), while the
other end is maintained at 5 degrees Celsius.
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6.2. Pure Neumann conditions and the Fourier cosine series 229

(a) What is the steady-state temperature distribution of the bar?

(b) How long does it take the bar to reach steady-state (to within 1%)?

11. Repeat the preceding exercise with the bar of Exercise 9.

12. Consider a 100 cm circular bar, with radius 4 cm, designed so that the thermal
conductivity is nonconstant and satisfies K(X) = 1 + ax W/(cmK) for some
a > 0. Assume that the sides of the bar are completely insulated, one end
(x = 0) is kept at 0 degrees Celsius, and heat is added to the other end at
a rate of 4 W. The temperature of the bar reaches a steady state, u = u(x),
and the temperature at the end x = 100 is measured to be

Estimate a.

13. Compute the Fourier sine coefficients of each of the following functions, and
verify the statements on page 216 concerning the rate of decay of the Fourier
coefficients. (Take the interval to be [0.11.)

6.2 Pure Neumann conditions and the Fourier cosine

series
In this section we will consider the effect of insulating one or both ends of a bar in
which heat is flowing.36 With the new boundary conditions that result, we must use
different eigenfunctions in the Fourier series method. Of particular interest is the
case in which both ends of the bar are insulated, as this raises some mathematical
questions that we have not yet encountered.

6.2.1 One end insulated; mixed boundary conditions

We begin with the case in which one end of the bar is insulated, but the other is not.
In Section 2.1, we saw that an insulated boundary corresponds to a homogeneous
Neumann condition, which indicates that no heat energy is flowing through that
end of the bar. We consider a bar of length t, perfectly insulated on the sides, and
assume that one end (x = 1} is perfectly insulated while the other end (x = 0)
36
Or closing one or both ends of a pipe in which a chemical is diffusing.
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230 Chapter 6. Heat flow and diffusion

is uninsulated and placed in an ice bath. If the initial temperature distribution is

^(x), then the temperature distribution u(x,t) satisfies the IBVP

The eigenvalue/eigenfunctions pairs for Lm, the negative second derivative operator
under the mixed boundary conditions (Dirichlet at the left, Neumann at the right
are

(see Section 5.2.3). If we represent the solution as

then u will satisfy the boundary conditions. Just as in the previous section, we
can derive an ODE with an initial condition for each coefficient an(t) and thereby
determine u. We will illustrate with an example.

Example 6.4. We consider the temperature distribution in the iron bar of Example
6.1, with the experimental conditions unchanged except that the right end (x = I)
of the bar is perfectly insulated. The temperature distribution u(x,t) then satisfies
the IBVP

where p = 7.88g/cm3, c = QA37J/(gK), K = 0.836 W/(cmK), and

We have

where
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6.2. Pure Neumann conditions and the Fourier cosine series 231

We write the solution u in the form

Then, by almost exactly the same computation as on page 212, we have

The PDE and initial condition for u then imply that the coefficient an(t) must satisfy
the following IVP:

The solution is

which determines u(x,t).

In Figure 6.6, we show the temperature distributions at times t = 20, t = 60,
and t = 300; this figure should be compared with Figure 6.1. The effect of insulating
the right end is clearly seen.

6.2.2 Both ends insulated; Neumann boundary conditions

In order to treat the case of heat flow in a bar with both ends insulated, we must
first analyze the negative second derivative operator under Neumann conditions.
We define

Unlike the negative second derivative operator under the other sets of boundary
conditions we have considered, LN has a nontrivial null space; indeed, L^u = 0 if
and only if u is a constant function (see Example 3.17). Therefore, AQ = 0 is an
eigenvalue of LN with eigenfunction 70 (x) = 1. It is straightforward to show that
LJV is symmetric, so that its eigenvalues are real and eigenfunctions corresponding to
distinct eigenvalues are orthogonal. Moreover, apart from AQ, the other eigenvalues
of Z/jv are positive (see Exercise 3). We now determine these other eigenvalues and
the corresponding eigenfunctions.
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232 Chapter 6. Heat flow and diffusion

Figure 6.6. The solution u(x,t) from Example 6.4 at times 0, 20, 60, and
300 (seconds). Ten terms of the Fourier series were used to create these curves.

Since we axe looking for positive eigenvalues, we write A = 02 and solve

The general solution of the ODE is

Therefore,

and

so the first boundary condition implies C2 = 0. We then have u(x] = c\ cos (Ox) and
the second boundary condition becomes
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6.2. Pure Neumann conditions and the Fourier cosine series 233

When A > 0, this holds only if

that is, if

(we disregard the possibility that c\ = 0, as this does not lead to an eigenfunction).
The value of the constant c\ is irrelevant.
We thus see that the operator

has the following eigenpairs under Neumann conditions

in addition to the eigenpair AQ = 0, 7o(#) = 1-

A direct calculation shows that

The eigenfunctions are orthogonal, as we knew they would be due to the symmetry
of I/AT-
By the projection theorem, the best approximation to / G C*[0,£] from the
subspace spanned by

is

where

It can be shown that

that is,
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234 Chapter 6. Heat flow and diffusion

where the convergence is in the mean-square sense (not necessarily in the pointwise
sense—the distinction will be discussed in detail in Section 9.4.1). This is the
Fourier cosine series of the function /, and the coefficients 6 0 , & i , & 2 , - - - are the
Fourier cosine coefficients of /.
We can now solve the following IBVP for the heat equation:

We write the unknown solution u(x, t) in a Fourier cosine series with time-
dependent Fourier coefficients:

The problem of determining u(x,t) now reduces to the problem of solving for
b0(t),bi(t),b2(t),.... We write the PDE

in terms of Fourier cosine series; this requires determining formulas for the Fourier
cosine coefficients of du/dt(x,t) and —d2u/dx2(x,t) in terms of the Fourier coeffi-
cients of u(x, t). By Theorem 2.1, we have

(and similarly for n = 0). Therefore,

Computing the Fourier coefficients of —d2u/dx2(x, t) requires two applications

of integration by parts, as in Section 6.1. In the following calculation, the boundary
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6.2. Pure Neumann conditions and the Fourier cosine series 235

terms vanish because of the boundary conditions:

To compute the n = 0 Fourier coefficient, we just use direct integration:

(since du/dx(l,t) — du/dx(Q,t] = 0). We obtain

Therefore,

Now, since any function in C[0,£] can be represented by a cosine series, we

have

where the coefficients CQ (t}, c\ (t), c^ ( t ) , . . . can be computed explicitly because / is

given:
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236 Chapter 6. Heat flow and diffusion

We equate the two series, given in (6.12) and (6.13), and obtain

We can then compute bo(t),b\(t),b<2,(t),... by solving these ODEs, together with

the initial values obtained from the initial condition

Example 6.5. We continue to consider the iron bar of Example 6.1, now with both
ends insulated. We must solve the IBVP

where p, c, K, and ip are as given before.

Before solving for u, we note that it is easy to predict the long-time behavior
o f u , the temperature. Since the bar is completely insulated and there is no internal
source of heat, the heat energy contained in the bar at time 0 (represented by the
initial value of u) will flow from hot regions to colder regions and eventually reach
equilibrium at a constant temperature. The purpose of modeling this phenonemon
with the heat equation is to obtain quantitative information about this process—the
process is already understood qualitatively.
We write

and then

Since the right-hand side of the PDE is zero, we obtain

Also,
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6.2. Pure Neumann conditions and the Fourier cosine series 237

where

Since w(#,0) = i£>(x), we have

that is,

Thus we solve

to get

and

to get

where

Therefore,

with ^0,^1,^2,... given above. Figure 6.7 is analogous to Figures 6.1 and 6.6,
showing snapshots of the temperature distribution at the same times as before. It
also shows the equilibrium temperature; an inspection of the formula for u(x,t)
makes it clear that u(x,t} -> do = 5/2 as t —> oo.

6.2.3 Pure Neumann conditions in a steady-state BVP

The BVP
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238 Chapter 6. Heat flow and diffusion

Figure 6.7. The solution u(x,t] from Example 6.5 at times 0, 20, 60, and
300 (seconds). Ten terms of the Fourier series were used to create these curves.

describes the steady-state temperature distribution u(x) in a completely insulated

bar with a (time-independent) heat source. Up to this point, each BVP or IBVP
in Chapters 5 and 6 has had a unique solution for any reasonable choice of the
"ingredients" of the PDE: the coefficients (such as the stiffness or the heat con-
ductivity), the initial and boundary conditions, and the right-hand-side function.
We have not emphasized this point; rather, we have concentrated on developing
solution techniques. However, we must now address the issues of existence (does
the problem have a solution?) and uniqueness (is there only one solution?). The
class of PDEs for which we can demonstrate existence and uniqueness by explicitly
producing the solution is very small. That is, there are many PDEs for which we
cannot derive a formula for the solution; we can only approximate the solution by
numerical methods. For those problems, we need to know that a unique solution
exists before we try to approximate it.
Indeed, this is an issue with the finite element method, although we did not
acknowledge it when we first introduced the technique. We showed in Section 5.5
that the Galerkin method, on which the finite element method is based, produces
the best approximation (in the energy norm, and from a certain subspace) to the
true solution. However, we assumed in that argument that a true solution existed,
and that there was only one!
The question of existence and uniqueness is not merely academic. The steady-
state BVP (6.15) demonstrates this—it is a physically meaningful problem that a
scientist may wish to solve, and yet, as we are about to show, either it does not have
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6.2. Pure Neumann conditions and the Fourier cosine series 239

a solution or the solution is not unique! We already discussed this fact in Examples
3.14 and 3.17 in Section 3.2. For emphasis, we will repeat the justification from
several points of view.

Physical reasoning

The source function f ( x ) in (6.15) represents the rate at which (heat) energy is
added to the bar (in units of energy per time per volume). It depends on x (the
position in the bar) because we allow the possibility that different parts of the bar
receive different amounts of heat. However, it is independent of time, indicating that
the rate at which energy is added is constant. Clearly, for a steady-state solution to
exist, the total rate at which energy is added must be zero; if energy is added to one
part of the bar, it must be taken away from another part. Otherwise, the total heat
energy in the bar would be constantly growing or shrinking, and the temperature
could not be constant with respect to time. All of this implies that (6.15) may not
have a solution; whether it does depends on the properties of /(#).
On the other hand, if (6.15) does have a solution, it cannot be unique. Know-
ing only that no net energy is being added to or taken from the bar does not tell
us how much energy is in the bar. That is, the energy, and hence the temperature,
is not uniquely determined by the BVP.

Mathematical reasoning

Recall that f ( x ) has units of energy per unit volume per unit time; the total rate
at which energy is added to the bar is

where A is the cross-sectional area of the bar. By physical reasoning, we conclude

that

or simply

must hold in order for a solution to exist. But we can see this directly from the
BVP. Suppose u is a solution to (6.15). Then
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240 Chapter 6. Heat flow and diffusion

Thus, if a solution exists, then the compatibility condition (6.16) holds.

Now suppose that a solution u of (6.15) does exist. Let C be any constant,
and define a function v by v(x) = u(x] + C. Then we have

and

Therefore, v is another solution of (6.15), and this is true for any real number C.
This shows that if (6.15) has a solution, then it has infinitely many solutions.

The Fourier series method

Suppose that, rather than engage in the above reasoning, we just set out to solve
(6.15) by the Fourier series method. Because of the boundary conditions, we write
the solution as a cosine series:

Then, computing the cosine coefficients of —d?u/dx2(x) in the usual way, we have

(note that the constant term 60 vanishes when u(x) is differentiated). Also,

where

Equating the series for —Kd?u/dx2(x) and /(#), we find that the following equations
must hold:

Since the coefficient co,ci,C2,... are given and the coefficients O o ? 0 i 5 0 2 , - - - are to
be determined, we can choose

and thereby satisfy all but the first equation. However, the equation
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6.2. Pure Neumann conditions and the Fourier cosine series 241

is not a condition on the solution w, but rather on the right-hand-side function /.

Indeed, no choice of u can satisfy this equation unless

Thus we see again that the compatibility condition (6.16) must hold in order for
(6.15) to have a solution.
Moreover, assuming that CQ = 0 does hold, we see that the value of 60 is
undetermined by the BVP. Indeed, with CQ = 0, the general solution of the BVP is

where 60 can take on any value. Thus, when a solution exists, it is not unique.

Relationship to the Fredholm alternative for symmetric linear systems

If A € R n x n is symmetric and singular (so that A/"(A) contains nonzero vectors),
then the Fredholm alternative (Theorem 3.19) implies that Ax = b has a solution
if and only if b is orthogonal to AT (A). This is the compatibility condition for a
symmetric, singular linear system. The compatibility condition (6.16) is precisely
analogous, as we now show.
The operator LN (the negative second derivative operator, restricted to func-
tions satisfying homogeneous Neumann conditions) is symmetric. Moreover, the
null space of the operator contains nonzero functions, namely, all nonzero solutions
to

It is easy to show, by direct integration, that the solution set consists of all constant
functions defined on [0,£]. Therefore, the compatibility condition suggested by the
finite-dimensional situation is that (6.15) has a solution if and only if / is orthogonal
to every constant function. But

is equivalent to

or simply to

This is precisely (6.16).

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242 Chapter 6. Heat flow and diffusion

Summary
As the above example shows, a steady-state (time-independent) BVP with pure
Neumann conditions can have the property that either there is no solution or there
is more than one solution. It is important to note, however, that this situation
depends on the differential operator as well as on the boundary conditions. For
example, the BVP

(K, a > 0) has a unique solution, and there is no compatibility condition imposed
on /. The difference between (6.18) and (6.15) is that the differential operator in
(6.18) involves the function u itself, not just the derivatives of u. Therefore, unlike
in problem (6.15), the addition of a constant to u is not "invisible" to the PDE.

Exercises
1. Solve the IBVP

and graph the solution at times 0,0.02,0.04,0.06, along with the steady-state
solution.
2. Solve the IBVP

and graph the solution at times 0,0.02,0.04,0.06, along with the steady-state
solution.
3. (a) Show that Ljy is symmetric.
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6.2. Pure Neumann conditions and the Fourier cosine series 243

(b) Show that the eigenvalues of LN are nonnegative.

4. Following Section 6.1.4, show how to solve the following IBVP with inhomo-
geneous Neumann conditions:

5. (a) Consider the following BVP (with inhomogeneous Neumann conditions):

Just as in the case of homogeneous Neumann conditions, if there is one

solution w(x), there are in fact infinitely many solutions u(x}+C, where C
is a constant. Also as in the case of homogeneous Neumann conditions,
there is a compatibility condition that the right-hand side /(#) must
satisfy in order for a solution to exist. What is it?
(b) Does the BVP

(note the difference in the differential equation) require a compatibility

condition on /(#), or is there a solution for every / E C[0, ^]? Justify
your answer.

6. Consider a copper bar (p = 8.96 g/cm3, c = 0.385 J/(gK), « = 4.01 W/(cmK))

of length 1 m and cross-sectional area 2 cm2. Suppose the sides and the left
end (x = 0) are perfectly insulated and that heat is added to (or taken from)
the other end (x = 100, x in centimeters) at a rate of f ( t ) — 0.1 sin (QQirt) W.
If the initial (t = 0) temperature of the bar is a constant 25 degrees Celsius,
find the temperature distribution u(x,t) of the bar by formulating and solving
an IBVP.
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244 Chapter 6. Heat flow and diffusion

7. Consider the IBVP

Show that the solution u(x,t) satisfies

for some constant (7, and compute C.

8. Consider the experiment described in Exercise 6.1.8. Suppose that, after the
20 minutes are up, the ends of the bar are removed from the ice bath and are
insulated. Compute the eventual steady-state temperature distribution in the
bar.

9. Repeat Exercise 8 for the copper bar described in Exercise 6.1.9.

10. Consider an iron bar (p = 7.87 g/cm3, c = 0.449 J/(gK), K = 0.802 W/(cm K))
of length 1 m and cross-sectional area 2 cm2. Suppose that the bar is heated to
a constant temperature of 30 degrees Celsius, the left end (x = 0) is perfectly
insulated, and heat energy is added to (or taken from) the right end (x — 100)
at the rate of 1W (the variable x is given in centimeters). Suppose further
that heat energy is added to the interior of the bar at a rate of 0.1 W/cm3.

(a) Explain why the temperature will not reach steady state.
(b) Compute the temperature distribution u(x, t] by formulating and solving
the appropriate IBVP, and verify that u(x, t) does not approach a steady
state.
(c) Suppose that, instead of the left end's being insulated, heat energy is
removed from the left end of bar. At what rate must energy be removed
if the temperature distribution is to reach a steady state?
(d) Verify that your answer to the previous part is correct by formulating
and solving the appropriate IBVP and showing that u(x,t) approaches
a limit.
(e) Suppose that a steady state is to be achieved by holding the temperature
at the left end at a fixed value. What must the value be? Explain.

11. The purpose of this exercise is to show that if u(x,t) satisfies homogeneous
Neumann conditions, and u(x,t) is represented by a Fourier sine series, then a
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6.3. Periodic boundary conditions and the full Fourier series 245

formal calculation of the Fourier sine series of —82u/dx2(x, t) is invalid. That

is, suppose

and u satisfies

We wish to show that

does not represent —d2u/dx2(x,t).

(a) Show that the method of Sections 6.1 and 6.2.2 (two applications of inte-
gration by parts) cannot be used to compute the Fourier sine coefficients
of -d2u/dx2(x,t) in terms of ai(t),O2(t),—
(b) Let u(x, t} = t and t — \. Compute the Fourier sine coefficients

of u. Then compute the series (6.19), and explain why it does not equal
-d2u/dx2(x,t).

6.3 Periodic boundary conditions and the full Fourier

series
We now consider the case of a circular (instead of straight) bar, specifically, a set
of the form

(see Figure 6.8). We can model the flow of heat in the ring by the heat equation

however, the variable x, representing the cross-section of the bar, is now related to
the polar angle 9. Purely for mathematical convenience, we will assume that the
length of the bar is 21, and we will label the cross-sections by x € (—£,^j, where
x = Oi/7r. In particular, x — —t and x = t now represent the same cross-section of
the bar.
There is an additional level of approximation involved in modeling heat flow in
a circular bar (as compared to a straight bar) by the one-dimensional heat equation.
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246 Chapter 6. Heat flow and diffusion

Figure 6.8. A circular bar.

We mentioned earlier that, in the case of the straight bar, if the initial temperature
distribution and the heat source depend only on the longitudinal coordinate, then
so does the temperature distribution for any subsequent time. This is not the case
for a circular bar, as the geometry suggests (for example, the distance around the
ring varies from It — 2-jrS to It + 2-jrS, depending on the path). Nevertheless, the
modeling error involved in using the one-dimensional heat equation is not large
when the bar is thin (i.e. when 6 is small compared to t).
We will consider an initial condition as before:

A ring does not have physical boundaries as a straight bar does (a ring has a lateral
boundary, which we still assume to be insulated, but it does not have "ends").
However, since x = — t represents the same cross-section as does x = l,we still have
boundary conditions:

(the temperature and temperature gradient must be the same whether we identify
the cross-section by x = —lorbyx = l). These equations are referred to as periodic
boundary conditions.
We therefore wish to solve the following IBVP:
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6.3. Periodic boundary conditions and the full Fourier series 247

As we have seen several times now, the first step is to develop a Fourier series
method for the related BVP

**j
6.3.1 Eigenpairs of — -£-5 under periodic boundary conditions
We define

where

Using techniques that are by now familiar, the reader should be able to demonstrate
that

Lp is symmetric, and

Lp has no negative eigenvalues

(see Exercise 5).
We first observe that AQ = 0 is an eigenvalue of Lp, and a corresponding
eigenfunction is gQ(x) — I. Indeed, it is straightforward to show that the only
solutions to

are the constant functions.

We next consider positive eigenvalues. Suppose A = 02, 9 > 0. We must solve

The general solution to the differential equation is

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248 Chapter 6. Heat flow and diffusion

The first boundary condition yields the equation

while the second yields

Since 0 > 0, these equations reduce to

and

respectively. It follows that the only nonzero solutions of (6.22) correspond to

and, moreover, that with one of these values for A, every function of the form

satisfies (6.22).
Now,

are linearly independent, which means that there are two independent eigenfunc-
tions for each positive eigenvalue, a situation we have not seen before. The complete
list of eigenpairs for the negative second derivative operator, subject to periodic
boundary conditions, is

We know that, since Lp is symmetric, eigenfunctions corresponding to distinct eigen-

values are orthogonal. That is, if m ^ n, then

is orthogonal to both

Similarly,
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6.3. Periodic boundary conditions and the full Fourier series 249

is orthogonal to both

There is no a priori guarantee that the two eigenfunctions corresponding to Am are

orthogonal to each other. However, a direct calculation shows this to be true. We
can also calculate

The full Fourier series of a function / € C[—t,(\ is given by

where

We will show in Section 9.6 that the full Fourier series of a C[—l, I] function con-
verges to it in the mean-square sense (that is, that the sequence of partial Fourier
series converges to the function in the I/2-norm).

6.3.2 Solving the BVP using the full Fourier series

We now show how to solve the BVP (6.21) using the full Fourier series. Since the
method should by now be familiar, we leave the intermediate steps to the exercises.
We write the (unknown) solution of (6.21) as

where the coefficients ao, ai, 02, • • • , &i, &2, • • • are to be determined. Then u au-
tomatically satisfies the periodic boundary conditions. The full Fourier series for
—d2u/dx2 is given by

(see Exercise 6).

We now assume that the source function / has full Fourier series
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250 Chapter 6. Heat flow and diffusion

where the coefficients CQ, ci, C 2 , . . . , d i ,fife?• • • can be determined explicitly, since /
is known. Then the differential equation

implies that the Fourier series (6.27) and (6.28) are equal and hence that

From these equations, we deduce first of all that the source function / must satisfy
the compatibility condition

in order for a solution to exist. If (6.29) holds, then we have

but do is not determined by the differential equation or by the boundary conditions

Therefore, for any CIQ,

is a solution to (6.21) (again, assuming that (6.29) holds).

Example 6.6. We consider a thin gold ring, of radius 1cm. In the above notation,
then, I = TT. The material properties of gold are

p=l9.3g/cm3, c = 0.129 Jf(gK), K = 3.17 W/(cmK).

We assume that heat energy is being added to the ring at the rate of

Since
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6.3. Periodic boundary conditions and the full Fourier series 251

the BVP

has a solution. We write

(we take ao = 0, thus choosing one of the infinitely many solutions). We then have

Also,

where

(The value of CQ is already known to be zero since f satisfies the compatibility con-
dition.) Equating the last two series yields

Thus

A graph of u is shown in Figure 6.9. We emphasize that this solution really only
shows the variation in the temperature—the true temperature is u(x) + C for some
real number C. The assumptions above do not give enough information to determine
C; we would have to know the amount of heat energy in the ring before the heat
source f is applied.
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252 Chapter 6. Heat flow and diffusion

Figure 6.9. The temperature distribution in Example 6.6. This graph was
computed using 10 terms of the Fourier series.

6.3.3 Solving the IBVP using the full Fourier series

Now we solve the IVP (6.20) for the heat equation, using a full Fourier series
representation of the solution. As in the previous section, the technique should by
now be familiar, and we will leave many of the supporting computations as exercises.
Let u(x, t) be the solution to (6.20). We express u as a full Fourier series with
time-varying Fourier coefficients:

The series for —Kd?u/dx2 is

As for the time derivative, we can apply Theorem 2.1 to obtain

(see Exercise 8).

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6.3. Periodic boundary conditions and the full Fourier series 253

We then write the source term /(#,£) as the (time-varying) full Fourier series,

where the Fourier coefficients can be computed explicitly from

Substituting (6.31), (6.32), and (6.33) into the heat equation and equating
coefficients yield

We can solve these ODEs for the unknown coefficients once we have derived initial
conditions. These come from the initial condition for the PDE, just as in Section
6.1. We write the initial value ib(x] in a full Fourier series, sav

We also have

This yields the initial conditions

Solving the IVPs defined by (6.34) and (6.36) yields

and then u(x,t) is given by (6.30),

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254 Chapter 6. Heat flow and diffusion

Example 6.7. We consider again the ring of Example 6.6. We will assume that
the temperature in the ring is initially 25 degrees Celsius, and that at time t = 0
(t measured in seconds), heat energy is added according to the function f given in
that example. We wish to findu(x,t], which describes the evolution of temperature
in the ring. To do this, we solve the IBVP

We write the solution as

We already have the full Fourier series of f , and the initial temperature distribution
is given by a full Fourier series with exactly one nonzero term, namely, the constant
term 25. We must therefore solve the IVPs

The solutions are

Therefore, the solution is

Snapshots of this temperature distribution are shown in Figure 6.10. The reader
should notice the relationship between the steady-state temperature of the ring and
the solution to the previous example.
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6.3. Periodic boundary conditions and the full Fourier series 255

Figure 6.10. The solution w(x,t) to Example 6.7 at times 0, 0.25, 0.5,
and 1 (seconds), along with the steady-state solution. These solutions were estimated
using 10 terms in the Fourier series.

Exercises
1. Repeat Example 6.6, assuming the ring is made of silver instead of gold:
p = 10.5 g/cm3, c = 0.235 J/(gK), « = 4.29 W/(cm K). How does the steady-
state temperature compare to that of the gold ring?
2. Repeat Example 6.7, assuming the ring is made of silver instead of gold:
p = 10.5g/cm3, c = 0.235 J/(gK), K = 4.29W/(cmK).
3. Consider a ring, 5cm in radius, made of lead (which has physical properties
p = 11.3 g/cm3, c = 0.129 J/(gK), « = 0.353 W/(cm K)). Suppose, by heating
one side of the ring, the temperature distribution

is induced. Suppose the heat source is then removed and the ring is allowed
to cool.
(a) Write down an IBVP describing the cooling of the ring.
(b) Solve the IBVP.
(c) Find the steady-state temperature of the ring.
(d) How long does it take the ring to reach steady state (within 1%)?
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256 Chapter 6. Heat flow and diffusion

4. Consider the lead ring of the previous exercise. Suppose the temperature is
a constant 25 degrees Celsius, and an (uneven) heat source is applied to the
ring. If the heat source delivers heat energy to the ring at a rate of

how long does it take for the temperature at the hottest part of the ring to
rpa.rh 30 HPCTTPPS ("Iplsiiifi?

5. (a) Show that Lp is symmetric.

(b) Show that Lp does not have any negative eigenvalues.

6. Assuming that u is a smooth function defined on [—£, £], the full Fourier series
of u is given by (6.26), and u satisfies periodic boundary conditions, show that
the full Fourier series of —d^u/dx2 is given by (6.27).

7. Justify the compatibility condition (6.29)

(a) by physical reasoning (assume that (6.21) models a steady-state temper-

ature distribution in a circular ring);
(b) by using the differential equation

(c) by analogy to the compatibility condition given in the Predholm alter-

native.

8. Show that the Fourier series representation (6.32) follows from (6.30) and
Theorem 2.1.

6.4 Finite element methods for the heat equation

To apply the Fourier series method to the heat equation, we used the familiar
eigenfunctions to represent the spatial variation of the solution, while allowing the
Fourier coefficients to depend on time. We then found the values of these Fourier
coefficients by solving ODEs. We can use the finite element method in an analogous
fashion. We use finite element functions to approximate the spatial variation of the
solution, while the coefficients in the representation depend on time. We end up
with a system of ODEs whose solution yields the unknown coefficients.
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6.4. Finite element methods for the heat equation 257

We will consider again the following IBVP:

We begin by deriving the weak form of the IBVP, following the pattern of Section
5.4.2 (multiply the differential equation by a test function and integrate by parts
on the left). In the following calculation, V is the same space of test functions used
for the problem in statics:

We have

We integrate by parts in the second term on the left; the boundary term from
integration by parts vanishes because of the boundary conditions on the test function
v(x), and we obtain

This is the weak form of the IBVP. To get an approximate solution, we apply the
Galerkin method with approximating subspace

Sn = {p '• [0, f\ —> R : p is continuous and piecewise linear, p(0) = p(t] = 0}

= span{0i,0 2 ,...,0n-i},

where the piecewise linear functions are defined on the grid 0 = XQ < x\ < • • • <
xn = t and {0i, 02? • • • , 0n-i} is the standard basis defined in the previous chapter.
For each t, the function u(-,t] must lie in Sn, that is,
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258 Chapter 6. Heat flow and diffusion

Galerkin's method leads to

or

Substituting (6.39) into (6.40) yields, for t > to and i = 1,2, . . . , n — 1,

If we now define the mass matrix matrix M and the stiffness matrix K by

Mij = I pc(f)j(x)(f)i(x}dx, Kij = I K—^-(x)^±(x)dx,

Jo Jo dx dx
and the vector-valued functions f (t} and a(t) by

then we can write (6.41) as

(The names "mass matrix" and "stiffness matrix" for M and K, respectively, arise
from the interpretation for similar matrices appearing in mechanical models. We
have already seen the stiffness matrix in Chapter 5; we will see the mass matrix in
Chapter 7. In the context of the heat equation, these names are not particularly
meaningful, but the usage is well established.)
The initial condition u(x,to) = ip(x), 0 < x < t can be approximately imple-
mented as
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6.4. Finite element methods for the heat equation 259

that is, as ai(to) = if>(xi). This is reasonable, because the function

satisfies

We call V> the piecewise linear interpolant of tf}(x) (see Figure 6.11 for an example).

Figure 6.11. ^(x) = sin (STTX) and its piecewise linear interpolant.

We therefore arrive at the following system of ODEs and initial conditions:

where
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260 Chapter 6. Heat flow and diffusion

1
To solve this, we can multiply the ODE on both sides by M to obtain

that is,

We recognize this as an inhomogeneous system of linear, constant coefficient first-

order ODEs for the unknown a(t) (if the coefficients in the PDE are nonconstant,
then so will be the matrices M and K and hence A; in that case, the system of
ODEs will not have constant coefficients).37
We have now discretized the spatial variation of the solution (a process referred
to as semidiscretization in space) to obtain a system of ODEs. We can now apply
a numerical method to integrate the ODEs. This general technique of solving a
time-dependent PDE by integrating the system of (semidiscrete) ODEs is called
the method of lines.

6.4.1 The method of lines for the heat equation

We now illustrate the method of lines via an example, which will show that the
system of ODEs arising from the heat equation is stiff.

Example 6.8. Suppose an iron bar (p = 7.88, c = 0.437, K — 0.836,) is chilled to a

constant temperature of 0 degrees Celsius, and then heated internally with both ends
maintained at 0 degrees Celsius. Suppose further that the bar is 100 cm in length
and heat energy is added at the rate of

We wish to find the temperature distribution in the bar after 3 minutes.

The temperature distribution u(x,t) is the solution of the IBVP

We will approximate the solution using piecewise linear finite elements with a regular
mesh of 100 subintervals. We write n = 100, h = 100/n, Xi = ih, i = 0,1,2,..., n.
37
In practice, we do not actually compute either M"1 or A. When implementing numerical
algorithms, it is rarely efficient to compute an inverse matrix, particularly when the matrix is
sparse, as in this case. Instead, the presence of M"1 is a signal that a linear system with coefficient
matrix M must be solved. This is explained below when we discuss the implementation of Euler's
method and the backward Euler method.
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6.4. Finite element methods for the heat equation 261

As usual, {(f)i, 02, • • • , 0n-i} will be the standard basis for the subspace Sn of con-
tinuous piecewise linear finite elements. It is straightforward to compute the mass
and stiffness matrices:

(both M and K are tridiaqonal and symmetric). We also have

We first try taking N = 180 steps (At = 1 s) of Euler's method; however, the result
is meaningless, with temperatures on the order of 1040 degrees Celsius! Clearly
Euler's method is unstable with this choice of At. A little experimentation shows that
At cannot be much more than 0.7 seconds, or instability will result. The temperature
distribution att = 180 seconds, computed using 260 time steps (At = 0.69J, is shown
in Figure 6.12.
Before leaving this example, we should explain how Euler's method is imple-
mented in practice. The system of ODEs is

and so Euler's method takes the form

As we mentioned before, it is not efficient to actually compute M ; since M is

tridiagonal and M"1 is completely dense. Instead, we implement the above iteration
as

where sW is found by solving

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262 Chapter 6. Heat flow and diffusion

Figure 6.12. The temperature distribution in Example 6.8 after 180 sec-
onds (computed using the forward Euler method, with At = 0.69J.

Therefore, one tridiagonal solve is required during each iteration, at a cost of O(8n)
operations, instead of a multiplication by a dense matrix, which costs O(2n2) oper-
ations.38

Although the time step of At = 0.7 seconds, required in Example 6.8 for
stability, does not seem excessively small, it is easy to show by numerical experi-
mentation that a time step At on the order of h2 is required for stability. (Exercise
10 asks the reader to verify this for Example 6.8.) That is, if we wish to refine the
spatial grid by a factor of 2, we must reduce the time step by a factor of 4. This
is the typical situation when we apply the method of lines to the heat equation:
The resulting system of ODEs is stiff, with the degree of stiffness increasing as the
spatial grid is refined.
The reason for the stiffness in the heat equation is easy to understand on
an intuitive level. The reader should recall from Section 4.5 that stiffness arises
when a (physical) system has components that decay at very different rates. In
heat flow, the components of interest are the spatial frequencies in the temperature
distribution. High frequency components are damped out very quickly, as we saw
from the Fourier series solution (see Section 6.1.1). Low frequency components, on
the other hand, decay more slowly. Moreover, as we refine the spatial grid, we can
38
We can even do a bit better, by factoring the matrix M once (outside the main loop) and
then using the factors in the loop to solve for s^). This reduces the cost to O(6n) per iteration.
Factorization of matrices is discussed briefly in Section 10.2.
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6.4. Finite element methods for the heat equation 263

represent higher frequencies, and so the degree of stiffness worsens.

Example 6.9. We now apply the backward Euler method to the previous example.
Using n = 100 subintervals in space and At = 2 (seconds), we obtain the result
shown in Figure 6.13. Using a time step for which Euler's method is unstable, we
produced a result which is qualitatively correct.
The backward Euler method takes the form

Multiplying through by M and manipulating, we obtain

We therefore compute a^+1) by solving a system with the (tridiagonal) matrix M +

AtK as the coefficient matrix.

Figure 6.13. The temperature distribution in Example 6.8 after 180 sec-
onds (computed using the backward Euler method, with At = 1).

Exercises
Show that the mass matrix M is nonsingular. (Hint: This follows from the
general result that if {ui,U2,... ,u n } is a linearly independent set in an in-
ner product space, then the Gram matrix G defined by Gij = (uj, Uj) is
nonsingular. To prove this, suppose Gx = 0. Then (x, Gx) = 0, and by
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264 Chapter 6. Heat flow and diffusion

expanding (x, Gx) in terms of the inner products (iij,iii), it is possible to

show that (x, Gx) = 0 is only possible if x = 0. This suffices to show that G
is nonsingular.)
2. Consider a function / in C[0,^].
(a) Show how to compute the projection of / onto the subspace Sn. Be sure
to observe how the mass matrix M and load vector f arise naturally in
this problem.
(b) We can also find an approximation to / from Sn by computing the piece-
wise linear interpolant of /. Show by a specific example that the projec-
tion of / onto Sn and the piecewise linear interpolant of / from Sn are not
the same. (The number n can be chosen small to make the computations
simple.)
3. Apply the method of lines to the IBVP

Use the finite element method, with the approximating subspace 83 (and a
regular grid), to do the discretization in space.
(a) Explicitly compute the mass matrix M, the stiffness matrix K, and the
load vector f(t).
(b) Explicitly set up the system of ODEs resulting from applying the method
of lines.
4. Consider a heterogeneous bar, that is, a bar in which the material properties
/9, c, and K are not constants but rather functions of space: p = p(x), c = c(x),
K = K(X).
(a) What is the appropriate form of the heat equation for this bar?
(b) What is the appropriate weak form of the resulting IBVP (assuming
homogeneous Dirichlet conditions)?
(c) How does the system of ODEs change?
5. An advantage of the weak formulation of a BVP (and therefore of the fi-
nite element method) is that the equation makes sense for discontinuous
coefficients. Consider a metal bar of length 1m and diameter 4cm. As-
sume that one-half of the bar is made of copper (c = 0.379 J/(gK), p =
8.97g/cm3, K = 4.04 W/(cmK)), and the other half is made of iron (spe-
cific heat c = 0.437 J/(gK), density p = 7.88 g/cm3, thermal conductivity
K = 0.836 W/(cmK)). Suppose the bar is initially heated to 5 degrees Celsius
and then (at time 0) its ends are placed in an ice bath (0 degrees Celsius).
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6.4. Finite element methods for the heat equation 265

(a) Formulate the IBVP describing this experiment.

(b) Apply the finite element method and the method of lines to obtain the
resulting system of ODEs. Use only a uniform grid with an even number
of subintervals (so that the midpoint of the bar is always a gridpoint).
Give the mass matrix M and the stiffness matrix K explicitly.
6. Consider the IBVP with inhomogeneous Dirichlet conditions:

(a) Formulate the weak form of the IBVP.

(b) Show how to apply the finite element method by representing the ap-
proximate solution in the form un(x,t) = vn(x,t) + gn(x,t), where

and

(c) Illustrate by solving (6.43) with /9, c, K equal to the material constants
for iron, t = 100cm, ^)(x) = 0 degrees Celsius, a(t] = 0, and b(t) =
sin (607r£).
7. Consider the IBVP from Examples 6.8 and 6.9.
(a) Using the method of Fourier series, find the exact solution u(x,t).
(b) Using enough terms in the Fourier series to obtain a highly accurate
solution, evaluate u(x, 180) on the regular grid with n = 100 used in
Examples 6.8 and 6.9.
(c) Reproduce the numerical results in Examples 6.8 and 6.9, and, by com-
paring to the Fourier series result, determine the accuracy of each result.
8. Repeat Example 6.8, with the following changes. First, assume that the bar
is made of copper (p = 8.96g/cm3, c = 0.385 J/(gK), K = 4.01 W/(cmK))
instead of iron. Second, assume that the heat "source" is given by

(note that / adds energy over part of the interval and takes it away over an-
other part). Graph the temperature after 180 seconds. Does the temperature
approach a steady state as t ->• oo?
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266 Chapter 6. Heat flow and diffusion

9. Consider a heterogenous bar of length 100cm whose material properties are

given by the following formulas:
p(x) = 7.5 + O.Ola; g/cm3, 0 < x < 100,
c(x) = 0.45 + O.OOOlx J/(gK), 0 < x < 100,
K(X) = 2.5 + 0.05z g/(cmK), 0 < x < 100.
Suppose that the initial temperature in the bar is a uniform 5 degrees Celsius,
and that at t = 0 both ends are placed in ice baths (while the lateral side of
the bar is perfectly insulated).
(a) Formulate the IBVP describing this experiment.
(b) Formulate the weak form of the IBVP.
(c) Use the finite element method with backward Euler integration to esti-
mate the temperature after 2 minutes.
10. Consider Example 6.8, and suppose that the number of elements in the mesh
is increased from 100 to 200, so that the mesh size h is cut in half. Show, by
numerical experimentation, that the time step At in the forward Euler method
must be reduced by a factor of approximately four to preserve stability.

6.5 Finite elements and Neumann conditions

So far we have only used finite element methods for problems with Dirichlet bound-
ary conditions. The weak form of the BVP or IBVP, on which the finite element
method is based, incorporates the Dirichlet conditions in the definition of V, the
space of test functions. When the weak form is discretized via the Galerkin method,
the boundary conditions form part of the definition of Sn, the approximating sub-
space (see (5.50)).
It turns out that Neumann conditions are even easier to handle in the finite
element method. As we show below, a Neumann condition does not appear explicitly
in the weak form or in the definition of the approximating subspace (the analogue
of Sn)- For this reason, a Neumann condition is often called a natural boundary
condition (since it is satisfied automatically by a solution of the weak form), while
a Dirichlet condition is referred to as an essential boundary condition (since it is
essential to include the condition explicitly in the weak form).

6.5.1 The weak form of a BVP with Neumann conditions

We will first consider the (time-independent) BVP
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6.5. Finite elements and Neumann conditions 267

To derive the weak form, we multiply both sides of the differential equation by a
test function, and integrate by parts. We take for our space of test functions

(note that the boundary conditions do not appear in this definition).

Assuming that u solves (6.44), we have, for each v € V,

In the last step, we use the fact that

The weak form of (6.44) is

In the context of (6.45), we refer to (6.44) as the strong form of the BVP.

6.5.2 Equivalence of the strong and weak forms of a BVP with

Neumann conditions
The derivation of the weak form (6.45) shows that if u satisfies the original BVP
(6.44) (the strong form), then u also satisfies the weak form. We now demonstrate
the converse: If u satisfies the weak form (6.45) of the BVP, then u also satisfies
(6.44)—including the boundary conditions! This is quite surprising at first sight,
since the boundary conditions mentioned in (6.44) are not mentioned in (6.45).
We assume that u G V and that

Integrating by parts on the left side of this equation yields

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268 Chapter 6. Heat flow and diffusion

Now, V C V, where V is defined as the space of test functions used for a Dirichlet
problem:

Therefore, in particular, (6.46) holds for all v e V. Since the boundary term in
(6.46) vanishes when v(0) = v(t} = 0, we obtain

or

Using the same argument as in Section 5.4.2, we see that

must hold, or equivalently, that

Thus, if u satisfies the weak form of the BVP, it must satisfy at least the differential
equation appearing in the strong form.
It is now easy to show that the boundary conditions also hold. The condition
(6.46) is equivalent to

and, since we have already shown that

we see that

We now take, for example, v(x) = I — x/l, which certainly belongs to V. With this
choice of v, (6.47) becomes

(since v(0) = 1, v(i) = 0). Since fc(0) > 0 by assumption, this can hold only if
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6.5. Finite elements and Neumann conditions 269

Similarly, choosing v(x) = x/i shows that

must hold. Thus, when u satisfies the weak form (6.45), it must necessarily satisfy
the Neumann boundary conditions. This completes the proof that the strong and
weak forms of BVP (6.44) are equivalent.

6.5.3 Piecewise linear finite elements with Neumann conditions

Now that we have the weak form of the BVP, we choose the appropriate subspace
of piecewise linear functions and apply the Galerkin technique to obtain a finite
element method. Since no boundary conditions are imposed in the weak form, we
augment the space Sn defined in Section 5.6 by adding the basis functions </>o and
0n (see Figure 6.14). We denote the resulting subspace by Sn:
Sn — {p '• [Oj^j —*• R- : P is continuous and piecewise linear}
= span{</>o,0i,...,0 n }.

Figure 6.14. The piecewise linear basis functions </>o and (f)n.

Having defined the approximating subspace 5n, we apply the Galerkin method
to the weak form (6.45), yielding the problem
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270 Chapter 6. Heat flow and diffusion

or, equivalently,

For simplicity of notation, we will again write

so that (6.48) can be written as

We then write the unknown vn as

and substitute into (6.49). The result is

This is a system of n + 1 equations in the n + I unknowns uo,ui,...,un. We can

write the system as the matrix-vector equation Kii = f by defining

The calculations involved in forming the matrix K and the vector f are exactly the
same as for a Dirichlet problem, except that 00 and 4>n are qualitatively different
from 0i, 02,..., 0n-i (0o and 0n are each nonzero on a single subinterval, namely
[XQ, Xi] and [x n _i, xn], respectively, while each 0j, i = 1,2,..., n — 1, is nonzero on
[Xi-i,Xi+i}}.
Having now reduced the problem to the linear system Kii = f, where now
K 6 R(n+i)x(n+i) and ^ f e R n+i 5 we face the Difficulty that K is a singular
matrix. This is not surprising, since we know that the original BVP (6.44) does not
have a unique solution. We can show directly that K is singular, and understand
the nature of the singularity, as follows. If
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6.5. Finite elements and Neumann conditions 271

then

But

is piecewise linear and has value one at each mesh node. It follows that (6.50) is
the constant function one, and hence has derivative zero. Therefore (Ku c )j = 0 for
each ij which shows that Ku c = 0 and hence that K is singular. Moreover, it can
be shown that uc spans the null space of K; that is, if Ku = 0, then u is a multiple
of uc (see Exercise 5].
The fact that K is singular means that we must give special attention to the
process of solving Ku = f. In particular, if we ignore the singularity of K and
solve Kii = f using computer software, we will get either a meaningless solution
or an error message. To solve this singular system correctly, we must add another
equation (one additional equation, correctly chosen, will be sufficient, because the
null space of K is one-dimensional). A simple choice is the equation un = 0; this is
equivalent to choosing, out of the infinitely many solutions to (6.44), the one with
u(i] — 0. Moreover, we can impose this additional equation by simply removing
the last row and column from K, and the last entry from f. The last column of K
consists of the coefficients of the terms in the equations involving un; if we insist
that un = 0, then we can remove these terms from all n + 1 equations. We then
have n + l equations in the n unknowns WQ, W i , . . . , w n _i. This is one more equation
than we need, so we remove one equation, the last, to obtain a square system. It
can be proved that the resulting n x n system is nonsingular (see Exercise 11).
Of course, we could have removed a different row and column. If we remove
the iih row and column, we are selecting the approximate solution vn satisfying
Vn(Xi) = 0.

Example 6.10. Consider the Neumann problem

It is easy to show (by direct integration) that

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272 Chapter 6. Heat flow and diffusion

is a solution for any constant C, and that

is the solution satisfying u(l) = 0.

We will use a regular grid with the finite element method. We define xi = ih,
i = 0,1,...,n, h — l/n. With piecewise linear finite elements, as we have seen
before, the stiffness matrix K is tridiagonal since

We compute as follows (as suggested above, the computations involving <^o and (f)n
must be handled separately from those involving </»i, ^2, • • • , (f>n-i)-'

Since K is symmetric and tridiagonal, this completes the computation ofK. Next,
we have
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6.5. Finite elements and Neumann conditions 273

As suggested above, we compute a solution u to Ku = f by removing the last row

and column from K and the last component from f , and solving the resulting square,
nonsingular system. The result, for n = 10, is shown in Figure 6.15.

Figure 6.15. The exact and computed solution (top) and the error in
the computed solution (bottom) for (6.51). The computed solution was found using
piecewise linear finite elements with a regular grid of 10 subintervals.

6.5.4 Inhomogeneous Neumann conditions

The finite element method requires only minor modifications to handle the inhomo-
geneous Neumann problem

In deriving the weak form of the BVP, the boundary terms from the integration by
parts do not vanish:
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274 Chapter 6. Heat flow and diffusion

The weak form becomes

When we apply the Galerkin method, we end up with a slightly different right-
hand-side vector f. We have

Example 6.11. We now apply the finite element method to the inhomogeneous
Neumann problem

The exact solution is

(again choosing the solution with u(l] = Q). The calculations are exactly the same
as for Example 6.10, except that the first and last components of f are altered as
given in (6.54)- We therefore have

The results are shown, for n = 10, in Figure 6.16.

6.5.5 The finite element method for an IBVP with Neumann

conditions
We now briefly consider the following IBVP:
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6.5. Finite elements and Neumann conditions 275

Figure 6.16. The exact and computed solution (top) and the error in
the computed solution (bottom) for (6.55). The computed solution was found using
piecewise linear finite elements with a regular grid of 10 subintervals.

Finite element methods for. the heat equation with Neumann conditions are derived
as in Section 6.4. The following differences arise:
• In the derivation of the weak form of the IBVP, the space V of test functions
is replaced by V.
• When the Galerkin method is applied, the approximating subspace Sn is re-
placed by Sn.
• The mass matrix M e R( n - 1 ) x ( n - 1 ), stiffness matrix K € RC11-1)^"-1), and
load vector f(t) G R11"1 are replaced by M € R(n+i)x(n+i) ? £ e R(n+i)x(n+i) }
and f(t) G Rn+1, respectively. The new stiffness matrix K was derived in Sec-
tion 6.5.3, and the new form of the mass matrix, M, is derived analogously.
In contrast to the case of a steady-state BVP, the singularity of the matrix K causes
no particular problem in an IBVP, since we are not required to solve a linear system
whose coefficient matrix is K.
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276 Chapter 6. Heat flow and diffusion

Moreover, the source function f ( x , t ) is not required to satisfy a compatibility

condition in order for (6.56) to have a solution. Physically, this makes sense. Think-
ing of heat flow, for example, the temperature distribution is in general changing,
so there is no inconsistency in having a net gain or loss of total heat energy in the
bar. On the other hand, for the steady-state case, the temperature could not be
independent of time if the total amount of heat energy in the bar were changing
with time.
This can also be seen directly. If u is the solution of (6.56), then

This last expression is (proportional to) the time rate of change of the total heal
energy contained in the bar (see (2.2) in Section 2.1).
We leave the detailed formulation of a piecewise linear finite element method
for (6.56) to the exercises (see Exercise 6).

Exercises
1. Consider an aluminum bar of length 1 m and radius 1 cm. Suppose that the
sides and ends of the bar are perfectly insulated, and heat energy is added to
the interior of the bar at a rate of

(x is given in centimeters, and the usual coordinate system is used). The

thermal conductivity of the aluminum alloy is 1.5W/(cmK). Find and graph
the steady-state temperature of the bar. Use the finite element method.
2. Repeat the previous exercise, except now assume that the bar is heteroge-
neous, with thermal conductivity

3. Consider a copper bar (thermal conductivity 4.04 W/(cm K)) of length 100 cm.
Suppose that heat energy is added to the interior of the bar at the constant
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6.5. Finite elements and Neumann conditions 277

rate of f ( x ) = 0.005 W/cm3, and that heat energy is added to the left end
(x = 0) of the bar at the rate of 0.01 W/cm2.
(a) At what rate must heat energy be removed from the right end (x = 100)
in order that a steady-state solution exist? (See Exercise 6.2.5a, or just
use common sense.)
(b) Formulate the BVP leading to a steady-state solution, and approximate
the solution using the finite element method.
4. Suppose that, in the Neumann problem (6.44), / does not satisfy the com-
patibility condition

Suppose we just ignore this fact and try to apply the finite element method
anyway. Where does the method break down? Illustrate with the Neumann
problem

5. The purpose of this exercise is to provide a sketch of the proof that the null
space of K is spanned by u c , where K is the stiffness matrix arising in a
Neumann problem and uc is the vector with each component equal to one.
(a) Suppose Ku = 0, where the components of u are UQ, ui,..., un. Show
that this implies that a(v,v) =0, where

(Hint: Compute u • Ku.)

(b) Explain why a(v, v) = 0 implies that v is a constant function.
(c) Now explain why Ku = 0 implies that u is a multiple of uc.
6. (a) Formulate the weak form of (6.56).
(b) Show how to use piecewise linear finite elements and the method of lines
to reduce the weak form to a system of ODEs.
(c) Using the backward Euler method for the time integration, estimate the
solution of the IBVP
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278 Chaoter 6. Heat flow and difFusior

and graph the solution at times 0,0.02,0.04,0.06, along with the steady-
state solution. (See Exercise 6.2.1 and Figure C.12.)
7. (a) Formulate the weak form of the following BVP with mixed boundary
conditions:

(b) Show that the weak and strong forms of (6.57) are equivalent.
8. Repeat Exercise 7 for the BVP

9. Consider a copper bar (p = 8.97g/cm 3 ,c = 0.379 J/(gK), K = 4.04 W/(cmK))

of length 1 m and cross-sectional area 2 cm2. Suppose the bar is heated to a
uniform temperature of 8 degrees Celsius, the sides and the left end (a; = 0)
are perfectly insulated, and the right end (x = 100) is placed in an ice bath.
Find the temperature distribution u(x,t) of the bar by formulating and solv-
ing an IBVP. Graph u(x, 300) (t in seconds). Use the finite element method
with backward Euler time integration.
10. Consider a chromium bar of length 25 cm. The material constants for chromium
are
p = 7.15g/cm3, c = 0.439J/(gK), « = 0.937W/(cmK).
Suppose that the left end of the bar is placed in an ice bath, the right end is
held fixed at 8 degrees Celsius, and the bar is allowed to reach a steady-state
temperature. Then (at t = 0) the right end is insulated. Find the temperature
distribution using the finite element method and backward Euler integration.
Graph u(x, 100).
11. Let K 6 R,(n+1)x(n+1) be the stiffness matrix for the Neumann problem, and
let K e R n x n be the matrix obtained by removing the last row and column
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6.6. Green's functions for the heat equation 279

of K. Prove that K is nonsingular. (Hint: K is the stiffness matrix for the

BVP with mixed boundary conditions, Neumann at the left and Dirichlet at
the right.)

6.6 Green's functions for the heat equation

We will now discuss Green's functions for the heat equation. Our treatment of this
topic is intentionally rather superficial, and our goals are modest. We simply want
to introduce the concept of a Green's function for a time-dependent PDE and show
an example. To do anything more would distract us from our main topics.
Before we present any specific Green's functions, we describe the form that the
Green's function must take. We have so far seen two examples of Green's functions.
First of all, in an IVP for an ODE, the solution u = u(t) is of the form

where / is the right-hand side of the ODE (see Section 4.6 for an example). This
formula shows the contribution of the data at time s on the solution at time t—
this contribution is G(t] s)f(s) ds.39 The reader should notice how the value u(t) is
found by "adding up" the contributions to u(t) of the data from the time interval
[to, oo). (The value of G(t; s) is zero when s > t, so in fact only the data from the
time interval [tQ,t] can affect the value of u(t).)
We have also seen an example of a Green's function for a steady-state BVP
(see Section 5.7), where the data (the right-hand side of the differential equation) is
given over a spatial interval such as [0,1]. In this case, the value u(x) is determined
by adding up the contributions from the data at all points in the interval. The
solution formula takes the form

In the case of a time-dependent PDE, the data /(x,t) (the right-hand side of
the PDE) is prescribed over both space and time. Therefore, we will have to add
up the contributions over both space and time, and the formula for the solution will
involve two integrals:

39
By this we mean that the contribution of the data over a small interval (s — e, s + e) is
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280 Chapter 6. Heat flow and diffusion

6.6.1 The Green's function for the one-dimensional heat

equation under Dirichlet conditions
We will compute the Green's function for the IBVP

The solution to (6.58) was derived in Section 6.1; it is

where

and

We can derive an expression for the Green's functions by manipulating the formula
for u(x,i):

If we define

then we have

Therefore, G(x,t;y,s) is the Green's function for (6.58).

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6.6. Green's functions for the heat equation 281

Having derived the Green's function, we ought to ask the question: What is it
good for? It may be obvious to the reader that the formula for u is no more useful,
for computational purposes, than the original Fourier series solution. Therefore,
the value of the Green's function is not as a computational tool.40 Rather, the
Green's function is valuable because of the insight it gives us into the behavior of
solutions to the IBVP. Indeed, the Green's function can be regarded as a solution
to the IBVP with a special right-hand side. The solution to

is

The right-hand side 6(x—yo)6(t—SQ) represents a source concentrated entirely at the

space-time point (yo,so). The IBVP (6.60) describes the following experiment: A
bar of length t is initially at temperature 0, and at time SQ > to, A Joules of energy,
where A is the cross-sectional area of the bar,41 are added to the cross-section at
x — y0. The heat energy then flows in accordance with the heat equation. By
examining snapshots of G(x,t;yo,so), we can get an idea of how the temperature
changes with time.

Example 6.12. We consider an iron bar of length t — 100cm (p = 7.8&g/cm3,

c = QA37J/(gK), K = 0.836 W/(cmK)). We graph the solution to (6.60) with
to = 0, SQ = 60, and yo = 75 (time measured in seconds) in Figure 6.17, which
shows how the spike of heat energy diffuses over time.

Formula (6.59) has its shortcomings; for example, if one wishes to compute a
snapshot of G(x,t;y0, s 0 ) for t greater than but very close to SQ, then many terms
of the Fourier series are required to obtain an accurate result (see Exercise 1). It is
possible to obtain a more computationally efficient formula for use when t is very
close to SQ- However, to do so would require a lengthy digression.42

6.6.2 Green's functions under other boundary conditions

The above method can be used to derive the Green's function for the one-dimensional
heat equation under other boundary conditions, such as Neumann or mixed bound-
ary conditions. The calculations are left to the exercises.
40
That is, this particular Green's function is not useful as a computational tool. We have encoun-
tered other Green's functions, particularly those in Section 4.6, that are useful computationally.
41
The reader should recall from Section 2.1 that each term in the heat equation, including the
right-hand side, is multiplied by A in the original derivation.
42
The interested reader can consult Haberman [22], Chapter 11.
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282 Chapter 6. Heat flow and diffusion

Figure 6.17. Snapshots of the Green's function in Example 6.12 at t =

120,240,360,480,600 seconds. Twenty terms of the Fourier series were used to
create these graphs.

Exercises
1. Let G(x,t]yo,so) be the Green's function from Example 6.12 (yo = 75, SQ =
60). Suppose one wishes to produce an accurate graph of G(x,t;yo, SQ) for
various values of t > SQ. How many terms of the Fourier series are necessary
to obtain an accurate graph for t = 6060 (10 minutes after the heat energy is
added)? For t = 61 (1 second afterward)? (Hint: Using trial and error, keep
adding terms to the Fourier series until the graph no longer changes visibly.)

2. Compute the Green's function for the IBVP

Produce a graph similar to Figure 6.17 (use the values of p, c, K, yo, and SQ
from Exercise 6.12).
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6.7. Suggestions for further reading 283

3. Compute the Green's function for the IBVP

Produce a graph similar to Figure 6.17 (use the values of p, c, K, yo, and SQ
from Exercise 6.12).
4. Compute the Green's function for the IBVP

Produce a graph similar to Figure 6.17 (use the values of p, c, «, yo ? and SQ

from Exercise 6.12).

6.7 Suggestions for further reading

In this section, we have continued the development, begun in the previous chapter,
of both Fourier series and finite element methods. The references noted in Section
5.8 are, for the most part, revelant for this chapter as well. The books [10, 4, 46, 22],
along with many others, introduce Fourier series via the method of separation of
variables briefly described in Section 6.1.6. Our approach is perhaps unique among
introductory texts.
To gain a deep understanding of solution techniques, it is essential to know
the qualitative theory of PDEs, which is developed in several texts. A basic under-
standing can be gained from introductory books such as Strauss [46] or Haberman
[22]. An alternative is the older text by Weinberger [52]. For a more advanced and
complete study, one should consult McOwen [39] or Fblland [14] or Rauch [41].
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Chapter 7

waves

We now treat the one-dimensional wave equation, which models the transverse
vibrations of an elastic string or the longitudinal vibrations of a metal bar. We will
concentrate on modeling a homogeneous medium, in which case the wave equation
takes the form

Our first order of business will be to understand the meaning of the parameter c. We
then derive Fourier series and finite element methods for solving the wave equation.
It is straightforward to extend the finite element methods to handle heterogeneous
media (nonconstant coefficients in the PDE).

7.1 The homogeneous wave equation without

boundaries
We begin our study of the wave equation by supposing that there are no boundaries—
that the wave equation holds for — oo < x < oo. Although this may not seem to be
a very realistic problem, it will provide some useful information about wave motion.
We therefore consider the IVP

(To simplify the algebra that follows, we assume in this section that the initial time
is to = 0.) With a little cleverness, it is possible to derive an explicit formula for the
solution in terms of the initial conditions i^(x) and ^(x). The key point in deriving
this formula is to notice that the wave operator
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286 Chapter 7. Waves

can be factored:

For example,

The mixed partial derivatives cancel because, according to a theorem of calculus, if

the second derivatives of a function u(x, t) are continuous, then

It follows that any solution w(x, t) of either

or

will also solve the homogeneous wave equation. If u(x,t) = f(x — ct), where / :
R —t R is any twice differentiate function, then

Similarly, if g : R —> R is twice differentiate, then u(x,t) = g(x + ct) satisfies

Thus, by linearity, every function of the form

is a solution of the homogeneous wave equation. We now show that (7.2) is the
general solution.
To prove that (7.2) really represents all possible solutions of the homogeneous
wave equation, it suffices to show that we can always solve (7.1) with a function of
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7.1. The homogeneous wave equation without boundaries 287

the form (7.2) (since any solution of the wave equation satisfies (7.1) for some ip
and 7). Moreover, by linearity (the principle of superposition), it suffices to solve

and

separately and add the solutions.

To find a solution to (7.3), we assume that u(x,t) = f ( x - ct) + g(x + ct}.
Then u solves the PDE. We want to choose / and g so that u(x,Q) = if)(x) and
du/dt(x,Q} = 0. But

and

so if we take

the required conditions are satisfied. That is,

is the solution of (7.3).

Finding a solution to (7.4) is a bit harder. With u(x,t) = f(x-ct}+g(x + ct),
we want u(x,0) = 0 and du/dt(x,0] = 7(#)- This yields two equations:

The first equation implies that /(#) = —g(x); substituting this into the second
equation yields

A solution to this is
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288 Chapter 7. Waves

With /(re) = — g(x}, we obtain

This is the solution to (7.4). Adding the two, we obtain

This is d'Alembert's solution to (7.1).

We can now understand the significance of the constant c, and also why the
PDE is called the wave equation. We first consider a function of the form f ( x — ct}.
Regarding u(x, t} = f ( x — ct} as a function of x for each fixed t, we see that each
u(x,t) is a translate of w(x,0) = /(#). That is, the "time snapshots" of the function
u(x, t) all have the same shape; as time goes on, this shape moves to the right (since
c > 0). We call u(x,t) = f(x — ct} a right-moving wave] an example is shown in
Figure 7.1. Similarly, u(x,t} = g(x + ct} is a left-moving wave. Moreover, c is just
the wave speed. It is therefore easy to understand d'Alembert's solution to the
wave equation—it is the sum of a right-moving wave and a left-moving wave, both
moving at speed c.

Figure 7.1. A right-moving wave u(x,t} = f ( x — ct} (with c = I ) .

Example 7.1. The solution to

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7.1. The homogeneous wave equation without boundaries 289

is

Several snapshots of this solution are graphed in Figure 7.2. Notice how the initial
"blip" splits into two parts which move to the right and left.

Figure 7.2. Snapshots of the solution to (7.6) at times t = 0,1,2,3.

D'Alembert's solution to the wave equation shows that disturbances in a

medium modeled by the wave equation travel at a finite speed. We can state this
precisely as follows. Given any point x in space and any positive time £, the interval
[x — ct,x + ct\ consists of those points from which a signal, traveling at a speed of
c, would reach x in time t or less.

Theorem 7.2. Suppose u(x,t) solves the IVP (7.1), x is any real number, and
t > 0. // ifi(x) and 'j(x) are both zero for all x satisfying x — ct < x < x + ct, then
u(x,t] = 0.
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290 Chapter 7. Waves

Proof. We have

If tfj(x) and 7(x) are both zero for all x satisfying x — ct < x < x + ct, then all three
terms in this formula for u(x,t) are zero, and hence u(x,i) = 0. D

We therefore call the interval [x — ct,x + ct\ the domain of dependence of the
space-time point (x, t). We illustrate the domain of dependence in Figure 7.3.

Figure 7.3. Left: The domain of dependence of the point (x, t) = (1000,1)
with c = 522. The domain of dependence is the interval shaded on the x-axis. Right:
The domain of influence of the point (#o,0) = (1000,0).

We can look at this result from another point of view. The initial data at a
point #o, VKxo) and 7(^0), can only affect the solution u(x,t) if t is large enough,
specifically, if

The set

is therefore called the domain of influence of the point (xo,0). An example of a

domain of influence is given in Figure 7.3.
From the preceding discussion, we see that if a disturbance is initially confined
to the interior of a bounded region, the boundary cannot affect the solution until
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7.2. Fourier series methods for the wave equation 291

sufficient time has passed. For this reason, the solution to the wave equation in an
infinite medium provides a realistic idea of what happens (in certain experiments)
in a bounded region, at least for a finite period of time (namely, until enough
time has elapsed for the disturbance to reach the boundary). However, there is no
simple formula for the solution of the wave equation subject to boundary conditions.
To attack that problem, we must use Fourier series, finite elements, or other less
elementary methods.

Exercises
1. Solve (7.1) with

7(0;) = 0 and c — 522.43 Graph several snapshots of the solutions on a

common plot.
2. Solve (7.1) with ip(x) = 0,

and c = 522. Graph several snapshots of the solutions on a common plot.

3. Consider the IVP (7.1) with j(x) = 0 and

The initial displacement consists of two "blips," which, according to d'Alembert's

formula, will each split into a right-moving and a left-moving wave. What
happens when the right-moving wave from the first blip meets the left-moving
wave from the second blip?
4. Repeat the previous exercise with

7.2 Fourier series methods for the wave equation

Fourier series methods for the wave equation are developed just as for the heat
equation—the key is to represent the solution in a Fourier series in which the Fourier
coefficients are functions of t. We begin with the IBVP

43
The value 522 is physically meaningful, as we will see in the next section.
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292 Chapter 7. Waves

which models the small displacements of a vibrating string. We write the solution
in the form

where

We also expand the right-hand side /(#,£) in a sine series

where

Using the same reasoning as in Section 6.1, we can express the left-hand side of the
PDE in a sine series:

Setting this equal to the series for /(#,£), we obtain the ODEs

Initial conditions for these ODEs are obtained from the initial conditions for the
wave eauation in (7.7). If

then we have

We thus find the Fourier sine coefficients of the solution u(x, t) by solving the IVPs
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7.2. Fourier series methods for the wave equation 293

for n = 1,2,3, — In Section 4.2.2, we presented an explicit formula for the solution
of (7.8). The use of this formula is illustrated in Example 7.4 below.

7.2.1 Fourier series solutions of the homogeneous wave equation

When the wave equation is homogeneous (that is, when / = 0), the Fourier series
solution is especially instructive. We then must solve

which yields

Therefore, the solution to

is

This formula shows the essentially oscillatory nature of solutions to the wave equa-
tion; indeed, the Fourier sine coefficients of the solution are periodic:

The frequencies en/ (21} are called the natural frequencies of the string.44 These fre-
quencies are called natural because any solution of the homogeneous wave equation
is an (infinite) combination of the normal modes of the string,

44
The units of frequency are literally I/second, which is interpreted as cycles per second, or
Hertz. Sometimes the natural frequencies are given as

in which case the units can be thought of as radians/seconds.

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294 Chapter 7. Waves

Each normal mode is a standing wave with temporal frequency en/ (21) cycles per
second. Several examples are displayed in Figure 7.4.

Figure 7.4. The first four normal modes (c = I = 1, to = 0). Displayed

are multiple time snapshots of each standing wave.

In particular, since 2t/c is an integer multiple of 2^/(cn), we have

It follows that the solution u(x,t) satisfies

that is, the solution is periodic with period 2£/c. The frequency c/(2l) is called the
fundamental frequency of the string—it is the frequency at which the plucked string
vibrates.
An interesting question is the following: What happens to a string that is
subjected to an oscillatory transverse pressure with a frequency equal to one of the
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7.2. Fourier series methods for the wave equation 295

natural frequencies of the string? The answer is that resonance occurs. This is
illustrated in Exercise 8 and also in Section 7.4.
We now give an example of using the Fourier series method to solve an IBVP
for the wave equation.

Example 7.3. Consider (7.7) with 1=1, c = 522, f ( x , t ) = 0, 7(0;) = 0, and

The fundamental frequency of the string is then

which is the frequency of the musical note called "middle C." The initial conditions
indicate that the string is "plucked" at the center. Using the notation introduced
above, we have cn(t] = 0 and dn = 0 for all n, and

We must solve

The solution is easily seen to be

and therefore

Several snapshots of the solution are graphed in Figure 7.5. The reader should
observe that when a wave hits a boundary where there is a Dirichlet condition,
the wave inverts and reflects. Therefore, for example, w(x,3T/8) = —u(x,T/8]
and u(x,T/2) = —u(x,ty, where T is the period corresponding to the fundamental
frequency: T — 2/522 = 1/261. Also, u(x,T) = w(x,0), as expected.

The reader should recall, from Section 2.3, that the wave speed c is determined
by the tension T and the density p of the string: c2 = T/p. The fundamental
frequency of the string is
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296 Chapter 7. Waves

Figure 7.5. The solution u(x,t) to (7.7) at times 0, T/8, 3T/8, T/2, and
T. For this example, we took I = 1, c = 522, /(#,£) = 0, 7(2) = 0, and the initial
condition ijj given in (7.10). One hundred terms of the Fourier series were used.

which shows that if the tension and density of the string stay the same, but the
string is shortened, then the fundamental frequency is increased. This explains how
a guitar works—the strings are shortened by the pressing of the strings against the
"frets," and thus different notes are sounded.

7.2.2 Fourier series solutions of the inhomogeneous wave

equation
We now show two examples of the inhomogeneous wave equation.

Example 7.4. Consider a metal string, such as a guitar string, that can be
attracted by a magnet. Suppose the string in question is 25 cm in length, with
c = 522 in the wave equation, its ends are fixed, and it is "plucked" so that its
initial displacement is

and released (so that its initial velocity is zero). Suppose further that a magnet
exerts a constant upward force of 100 dynes. We wish to find the motion of the
string.
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7.2. Fourier series methods for the wave equation 297

We must solve the IBVP

where c — 522 and ^ is given above.

We write the solution as

and determine the coefficients ai (£), 02 (£), 03 (£),... by solving the IVPs (7.8). We
have

with

and

with

To find an(t], therefore, we must solve

Using the results of Section 4-2.2, we see that the solution is

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298 Chapter 7. Waves

The solution is periodic with period

Twenty-five snapshots of the solution (taken during one period) are shown in Figure
7.6. The effect of the external force on the motion of the string is clearly seen. (The
reader should solve Exercise 1 if it is not clear how the string would move in the
absence of the external force.)

Figure 7.6. Twenty-five snapshots of the vibrating string from Example 7.4-

We now consider an example in which one of the boundary conditions is in-

homogeneous. As usual, we use the method of shifting the data.

Example 7.5. Consider a string of length 100 cm that has one end fixed at x = 0,
with the other end free to move in the vertical direction only (tied to a frictionless
pole, for example). Let the wave speed in the string be c = 2000 cm/5.45 Suppose the
free end is "flicked," that is, moved up and down rapidly, according to the formula
u(100,t) = /(*), where

45
The fundamental frequency is then

By comparison, the lowest tone of a piano has frequency 27.5 Hz.

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7.2. Fourier series methods for the wave equation 299

Figure 7.7. The "flick" of the free end in Example 7.5.

To determine the motion of the string, we must solve the IBVP

!!~ c2 ^ =o ' o<x<io(M>o '

u(ar,0) = 0 , Q<x < 100,
du
— (x,0)=0, 0<x<100, (7.11)
w(0,t) = 0, t > 0 ,
u(100,*) = /(*), t>Q.
Since the boundary condition at the right end of the string is inhomogeneous, we will
shift the data to obtain a problem with homogeneous boundary conditions. Define
v(x,t) = u(x,t) — p ( x , t ) , where

Then v satisfies the IBVP

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300 Chapter 7. Waves

In computing the initial conditions for v, we used

The new right-hand side of the PDE is

Since g is defined piecewise, so are its Fourier coefficients:

The initial velocity for v is given by

If we write

then the coefficient an (t] is determined bv the IVP

Again using the results of Section 4-2.2, we see that

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7.2. Fourier series methods for the wave equation 301

We note that

which allows us to simplify the formulas slightly. We will write

Then we have

while for t > e,

Several snapshots of the solution are shown in Figure 7.8. For each t, the Fourier
coefficients of u(x,t] decay to zero relatively slowly in n, so a good approximation
requires many terms in the Fourier series. To produce Figure 7.8, we used 200
terms. The reader should observe the behavior of the wave motion: the wave pro-
duced by the flick of the end travels from right to left, reflects, travels from left to
right, reflects again, and so on. At each reflection, the wave inverts.46

7.2.33 Other boundary conditions

Using Fourier series to solve the wave equation with a different set of boundary
conditions is not difficult, provided the eigenvalues and eigenfunctions are known.
We now do an example with mixed boundary conditions.
46
The reader can approximate this experiment with a long rope.
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302 Chapter 7. Waves

Figure 7.8. Snapshots of the string from Example 7.5.

Example 7.6. Consider a steel bar of length 1 m, fixed at the top (x — 0) with
the bottom end (x = I) free to move. Suppose the bar is stretched, by means of a
downward pressure applied to the free end, to a length of 1.002 m, and then released.
We wish to describe the vibrations of the bar, given that the type of steel has stiffness
k = 195 GPa and density p = 7.9 g/cm3.
The longitudinal displacement u(x,t) of the bar satisfies the IBVP

(see Section 2.2). The eigenpairs of the negative second derivative operator, under
these mixed boundary conditions, are
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7.2. Fourier series methods for the wave equation 303

(see Section 5.2.3), with 1=1. We therefore represent the solution of (7.12) as

The left side of the PDE is

since the right side is zero, we obtain the ODEs

The initial displacement is given by

with

This, together with the fact that the initial velocity of the bar is zero, yields initial
conditions for the ODEs:

The solution is

We see that the wave speed in the bar is

(we convert k and p to consistent units before computing c), and the fundamental
frequency is

Several snapshots of the displacement of the bar are shown in Figure 7.9.
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304 Chapter 7. Waves

Figure 7.9. Snapshots of the displacement of the bar in Example 7.6.

Exercises
1. Find the motion of the string in Example 7.4 in the case that no external force
is applied, and produce a graph analogous to Figure 7.6. Compare.
2. Consider a string of length 50 cm, with c = 400 cm/s. Suppose that the string
is initially at rest, with both ends fixed, and that it is struck by a hammer at
its center so as to induce an initial velocity of

(a) How long does it take for the resulting wave to reach the ends of the
string?
(b) Formulate and solve the IBVP describing the motion of the string.
(c) Plot several snapshots of the string, showing the wave first reaching the
ends of the string. Verify your answer to 2a.
3. Find the motion of the string in Example 7.4 if the only change in the exper-
imental conditions is that the right end (x = 25) is free to move vertically.
(Imagine that the right end is held at u = 0 and then released, along with the
rest of the string, at t = 0.)
4. Repeat Exercise 2, assuming that right end of the string is free to move ver-
tically.
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7.3. Finite element methods for the wave equation 305

5. Find the motion of the string in Example 7.4 in the case that both ends of the
string are free to move vertically. (All other experimental conditions remain
the same.)

6. Consider a string whose (linear) density (in the unstretched state) is 0.25 g/cm
and whose longitudinal stiffness is 6500 N (meaning that a force of 13pN is
required to stretch the string by p%). If the unstretched (zero tension) length
of the string is 40 cm, to what length must the string be stretched in order
that its fundamental frequency be 261 Hz (middle C)?

7. How does the motion of the bar in Example 7.6 change if the force due to
gravity is taken into account?

8. Consider a string that has one end fixed, with the other end free to move
in the vertical direction. Suppose the string is put into motion by virtue of
the free end's being manually moved up and down periodically. An IBVP
describing this motion is

Take t=l,c = 522, t0 = 0, and e = le - 4.

(a) Solve the IBVP with u not equal to a natural frequency of the string.
Graph the motion of the string with uj equal to half the fundamental
frequency.
(b) Solve the IBVP with uj equal to a natural frequency of the string. Show
that resonance occurs. Graph the motion of the string with u) equal to
the fundamental frequency.

7.3 Finite element methods for the wave equation

The wave equation presents special difficulties for the design of numerical methods.
These difficulties are largely caused by the fact that waves with abrupt changes
(even singularities, such as jump discontinuities) will propagate in accordance with
the wave equation, with no smoothing of the waves. (Of course, if u(x,t] has a
singularity, that is, it fails to be twice differentiable, then it cannot be a solution
of the wave equation unless we expand our notion of what constitutes a solution.
But there are mathematically consistent ways to do this, and they are important
for modeling physical phenomena exhibiting discontinuous behavior.)
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306 Chapter 7. Waves

For example, the function if) : [0,1] -> R defined by

is discontinuous. We solve both the heat equation,

and the wave equation,

with if)(x} as the initial condition (we need a second initial condition in the wave
equation; we take the initial velocity equal to zero). The results are shown in Figures
7.10 and 7.11. The graphs show that the discontinuity is immediately "smoothed
away" by the heat equation, but preserved by the wave equation.
The standard method for applying finite elements to the wave equation, which
we now present, works well if the true solution is smooth. Methods that are effective
when the solution has singularities are beyond the scope of this book.

7.3.1 The wave equation with Dirichlet conditions

We proceed as we did for the heat equation. We suppose that u(x, i) solves

We then multiply the PDE on both sides by a test function

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7.3. Finite element methods for the wave equation 307

Figure 7.10. The solution to the heat equation with a discontinuous initial
condition (see (7.13)). Graphed are four time snapshots, including t = 0.

and integrate by parts in the second term on the left to obtain

This is the weak form. We now apply the Galerkin technique, approximating u(x, t)
by

where </>i, ^ 2 , • • • , <$>n-\ are the standard piecewise linear finite element basis func-
tions, and requiring that the variational equation (7.16) hold for all continuous
piecewise linear test functions:

Substituting (7.17) into (7.18) yields

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308 Chapter 7. Waves

Figure 7.11. The solution to the wave equation with a discontinuous initial
condition (see (7.14)). Graphed are four time snapshots, including t = 0.

If we now define matrices M and K (the mass and stiffness matrices, respectively)
bv

and the vector-valued functions f (t) and u(£) by

we can write (7.19) as

We now have a system of second-order linear ODEs with constant coefficients.

We need two initial conditions, and they are easily obtained from the initial condi-
tions in (7.15). We have
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7.3. Finite element methods for the wave equation 309

and T/>(X) can be approximated by its linear interpolant:

We therefore require that

Similarly, we require

These lead to the initial conditions

We therefore obtain the IVI

(7.20)

To apply one of the numerical methods for ODEs that we studied in Chapter
4, we must first convert (7.20) to a first-order system. We will define

(y,z € R11"1). Then

where47 A = -M 1
K and g(t) = M 1f(t). We also have initial conditions:

47 1
As we discussed in Section 6.4, we do not actually form the inverse matrix M . Instead,
when the action of M^ 1 is needed, we solve the appropriate linear system.
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310 Chapter 7. Waves

We have thus obtained the (In — 2) x (In — 2) system of IVPs

We can now apply any of the numerical methods that we have previously learned,
such as Euler's method, RK4, or an adaptive scheme.
Just as in the case of the heat equation, stability is an issue. If the time step
At is chosen to be too large relative to the spatial mesh size h, then the approximate
solution computed by the time stepping method can "blow up" (i.e. increase without
bound). For the heat equation, using Euler's method, we needed At = O(h2).
This required such a large number of time steps that it was advantageous to use
special methods (such as the backward Euler method) for the sake of efficiency. The
requirement on At is not so stringent when solving the wave equation; we just need
At = O(h/c}. For this reason, we usually use explicit methods to solve the system of
ODEs arising from the wave equation; the improved stability properties of implicit
methods are not really needed.48 We must keep the stability requirement in mind,
though. If, in applying (7.20) to approximate a solution to the wave equation, we
notice that the approximate solution is growing unreasonably in amplitude, then
the time step must be decreased.

Example 7.7. We will solve the IBVP

with c = 522 and

The resulting solution is quite smooth, so the finite element method should work
well. We use a regular grid with n = 20 subintervals (h = 1/n), and apply the RK4
method to integrate the resulting ODEs. The fundamental frequency of the string is
48
However, in a sense, the use of the finite element obscures the distinction between an implicit
and an explicit method. The mass matrix couples the derivatives, and so, to advance a time-
stepping method, it is necessary to solve a linear system, even in an explicit method. This means
that explicit methods are no more efficient than implicit methods. The same was true in the case of
the heat equation, with, however, a key difference. For the heat equation, the stability requirement
is such that it is not advantageous to use explicit methods anyway, and so the coupling introduced
by the finite element method is not important. For the wave equation, explicit finite difference
methods do not couple the derivatives, and there is no need to solve a linear system to take a time
step. For this reason, finite difference methods are preferred for the wave equation if the geometry
is simple. Finite element methods still have advantages for complicated geometries.
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7.3. Finite element methods for the wave equation 311

c/(1i} = 261, making the fundamental period

We compute the motion of the string over one period, using 50 steps (At = T/50J.
The results are shown in Figure 7.12.

Figure 7.12. The solution to the wave equation in Example 7.7. Shown
are 25 snapshots taken over one period of the motion.

The time step taken in the previous example,

seems rather small. Moreover, it can be shown that it cannot be much larger without
instability appearing in the computation. On the other hand, as mentioned above,
the time step At must be decreased only in proportion to h to preserve stability.
This is in contrast to the situation with the heat equation, where At = O(/i 2 ) is
reauired.

Example 7.8. We will now solve (7.22) with

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312 Chapter 7. Waves

(compare Example 7.3). Since the initial displacement if} is not very smooth (V> is
continuous but its derivative has singularities), our comments at the beginning of
the section suggest that it may be difficult to accurately compute the wave motion
using finite elements.
We use the same spatial mesh (h = 1/20,), time-stepping algorithm (RK4),
and time-step (£±t = T/50J as in the previous example. In Figure 7.13, we show
three snapshots of the solution. We already know how the solution should look:
The initial "blip" splits into two pieces, one moving to the right and the other to
the left, preserving the original shape (see Figure 7.5). The computed solution,
while demonstrating the basic motion, is not very accurate—the shapes are not well
represented.

Figure 7.13. The solution to the wave equation in Example 7.8, computed
with a mesh size of h = 1/20 and a time step of A£ = T/50. Shown are 3 snapshots
corresponding t = Q,t = T/50; t = 2T/50.

To get an accurate computed solution requires a fine grid. We repeat the

calculations using h = 1/100 and At = T/250, and obtain the results shown in
Figure 7.14- Even with this finer grid, there is a distortion in the waves.

7.3.2 The wave equation under other boundary conditions

If an IBVP for the wave equation involves a Neumann condition, we can apply the
finite element method by adjusting the weak form and the approximating subspace,
as explained in Section 6.5. By way of example, we will consider the following IBVP
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7.3. Finite element methods for the wave equation 313

Figure 7.14. The solution to the wave equation in Example 7.8, computed
with a mesh size of h = 1/100 and a time step of At = T/250. Shown are 3
snapshots corresponding t = 0, t — T/50, t = 2T/50.

with mixed boundary conditions:

Since the Dirichlet condition is essential, it appears in the definition of the space
of test functions; however, the Neumann condition is natural and does not appear
explicitly. Therefore, the weak form is

where

The reader should note that this is exactly the same as the weak form derived for
the Dirichlet problem, except for the space of test functions used.
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314 Chapter 7. Waves

To apply the Galerkin method, we establish a grid

and choose the finite element subspace consisting of all continuous piecewise linear
functions (relative to the given mesh) satisfying the Dirichlet condition at the left
endpoint. This subspace can be represented as

The only difference between Sn and Sn, the subspace used for the Dirichlet problem,
is the inclusion of the basis function (f)n corresponding to the right endpoint. For
simplicity, we will use a regular grid in the following calculations.
The calculation then proceeds just as for the Dirichlet problem, except that
there is an extra basis function and hence an extra unknown and corresponding
equation. We write

for the approximation to the solution u(x, t). Substituting into the weak form yields
the equations

where M 6 R n x n , K € R n x n , and f(t) € Rn. The mass matrix M is tridiagonal,

with the following nonzero entries:

The stiffness matrix K is also tridiagonal, with the following nonzero entries:
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7.3. Finite element methods for the wave equation 315

Finally, the load vector f (t) is given by

Having derived the system of ODEs, the formulation of the initial conditions
is just as before:

The IVP

is then converted to the first-order system

where A = -M^K and g(t) = M ~ l f ( t ) .

Example 7.9. We will compute the motion of the string in Example 7.7, with the
only change being that the right end of the string is now assumed to be free to move
vertically. The IBVP is
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316 Chapter 7. Waves

with c = 522. The only change from the earlier calculations is that there is an
extra row and column in the mass and stiffness matrix. We will again use n = 20
subintervals in the spatial mesh (h = 1/20,). The fundamental period is now

We use the RK4 algorithm and 100 time steps to compute the motion over one
period (At = T/lOOj. The results are shown in Figure 7.15.

Figure 7.15. The solution to the wave equation in Example 7.9. Shown
are 25 snapshots taken over one period of the motion.

Exercises
1. Use piecewise linear finite elements to solve the IBVP

on the interval 0 < t < T, where T is the fundamental period. Take c = 1000.
Graph several snapshots.
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7.3. Finite element methods for the wave equation 317

2. Repeat the previous exercise, assuming the PDE is inhomogeneous with right-
hand side equal to the constant —100.

3. (Cf. Exercise 7.2.2.) Consider a string of length 50cm, with c = 400cm/s.

Suppose that the string is initially at rest, with both ends fixed, and that it
is struck by a hammer at its center so as to induce an initial velocity of

(a) How long does it take for the resulting wave to reach the ends of the
string?
(b) Formulate and solve the IBVP describing the motion of the string. Use
the finite element method with RK4 or some other numerical method for
solving the system of ODEs.
(c) Plot several snapshots of the string, showing the wave first reaching the
ends of the string. Verify your answer to 3a.

4. Repeat Exercise 3, assuming that the right end of the string is free to move
vertically.

5. Solve (7.14) using the finite element method, and try to reproduce Figure
7.11. How small must h (the length of the subintervals in the mesh) be to
obtain a good graph?

6. (Cf. Example 7.6.) Consider a steel bar of length 1 m, fixed at the top (x = 0)
with the bottom end (x = 1) free to move. Suppose the bar is stretched, by
means of a downward pressure applied to the free end, to a length of 1.002 m,
and then released. Using the finite element method, compute the motion of
the bar, given that the type of steel has stiffness k = 195 GPa and density
p = 7.9g/cm3. Produce a graph analogous to Figure 7.9.

7. Consider a heterogeneous bar with the top end fixed and the bottom end free.
According to the derivation in Section 2.2, the displacement u(x,t) of the bar
satisfies the IBVP

(a) Formulate the weak form of (7.25).

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318 Chapter 7. Waves

(b) Apply the Galerkin method to obtain a system of ODEs with initial
conditions. How do the mass and stiffness matrices change from the case
of a homogeneous bar?
8. Repeat Exercise 6, assuming now that the bar is heterogeneous with density

and stiffness

(The coordinate x is measured in meters: 0 < x < 1.)

7.4 Point sources and resonance

We now consider two special experiments that can lead to resonance:
• A metal string (such as a guitar string), with both ends fixed, is subjected
to an oscillatory electromagnetic force generated by a small electromagnet.
When the frequency of the external force equals one of the natural frequencies
of the string, resonance occurs.
• A string has one end fixed, and the other is mechanically moved up and down:
u(i,t) = sin(27ru;£). Again, resonance occurs when the applied frequency, w,
equals one of the natural frequencies of the string.
In the first experiment, the modeling involves the Dirac delta function.49

7.4.1 The wave equation with a point source

We begin with the following IBVP for the wave equation:

where we assume that 0 < a < t. This models the vibrating string, where the string
is assumed to vibrate due to a time-varying force applied at the point x = a.
We can solve (7.26) exactly as in Section 7.2. We use the sifting property of
the delta function to compute the Fourier sine coefficients of f(t}8(x — a):

49
The reader is assumed to have read Section 4.6 and/or Section 5.7; the material on the Dirac
delta function found in those two sections is prerequisite for this section.
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7.4. Point sources and resonance 319

We then must solve the following IVP to find the unknown coefficients an(t):

According to the results derived in Section 4.2.2, the solution to this IVP is

Oscillatory forcing and resonance

We are interested in the case in which f ( t ) is oscillatory. For convenience, we take

I — 1 and to — 0, and let /(t) = sin (2,-jrut). Then the solution to the IBVP is

where

A lengthy but elementary calculation shows that, if u; / cn/2, then

One the other hand, if cj = cm/2, one of the natural frequencies of the string, then

(formula (7.27) still holds, with o> = cm/2, for the coefficients an(t) with n / m).
In the case that the external frequency a; is a natural frequency of the string,
the result (7.28) shows that the string oscillates with an ever-increasing ampli-
tude. (The reader should notice the factor of t, which shows that the amplitude
increases without bound.) This phenomenon is called resonance. When the exter-
nal frequency is close to but not equal to a natural frequency, formula (7.27) shows
that the nearby natural frequency is amplified in the solution (though it remains
bounded)—this is because the denominator in (7.27) is very small.
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320 Chapter 7. Waves

Example 7.10. We now solve (7.26) with c = 522 and 1 = 1 (this corresponds
to a fundamental frequency of middle C, as we saw in Example 7.3), to = 0 and
f ( t ) = s'm(27rujt) for various values ofui. We locate the point source at a = l/\/2-
Figure 7.16 shows the solutions corresponding to u = 260, LJ = 520, u; = 780, and
u} = 1040, close to the natural frequencies 0/261, 522, 783, and 1044, respectively.
The reader will notice how the solutions resemble the first four normal modes of the
string. In Figure 7.17, we display some snapshots of the solution for u = 1044, the
fourth natural frequency. The effect of resonance is clearly seen in the increasing
amplitude.

Figure 7.16. Solutions to (7.26) with an oscillatory forcing term (see

Example 7.10). The four solutions shown correspond touj = 260, w = 520, u; = 780,
and uj = 1040; since these frequencies are close to the natural frequencies of 261,
522, 783, and 1044) the solutions are almost equal to the corresponding normal
modes.
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7.4. Point sources and resonance 321

Figure 7.17. Solution to (7.26) with an oscillatory forcing term (see Ex-
ample 7.10). The frequency of the forcing term is 1044, the fourth natural frequency
of the string, and the solution exhibits resonance.

7.4.2 Another experiment leading to resonance

Next we solve the following IBVP (cf. Exercise 7.2.8):

We will continue to take I = 1 and t0 = 0.

Since the Dirichlet condition at the right endpoint is inhomogeneous, we will
shift the data. We define

and v(x,t) — u(x,t) — p(x,t}. Then a straightforward calculation shows that v

satisfies the IBVP
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322 Chapter 7. Waves

We write the solution as

Then, by the usual calculation, the coefficient an(t) satisfies the IVP

where

and

By the results of Section 4.2.2, we have

If u 7^ cn/2 for all n (that is, if u; is not one of the natural frequencies of the string),
then we obtain
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7.4. Point sources and resonance 323

On the other hand, if w = en/2, we obtain

The results are very similar to those for the point source. If the externally
applied frequency is not a natural frequency of the string, then no resonance occurs.
Formula (7.32) shows, though, that the amplitude of the vibrations gets larger as
(jj approaches one of the natural frequencies.
If the external frequency is a natural frequency, then resonance occurs, as
indicated by the factor of t in the formula for an(t}.

Example 7.11. Suppose c = 522 and u) = c/2 = 261, the fundamental frequency
of the string. With e = 0.001, we obtain the motion shown in Figure 7.18.

Exercises
1. Suppose a string with total mass of 10 g is stretched to a length of 40 cm. By
varying the frequency of an oscillatory forcing term until resonance occurs, it
is determined that the fundamental frequency of the string is 500 Hz.
(a) How fast do waves travel along the string?
(b) What is the tension in the string? (Hint: See the derivation of the wave
equation in Section 2.3.)
(c) At what other frequencies will the string resonate?
2. Consider an iron bar of length 1 m, with a stiffness of k — 90 GPa and a
density of p = 7.2g/cm 3 . Suppose that the bottom end (x = 1) of the bar is
fixed, and the top end is subjected to an oscillatory pressure:

(a) What is the smallest value of u; that causes resonance? Call this fre-
quency (Jr.
(b) Find and graph the displacement of the bar for w = w r .
(c) Find and graph the displacement of the bar for a; = w r /4.
3. If a string is driven by an external force whose frequency equals a natural
frequency, does resonance always occur? Consider the string of Example 7.10,
and suppose u = 1044, a = 1/2. Produce a plot like Figure 7.17. Does
resonance occur? Why or why not?
4. Solve the IBVP
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324 Chapter 7. Waves

Figure 7.18. Solution to (7.29) with an oscillatory Dirichlet condition (see

Example 7.11). The frequency of the forcing term is 261, the fundamental frequency
of the string. Shown are 10 snapshots from the first fundamental period (upper left),
10 from the second fundamental period (upper right), 10 from the third (lower left),
and 10 from the lower right (lower right). The increase in the amplitude is due to
resonance.

7.5 Suggestions for further reading

The reader can consult Sections 5.8 and 6.7 for further information about PDEs,
Fourier series, and finite element methods.
There is another computational technique that can be viewed as an alternative
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7.5. Suggestions for further reading 325

to finite elements, namely, the method of finite differences. This method is very
popular for the wave equation and similar PDEs, for the reason briefly mentioned
in the footnote on Page 310. Strikwerda [47] is an advanced treatment of the finite
difference method for PDEs. Celia and Gray [9] covers both finite differences and
finite elements (including finite element methods that are not Galerkin methods).
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Chapter 8

Jgihlems in multiple
spatial dimensions

Most practical applications involve multiple spatial dimensions, leading to partial

differential equations involving two to four independent variables: #1, #2 or #1, xz, t
or xi,X2,x$,t. The purpose of this chapter is to extend the techniques of the last
three chapters—Fourier series and finite elements—to PDEs involving two or more
spatial dimensions.
We begin by developing the fundamental physical models in two and three
dimensions. We then present Fourier series methods; as we saw earlier, these tech-
niques are applicable only in the case of constant-coefficient differential equations.
Moreover, in higher dimensions, we can only find the eigenfunctions explicitly when
the computational domain is simple; we treat the case of a rectangle and a circular
disk in two dimensions.
We then turn to finite element methods, focusing on two-dimensional problems
and piecewise linear finite elements defined on a triangulation of the computational
domain.

8.1 Physical models in two or three spatial

dimensions
The derivation of the physical models in Chapter 2 depended on the fundamental
theorem of calculus. Using this result, we were able to relate a quantity defined on
the boundary of an interval (force acting on a cross-section or heat energy flowing
across a cross-section, for example) to a related quantity in the interior of the
interval.
In higher dimensions, the analogue of the fundamental theorem of calculus is
the divergence theorem, which relates a vector field acting on the boundary of a
domain to the divergence of the vector field in the interior. We begin by explaining
the divergence theorem and proceed to apply it to a derivation of the heat equation.
We must first establish some notation.

327
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328 Chapter 8. Problems in multiple spatial dimensions

8.1.1 The divergence theorem

An advantage of using vector notation is that many results of calculus take the
same form for two and three dimensions when expressed in vector form. Therefore,
we will treat both two-dimensional and three-dimensional problems in this section,
and much of the background calculus requires no distinction between R2 and R3.
Let f2 be a domain (a connected open set) in R2 or R3 with a piecewise
smooth boundary <9fi.50 We will denote points in R3 using either vector notation
or coordinate notation as is convenient, and similarly for points in R 2 . Thus a point
in R3 can be denoted as x or as ( x i , X 2 , x s ) .
An important concept related to a domain fi is that of the (outward) unit
normal. At each point x of dfl at which the boundary is smooth, there is a unique
unit vector n(x) that is orthogonal to dtl at x (to be precise, n(x) is orthogonal
to the line or plane tangent to dft at x) and points toward the exterior of fi. It
is customary to suppress the dependence of the normal vector n on x, writing n
instead of n(x), but it is important to keep this dependence in mind. Figure 8.1
shows an example in two dimensions.

Figure 8.1. A two-dimensional domain J7 with a sample unit normal vector.

A (volume) integral over fJ in R3 will be denoted as

or simply by

50
For our purposes, it does not seem worthwhile to define precise conditions on fi and its bound-
ary that allow the application of the divergence theorem. We will assume that the reader has an
intuitive idea of the meaning of "smooth boundary" and "piecewise smooth boundary." For exam-
ple, the unit ball, S = {(xi,X2,xs) G R3 : x2 + y2 + z2 < 1 j, has a smooth boundary, while the
unit cube, R = { ( x i , X 2 , x z ) e R3 : 0 < x\ < 1,0 < #2 < 1,0 < #3 < ij, has a boundary that is
piecewise smooth.
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8.1. Physical models in two or three spatial dimensions 329

where / : £) -> R. If a domain £) in R/5 can be described as

for example, then the volume integral can be rewritten as an iterated integral:

A (surface) integral over <9fJ will be denoted by

where g : d£l —»• R and da represents an infinitesimal surface area element, or simply

Both volume and surface integrals can have vector-valued integrands, in which case
each component is integrated.
If Jl is a domain in R 2 , then

is an area integral that can, for many regions fi, be rewritten as a doubly iterated
integral. Since dQ, is a curve in this case.

is a line integral.51
A vector field defined on £) is just a vector-valued function—a mapping of the
form

if fi is in R2 or

if f) is in R 3 . The divergence of a vector field f is denoted by V • f and is defined by

in two dimensions and

51
Line integral is a misnomer, since the domain of integration is generally a curve, not a (straight)
line.
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330 Chapter 8. Problems in multiple spatial dimensions

in three dimensions. The following theorem, which holds in both two and three
dimensions, explains why this combination of derivatives is so significant.

Theorem 8.1. (The divergence theorem) Let 17 be a bounded open set with a
piecewise smooth boundary $17. Assume that f is a smooth vector field defined on
17 U d£l, and that n is the (outward pointing) unit normal to 017. Then

In the case of a rectangular domain in R2, the divergence theorem follows

immediately from the fundamental theorem of calculus (see Exercise 2).

8.1.2 The heat equation for a three-dimensional domain

We now consider a three-dimensional solid occupying a domain fi in R3. (We
will often call the solid 17, although, in fact, 17 is a mathematical description of
the location of the solid.) For simplicity, assume that the solid is homogeneous,
with density p, specific heat c, and thermal conductivity K. Analogous to the one-
dimensional case, if the domain a; is a subset of 17, then the total heat energy
contained in o> is

where w(x,t) is the temperature at x 6 17 at time i, T0 is the reference temperature,

and EQ is the thermal energy contained in the solid at temperature T0.
The rate of change of the energy contained in u; is given by

Moving the derivative through the integral sign, we obtain the following expression
for the rate of change of total heat energy contained in uj:

We can also describe this rate of change by computing the rate at which heat
energy flows across duj. Let q(x,£) € R3 be the heat flux at x e 17 at time t. The
heat flux is a vector—its direction is the direction of the flow of energy, and its
magnitude gives the rate at which energy is flowing across the plane at x to which
q(x, £) is orthogonal, in units of energy/(time-area). At each point of duj, the rate
at which energy is flowing into u; is

(This follows from the fact that q is a vector quantity and hence can be decomposed
into the component in the direction of —n, which is —q • n, and the component
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8.1. Physical models in two or three spatial dimensions 331

orthogonal to — n.) The total amount of energy flowing into uj is then

We now make the assumption called Fourier's law, that the heat flux is pro-
portional to the temperature gradient:52

The constant of proportionality, K > 0, is the thermal conductivity, just as in one

spatial dimension. We therefore obtain the following expression for the rate of
change of heat energy contained in a;:

We wish to equate this expression with (8.1) and derive a PDE. To do so, we must
apply the divergence theorem to convert the boundary integral to a volume integral:

We thus have

or

Since (8.2) holds for every subdomain uj of £), by exactly the same reasoning
as in one dimension, the integrand must be identically zero. We therefore obtain
the PDE

The combination V • V of differential operators arises frequently due to just such

an application of the divergence theorem. We have

52
The gradient of a scalar-valued function of several variables points in the direction in which
the function increases most rapidly.
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332 Chapter 8. Problems in multiple spatial dimensions

and so

The differential operator

is called the Laplacian.53 Using this notation, we obtain the three-dimensional heat
equation:

If / : fi x (to, 00} ->• R is a heat source (or sink), with units of energy per volume
per time, then we obtain the inhomogeneous three-dimensional heat equation:

It should be obvious to the reader how to modify this equation if the material
properties (p, c, K) are not constants but rather functions of x G 0 (see Exercise 1).

8.1.3 Boundary conditions for the three-dimensional heat

equation
Two common types of boundary conditions for the heat equation are Dirichlet and
Neumann conditions. An equation of the form

is called a homogeneous Dirichlet condition; it corresponds to an experiment in

which the temperature of the boundary is held fixed at 0. Inhomogeneous Dirichlet
conditions are also possible, and boundary data can be time-dependent:

It is also possible to insulate the boundary, which leads to the condition that
the heat flux across the boundary is zero:

The directional derivative Vw • n is often referred to as the normal derivative and

denoted

53
Another common symbol for the Laplacian is V 2 .
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8.1. Physical models in two or three spatial dimensions 333

Just as in the one-dimensional case, we can have mixed boundary conditions,

since it is possible to treat different parts of the boundary differently. Suppose
dtl = FI U F2 is a partition of the boundary into two disjoint sets. Then it is
possible to pose a problem with the following mixed boundary conditions:

8.1.4 The heat equation in a bar

In Section 2.1 and in subsequent sections, we discussed heat flow in a bar with insu-
lated sides. We mentioned the following fact: If the initial temperature distribution
in a bar depends only on the longitudinal coordinate (that is, if it is constant in
each cross-section), and if any heat source also depends only on the longitudinal
coordinate, then the temperature at all subsequent times also depends only on a
single spatial coordinate. We can now justify this statement.
Let the domain ft in R3 be defined by

where i and r are given positive constants. The set fHs a circular cylinder centered
on the interval [0,^1 on the xi-axis. Consider the following IBVP:

where Fe represents the ends of the bar and Tt the transverse sides:

The reader should notice that both the heat source / and the initial temperature
distribution if) are independent of x-2 and x3.
The solution to (8.5) is w(xi,x 2 ,x 3 ,i) = v(xi,t), where v is the solution of
the IBVP

The proof of this is a direct verification of the equations in (8.5) and is left to an
exercise.
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334 Chapter 8. Problems in multiple spatial dimensions

8.1.5 The heat equation in two dimensions

It is straightforward to restrict the heat equation to two dimensions. If heat flows in
a solid, such as a thin plate, in such a way that the temperature is constant in one
dimension, the derivative with respect to the third spatial variable, say #3, vanishes.
The result is the two-dimensional heat equation, which is usually written exactly
as in (8.3), since we will also use A to denote the Laplacian in two independent
variables:

The distinction between the two- and three-dimensional Laplacian will be under-
stood from context.

8.1.6 The wave equation for a three-dimensional domain

The derivation of the wave equation in three dimensions is considerably more com-
plicated than that of the heat equation. A complete treatment begins with an elastic
solid, and applies Newton's law to the forces, both internal and external, acting on
the solid. The result is a system of three (coupled) PDEs for the three components
of displacement that describes the vibration of the solid. (Each point in the solid
can move in three dimensions, so there are three dependent variables.) This system
is one form of the wave equation.
Much useful physical modeling can be performed under apparently severe sim-
plifying assumptions. Specifically, assuming that the solid is a fluid (meaning that
the only stress supported is a pressure) and that the motion under consideration is
a small perturbation of an equilibrium state, with the motion induced by a force
density F(x, £), the result is the acoustic wave equation for the pressure perturbation
u = u(x.t):

In this equation, the forcing function / is the negative divergence of the body force:

An example of a physical phenomenon modeled by the three-dimensional acoustic

wave equation is the propogation of sound waves in air.

8.1.7 The wave equation in two dimensions

The two-dimensional (acoustic) wave equation models the small transverse vibra-
tions of an elastic membrane. An elastic membrane is analogous to an elastic string,
in that it does not resist bending. The form of the wave equation is exactly as in
(8.7); however, the meaning is quite different. The dependent variable u is the
vertical component of displacement, while the right-hand side / is the transverse
pressure. Figure 8.2 illustrates the small deflection of a square membrane.
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8.1. Physical models in two or three spatial dimensions 335

Figure 8.2. The small vertical deflection of a square membrane under

Dirichlet conditions.

Dirichlet boundary conditions for the vibrating membrane indicate that the
boundary is fixed (one can picture, for example, a circular drumhead with its bound-
ary attached to the drum). Neumann conditions indicate that the boundary is free
to move in a vertical direction.

8.1.8 Equilibrium problems and Laplace's equation

The differential operator A appears in both the heat equation and the wave equa-
tion, and therefore in the equilibrium versions of these equations. For example,
steady-state heat flow is modeled by Poisson's equation,

or by its counterpart for a heterogeneous material,

This equation can be applied in either two or three dimensions.

An elastic membrane subject to a steady tr an verse pressure / has a vertical
deflection u approximately satisfying

The heterogeneous version of this equation is

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336 Chapter 8. Problems in multiple spatial dimensions

The homogeneous version of Poisson's equation is referred to as Laplace's

equation:

Of course, this equation is interesting only if the boundary conditions are inhomo-
geneous.

8.1.9 Green's identities and the symmetry of the Laplacian

We should expect to be able to extend the methods from the preceding chapters
only if —A is a symmetric operator. The inner product is

and we must show that

for all u,v satisfying the desired boundary conditions. We define

(72(J7) = {w:(]->R : u and its partial derivatives up to order 2 are continuous}

(£1 is the closure of Q, that is, fi together with its boundary: J7 = i7 U 9fi) and

and

In one dimension, the fundamental manipulation underlying the development

of both Fourier series and finite element methods is integration by parts. The ana-
logue in higher dimensions is Green's (first) identity, which we now derive. It is
helpful to recall that integration by parts is based on the product rule for differen-
tiation and the fundamental theorem of calculus, as follows:

To derive Green's identity, we need an analogous product rule for higher dimensions
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8.1. Physical models in two or three spatial dimensions 337

It is not completely obvious how to obtain the needed product rule, but we
can be guided by the fact that we want to obtain a formula involving

The desired product rule is

This is proved directly; see Exercise 5. Combining (8.8) with the divergence theorem
gives the desired result:

This is Green's first identity:

We can now prove the symmetry of the Laplacian under Dirichlet conditions.
If w , v € 07^(0), then

It is no more difficult to prove the symmetry of —A under Neumann conditions

(see Exercise 6).

Exercises
1. How does the heat equation (8.3) change if p, c, and K are functions of x?
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338 Chapter 8. Problems in multiple spatial dimensions

2. Let 0 C R2 be the rectangular domain

and let F : R2 —»• R2 be a smooth vector field. Prove that

Hint: Rewrite the area integral on the left as an iterated integral and apply
the fundamental theorem of calculus. Compare the result to the boundary
integral on the right.
3. Let £7 C R2 be the unit square:

Define F : ft -> R2 by

Verify that the divergence theorem holds for this domain fl and this vector
field F.
4. Let il C R2 be the unit disk:

Define F : ft -» R2 by

Verify that the divergence theorem holds for this domain Q and this vector
field F.
5. Prove (8.8) as follows: Write

and apply the ordinary (scalar) product rule to each term on the right.
6. Define

and

Show that LN is symmetric:

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8.2. Fourier series on a rectangular domain 339

7. Suppose that the boundary of £7 is partitioned into two disjoint sets: dtl —
FI UF 2 . Define

and

Show that Lm is symmetric:

8. Verify that the solution to (8.6) is also the solution to (8.5).

8.2 Fourier series on a rectangular domain

We now develop Fourier series methods for the fundamental equations (Poisson's
equation, the heat equation, and the wave equation) on the two-dimensional rect-
angular domain

We will begin by discussing Dirichlet conditions, so the operator is Lp, as defined

at the end of the last section.

8.2.1 Dirichlet boundary conditions

As we should expect from the development in Chapters 5, 6, and 7, the crux of
the matter is to determine the eigenvalues and eigenfunctions of Lp. We have
already seen that LD is symmetric, so we know that eigenfunctions corresponding
to distinct eigenvalues must be orthogonal.' Moreover, it is easy to show directly
that LD has only positive eigenvalues. For suppose A is an eigenvalue of LD and u
is a corresponding eigenfunction, normalized to have norm one (the norm is derived
from the inner product: ||w|| = ^(u,u)}. Then

with the last step following from Green's first identity and the fact that u vanishes
on the boundary of f). Since

this certainly shows that A > 0. Moreover,

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340 Chapter 8. Problems in multiple spatial dimensions

only if Vw is identically equal to the zero vector. But this holds only if u is a
constant function, and, due to the boundary conditions, the only constant function
in Cpfil) is the zero function. By assumption ||w|| = 1, so u is not the zero function.
Thus we see that, in fact, A > 0 must hold. This proof did not use the particular
form of fJ, and the result is therefore true for nonrectangular domains.
Thus we wish to find all positive values of A such that the BVP

has a nonzero solution. We are now faced with a PDE for which we have no general
solution techniques. We fall back on a time-honored approach: make an inspired
guess as to the general form of the solution, substitute into the equation, and try
to determine specific solutions. We will look for solutions of the form

that is, functions of two variables that can be written as the product of two func-
tions, each with only one independent variable. Such functions are called separated,
and this technique is called the method of separation of variables.
We therefore sunnose that w,(x1 = wi (x-i }u^(x^} satisfies

We have

so the PDE becomes

Dividing through by u\ui yields

If we rewrite this as

we obtain the conclusion that both

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8.2. Fourier series on a rectangular domain 341

must be constant functions. For on the left side of (8.12) is a function depending
only on x\, and on the right is a function depending only on X2. If we differentiate
with respect to 0:1, we see that the derivative of the first function must be zero,
and hence that the function itself must be constant. Similarly, the second function
must be constant.
We have therefore shown the following: If A is positive and

has a solution of the form w(#i,£2) = ^(x^u^x^)-, then u\ and u% satisfy

where 9\ + 62 = A. These we can rewrite as

and so we obtain ODEs for u\ and u^.

Moreover, we can easily find boundary conditions for the ODEs, since the
boundary conditions on the PDE also separate. The boundary of 0 consists of four
line segments (see Figure 8.3):

On FI , for example, we have

(There is also the possibility that u\(x\) = 0, but then u is the zero function, and
we are only interested in nontrivial solutions.) By similar reasoning, we obtain

Our problem now reduces to finding nonzero solutions to the BVPs

and
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342 Chapter 8. Problems in multiple spatial dimensions

Figure 8.3. The domain fJ and its boundary.

where 9\ and #2 can be any real numbers adding to A. But we have already solved
these problems (in Section 5.2). For (8.14), the permissible values of B\ are

and the corresponding eigenfunctions are

For (8.15), we have

and the corresponding eigenfunctions are

Any solution to (8.14) times any solution to (8.15) forms a solution to (8.11), so we
obtained a doublv indexed sequence of solutions to (8.11):

We have succeeded in computing all the eigenvalue-eigenfunction pairs of LD

in which the eigenfunctions are separated. We have no guarantee (at least, not from
our analysis so far) that there are not other eigenpairs with nonseparated eigenfunc-
tions. However, it turns out that this question is not particularly important, because
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8.2. Fourier series on a rectangular domain 343

we can show that the eigenpairs (8.16) are sufficient for our purposes. Indeed, it is
not difficult to argue that every function u £ C(ft) should be representable as

where the convergence is in the mean-square sense. We will call such a series a
Fourier (double) sine series. We consider any u = u(xi,x<2) (not necessarily satisfy-
ing the Dirichlet boundary conditions). Regarding x% € (0,^) as a parameter, we
can write

where

But now bm is a function of #2 € (0,^2) that can be expanded in a Fourier sine

corioc QC iiroll-

where

Putting these results together, we obtain

with

Equation (8.17) is valid in the mean-square sense.

It is straightforward to show that formulas (8.17), (8.18) are exactly what the
projection theorem produces; that is,

is the best approximation to u, in the L2 norm, from the subspace spanned by

(see Exercise 6).

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344 Chapter 8. Problems in multiple spatial dimensions

Example 8.2. Let Q = {(xi,x2) e R2 : 0 < xi < 1, 0 < x2 < l}, and let

Then

In Figure 8.4, we graph the resulting partial series approximation to u, using M = 20

and N = 20 (for a total of 400 terms). Gibbs's phenomenon is clearly visible, as
would be expected since u only satisfies the Dirichlet boundary conditions on part of
the boundary.

Figure 8.4. A partial Fourier (double) sine series (400 terms) approxi-
mating ll(xi,X2) = XiX-2.
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8.2. Fourier series on a rectangular domain 345

8.2.2 Solving a boundary value problem

It is no more difficult to apply the Fourier series method to a BVP in two or three
dimensions than it was in one dimension, provided, of course, that we know the
eigenvalues and eigenfunctions.

Example 8.3. We will solve the following BVP:

where £1 is the unit square:

We first write the constant function /(x) = 1 as a Fourier sine series. We have

where

We next write the solution u as

It is straightforward to show that, since u satisfies homogeneous Dirichlet conditions,

where

(see Exercise 8). The PDE therefore implies that

and therefore
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346 Chapter 8. Problems in multiple spatial dimensions

This in turn implies that

We can approximate the solution by a partial Fourier series of the form

In Figure 8.5, we graph the partial Fourier series with M — 10, N = 10.

Figure 8.5. The solution to the BVP (8.19), approximated by a Fourier

series with 100 terms.

8.2.3 Time-dependent problems

It is also straightforward to extend the one-dimensional Fourier series techniques
for time-dependent problems to two- or three-dimensional problems, again assuming
that eigenvalues and eigenfunctions are known. We illustrate with an example.

Example 8.4. We will solve the following IBVP for the wave equation on the unit
square:
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8.2. Fourier series on a rectangular domain 347

The initial velocity function will be taken to be the function

We take c = 261V5. This IBVP models a (square) drum struck by a square hammer.
We write the solution u as

where

The PDE then takes the form

where Xmn = (m2 +n 2 )7r 2 . The initial conditions become

and

We have

where
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348 Chapter 8. Problems in multiple spatial dimensions

Putting together the PDE and the initial conditions, we obtain the following
sequence of IVPs:

m, n — 1,2,3, — The solutions are

where

8.2.4 Other boundary conditions for the rectangle

Using separation of variables, it is straightforward to find the eigenvalues and eigen-
functions for the negative Laplacian, on a rectangle, under Neumann conditions or
some combination of Dirichlet and Neumann conditions. For example, if £) is the
rectangle (8.10) and dtl = TI U T2 U T3 U T 4 , with the F; defined as in (8.13), we
can consider the following IBVP:

By applying the method of separation of variables, we can determine the

appropriate Fourier series to represent the solution:

(see Exercise 14). The determination of the coefficients amn(t) follows the now-
familiar pattern.
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8.2. Fourier series on a rectangular domain 349

Figure 8.6. Snapshots of the vibrating membrane of Example 8.4'- t =

5 • 1CT4 (upper left), t = 1(T3 (upper right), t = 2 • 1(T3 (lower left), t = 3 • 1(T3
(lower right).

8.2.5 Neumann boundary conditions

Neumann conditions are slightly more difficult to handle than Dirichlet or mixed
boundary conditions. This is simply because Neumann conditions lead to two dif-
ferent kinds of eigenfunctions, the constant function 1, and the cosines of increasing
frequencies. To be specific, the reader will recall from Section 6.2 that the eigenpairs
of the negative second derivative operator, under Neumann conditions, are

Just as in the case of Dirichlet or mixed boundary conditions, the eigenfunctions

of the negative Laplacian, under Neumann conditions and on the rectangle, are
products of the one-dimensional eigenfunctions. Since there are two formulas for
the one-dimensional eigenfunctions, this leads to four different formulas for the
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350 Chapter 8. Problems in multiple spatial dimensions

two-dimensional eigenfunctions (see Exercise 12):

By the same reasoning given in Section 8.2.1, this collection of eigenfunction should
be sufficient to represent any function in (7(fi); the series representation is

where

A steady-state Neumann problem imposes a compatibility condition on the

right-hand side of the PDE, as might be expected from the existence of a zero
picrpnva.liip Snnnnsp 11. is a. solution nf t.hp RVP

The compatibility condition follows from the divergence theorem:

If / satisfies the compatibility condition

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8.2. Fourier series on a rectangular domain 351

then the Neumann problem (8.23) has infinitely many solutions, while if / does not
satisfy the compatibility condition, then there is no solution.

Example 8.5. We will solve the Neumann problem

where fi is the unit square. We write the solution as

Then

We also have

where

The reader should notice that CQO = 0 is the compatibility condition, and so there
are infinitely many solutions. Equating the series for —Aw and f yields
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352 Chapter 8. Problems in multiple spatial dimensions

withttQQundetermined. The graph of u, with aoo = 0, is shown in Figure 8.7.

Figure 8.7. The solution to the BVP in Example 8.5. This graph was
produced using a total of 120 terms of the (double) Fourier cosine series.

8.2.6 Dirichlet and Neumann problems for Laplace's equation

The PDE

is called Laplace's equation. This equation, with inhomogeneous boundary condi-

tions, is commonly encountered in applications. For example, a steady-state heat
flow problem with no heat source, in a homogeneous domain, leads to Laplace's
equation, which can be paired with inhomogeneous Dirichlet or Neumann con-
ditions. The Dirichlet conditions indicate that the temperature is fixed on the
boundary, while the Neumann conditions indicate that the heat flux is prescribed.
As another example, if a membrane is stretched on a frame described by a
curve ( x , y , g ( x i , X 2 ) ) , (xi,x<z) € Oft, and if no transverse force is applied, then
the shape of the membrane is described by the solution of Laplace's equation with
inhomogeneous Dirichlet conditions u(xi,#2) = #(#15 #2), (^1,^2) G d^l.
We will consider the following Dirichlet problem for Laplace's equation:

If we wish to solve (8.26) using the method of Fourier series, then it is desirable
to shift the data to obtain homogeneous boundary conditions. The reader should
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8.2. Fourier series on a rectangular domain 353

recall the method of shifting the data from Section 5.3: Given a smooth function p
defined on ft satisfying p(xi,#2) = 5(^1,^2) on 5ft, we define v = u — p, where u
satisfies (8.26). Then, in ft,

and, on 5ft,

Therefore, v satisfies the BVP

For a general domain ft, it may be difficult or impossible to find (explicitly)

a smooth function p, defined on all of ft and satisfying p(x\,x<2) = g(xi,xz] for all
(rci, #2) € 5ft. However, for such a general domain, it is probably impossible to find
the eigenvalues and eigenfunction of the negative Laplacian, also. For the simple
domains (rectangles and disks) for which we can explicitly find the eigenpairs of the
Laplacian, we can also find the function p explicitly.
For the rectangle (8.10), the boundary data g will typically be described as
follows:

where 9ft is partitioned as in (8.13). There is a completely mechanical technique for

finding p : ft —> R satisfying P(XI,XZ) = g(xi,#2) on 5ft; however, this technique
requires a lengthy explanation, which we relegate to Appendix B. In the following
example, we use the results from that Appendix, which interested reader can consult
for the details.

Example 8.6. We assume that an elastic membrane of dimensions 10 cm by 15 cm

occupies the set

and the edges of the membrane are fixed to a frame, so that the vertical deflection
of the membrane satisfies the following boundary conditions:

Then u satisfies
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354 Chapter 8. Problems in multiple spatial dimensions

A smooth function p satisfying p = g on d£t is

and we have

We therefore solve

where /(xi,^) = (#2 — 15)/1500, by the Fourier series method. The eigenpairs of
—A on fi are

The Fourier coefficients of f are

and so the solution v is given by

where

The desired solution u is then given by

The graph of u is shown in Figure 8.8.

The Neumann problem for Laplace's equation can be handled in much the
same way. An example is given in Appendix B (Example B.2).

8.2.7 Fourier series methods for a rectangular box in three

dimensions
It is straightforward, in principle, to extend the Fourier series method to problems
posed on a rectangular box in three dimensions. For example, if
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8.2. Fourier series on a rectangular domain 355

Figure 8.8. The solution to the BVP in Example 8.6. This graph was
produced using 100 terms of the (double) Fourier sine series.

then the eigenpairs of —A on f) and under Dirichlet conditions are

Again, having determined these eigenpairs, it is straightforward to solve Poisson's

equation, the heat equation, or the wave equation under Dirichlet conditions. The
reader should note, however, that the resulting solutions are rather expensive to
evaluate, however, because they are given as triply indexed series. For example, to
include the lowest 10 frequencies in each dimension means working with 103 = 1000
terms! Fast transforms, such as the fast Fourier transform, can be used to reduce
the cost (see Section 9.2).

Exercises
1. Let fJ be the unit square in R 2 ,

and define / : fi —> R by

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356 Chapter 8. Problems in multiple spatial dimensions

(a) Compute the (double) Fourier sine series

of / (that is, compute the coefficients c mn ).

(b) Graph the error in approximating / by

for M = N = 2 and again for M = N = 5.

2. Repeat the previous exercise with

3. Solve the BVP

where fJ is the unit square in R2 and / is the function in Exercise 1.

4. Solve the BVP

where £) is the unit square in R2 and / is the function in Exercise 2.

5. Suppose that a square iron plate of side length 50cm initially has constant
temperature of 5 degrees Celsius and its edges are placed in an ice bath (0
degrees Celsius) (the plate is perfectly insulated on the top and bottom). At
the same time that the edges are placed in the ice bath, we begin adding
heat energy everywhere in the interior of the plate at the (constant) rate
of 0.02W/cm3. The material constants for iron are p = 7.88 g/cm3, c =
0.437 J/(gK), and « = 0.836W/(cmK).

(a) Formulate an IBVP that describes the temperature u(x,£).

(b) Find the (double) Fourier sine series of u.
(c) Find the Fourier series of the steady-state temperature ua. What BVP
does us satisfy?
(d) How close is u to us after 10 minutes? Graph the difference in the two
temperature distributions.
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8.2. Fourier series on a rectangular domain 357

6. Let u € C(fJ) be given, and define FMN to be the subspace of C(f)) spanned
by

where

Show that the best approximation to u (in the I/2 norm) from FMN is given
by (8.17), (8.18).

7. Consider the iron plate of Exercise 5. Suppose that plate initially has constant
temperature 2 degrees Celsius and that at time t = 0 the edges are instantly
brought to temperature 5 degrees and held there. How long does is take until
the entire plate has temperature at least 4 degrees? (Hint: To deal with the
inhomogeneous boundary condition, just shift the data. It is trivial in this
case, because the boundary data is constant.)

8. Suppose fi is the rectangle

and that u is a twice-continuously differentiate function defined on fL Let

the Fourier sine series of u be

Suppose u satisfies u(x) = 0 for x e dfl. Prove that the Fourier series of —Aw
is

where

9. In Example 8.4, how long does it take for the leading edge of the wave to
reach the boundary of 0? Is the computed time consistent with Figure 8.6?

10. Suppose £) is a domain in R2 or R3 with a piecewise smooth boundary dft,

and suppose Oft is partitioned into 2 disjoint subsets: dti, = FI U F2- Define

Let Lm : C^(fl) —>• C(fi) be defined by Lmu = —Aw. Show that Lm is

symmetric and has only positive eigenvalues.
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358 Chapter 8. Problems in multiple spatial dimensions

11. Consider a square drumhead occupying the unit square,

when at rest, and suppose the drum is "plucked" so that its initial (vertical)
displacement is the (piecewise linear) function

Here 0 = 1(T4 and

(see Figure 8.9). Find the resulting vibrations of the drumhead by solving

12. Let ft be the rectangle (8.10). Define

Let LN '• Cpf(ft) —> C(ft) be defined by L^u = —Aw. Use separation of
variables to find the eigenpairs of LN with separated eigenfunctions.
13. 54 Suppose an elastic membrane occupies the unit square,

and something pushes up at the center of the membrane (a pin or the tip
of a pencil, for example). The purpose of this question is to determine the
resulting shape of the membrane. This can be done by solving the BVP

Graph the solution. Note: The Fourier coefficients of the point source can be
found using the sifting property of the Dirac delta function.
54
The material on the delta function found in Section 4.6 or Section 5.7 is needed for this
exercise.
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8.3. Fourier series on a disk 359

Figure 8.9. The partition of the unit square used in Exercise 11.

14. Let (7 be the rectangle (8.10), and suppose d£l is partitioned as in (8.13).
Define

Let Lm : C^(Q) —>• C(fi) be defined by Lmu = —Aw. Use separation of

variables to find the eigenpairs of Lm with separated eigenfunctions.
15. Repeat Exercise 5, but assuming now that the edges F2 and Fa are insulated,
while edges FI and F4 are placed in an ice bath (dft is partitioned as in (8.13)).
(You will need the eigenpairs determined in Exercise 14.)

8.3 Fourier series on a disk

We now discuss another simple two-dimensional domain for which we can derive
Fourier series methods, namely, the case of a circular disk. We define

where A > 0 is a constant. We wish to develop Fourier series methods for the
following Dirichlet problem:
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360 Chapter 8. Problems in multiple spatial dimensions

The first step is to find the eigenvalues and eigenfunctions of the Laplacian, subject
to the Dirichlet conditions on the circle.
We have only one technique for finding eigenfunctions of a differential operator
in two variables, namely separation of variables. However, this technique is not
very promising in rectangular coordinates, since the boundary condition does not
separate. For this reason, we first change to polar coordinates. If we define

where (r, 9) are the polar coordinates corresponding to the rectangular coordinates
(#1,0:2), then the Dirichlet condition becomes simply

If we apply separation of variables and write v(r,0) = R(r)T(0), then the Dirichlet
condition is R(A}T(9] = 0 for all 0, which implies (if v is nontrivial) that R(A] = 0.
The use of polar coordinates introduces periodic boundary conditions for T:

There is also a boundary condition for R at r = 0, although it is not one we have

seen before. We simply need that R(Q) be a finite number.

8.3.1 The Laplacian in polar coordinates

Before we can apply separation of variables to the PDE, we must change variables
to determine the form of the (negative) Laplacian in polar coordinates. This is an
exercise in the chain rule, as we now explain. The chain rule implies, for example,
that

This allows us to replace the partial derivative with respect to x\ by partial deriva-
tives with respect to the new variables r and 0, provided we can compute

To deal with derivatives with respect to #2, we will also need

It is straightforward to compute the needed derivatives from the relationship

between rectangular and polar coordinates:
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8.3. Fourier series on a disk 361

We have

and, similarly,

Also,

and, similarly,

We collect these formulas for future reference:

We can now compute the Laplacian in polar coordinates. We have

and so
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362 Chapter 8. Problems in multiple spatial dimensions

A similar calculation shows that

Adding these two results and using the identity cos2 (0) + sin2 (9) = 1, we obtain

where we write — Ap for the Laplacian in polar coordinates.

8.3.2 Separation of variables in polar coordinates

We now apply separation of variables, and look for eigenfunctions of —A p (under
Dirichlet conditions) of the form

That is, we wish to find all solutions of

that have the form v(r,9) = R(r}T(0). Substituting the separated function v = RT
into the PDE yields the following:

Since the left side of this equation is a function of 0 alone, while the right side is a
function of r alone, both sides must be constant. We will write

or
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8.3. Fourier series on a disk 363

We then have

or

This last equation can be written as an eigenvalue problem for R, but it is not one
we have studied before. We will study it in detail below, but first we deal with the
easier eigenvalue problem for T.
As we mentioned above, the angular variable 0 introduces periodic boundary
conditions for T, so we must solve the eigenvalue problem

As we saw in Section 6.3, the eigenvalues are 0 and n 2 , n = 1,2,3, — The constant
function 1 is an eigenfunction corresponding to 7 = 0, and each positive eigenvalue
7 = n2 has two independent eigenfunctions, cos (nO) and sin (nO).

8.3.3 Bessel's equation

We now consider the problem

We know that A must be positive, since the Laplacian has only positive eigenvalues
under Dirichlet conditions (see Section 8.2.1). We can considerably simplify the
analysis by the change of variables

We define

so tnat

and
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364 Chapter 8. Problems in multiple spatial dimensions

We then have

The ODE

is called Bessel's equation of order n. In the new variables, the BVP (8.32) becomes

Bessel's equation does not have solutions that can be expressed in terms of
elementary functions. To find a solution of Bessel's equation, we can use a power
series expansion of the solution. We suppose55 that (8.33) has a solution of the
form

The value of a, as well as the coefficients 005^15^2, • • •, must be determined from

the differential equation and boundary conditions. We have

and so

Also,

55
This is yet another example of an inspired guess at the form of a solution. It is based on the
fact that Euler's equation,

has solutions of the form R(r) = ra.

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8.3. Fourier series on a disk 365

It is helpful to write

Substituting (8.36), (8.34), and (8.35) into Bessel's equation yields

or

This equation implies that the coefficient of each power of s must vanish, and so we
obtain the equations

which simplify to

We have assumed that ao / 0, so the first equation in (8.37) implies that

Moreover, the condition that 5(0) be finite rules out the possibility that a = —n,
so we conclude that

must hold. This, together with the second equation in (8.37), immediately implies
that

The third equation in (8.37) can be written as the recursion relation

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366 Chapter 8. Problems in multiple spatial dimensions

Since a\ = 0, (8.38) implies that all of the odd coefficients are zero:

On the other hand, we have

and, in general,

Since any multiple of a solution of (8.33) is again a solution, we may as well choose
the value of ao to give as simple a formula as possible for a 2 j • For this reason, we
choose

and obtain

We then obtain the solution

This function is a solution of Bessel's equation of order n. It is usually written

and called the Bessel function of order n. The reader should note that the above
calculations are valid for n = 0 as well asn = l,2,3, —

8.3.4 Properties of the Bessel functions

The Bessel functions have been extensively studied because of their utility in applied
mathematics, and their properties are well known.56 We will need the following
properties of the Bessel functions:
1. If n > 0, then Jn(0) = 0. This follows directly from (8.40).
56
Standard software packages, including MATLAB, Mathematica, and Maple, implement Bessel
functions just as they do elementary functions such as the natural logarithm or sine.
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8.3. Fourier series on a disk 367

2. The Bessel functions satisfy

This recursion relation can be verified directly by computing the power series
of the right-hand side and simplifying it to show that it equals the left-hand
side (see Exercise 10).
3. If, for a given value of a, Jn(aA) — 0, then

We will sketch the proof of this result. Since Jn satisfies Bessel's equation, we
have

and multiplying through by r yields

or

Next, we multiply through by 2rdJn/dr and manipulate the result:

Integrating both sides yields

In the last step, we used the fact that n 2 J n (0) = 0 since either n = 0 or
Jn(0) = 0. We can now evaluate the integral
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368 Chapter 8. Problems in multiple spatial dimensions

by making the change of variables s = or. The result is

with the last step following from the assumption that Jn(o:a) = 0. Finally,
applying (8.41), we obtain (8.42).

4. Each Jn, n = 0,1,2,..., has an infinite number of positive roots, which we

label sni < sn2 < sn3 < • • •• (There is no simple formula for the roots snm.)
We will not prove this fact. Figure 8.10 shows the graphs of Jo, Ji, and J^.
For future reference, we give here some of the roots57 of the Bessel functions:

8.3.5 The eigenfunctions of the negative Laplacian on the disk

Since Jn has an infinite sequence of positive roots, there are infinitely many positive
solutions to

namely,

Therefore, for each value of n, n = 0,l,2,..., there are infinitely many solutions to
(8.32). For each value of n, there are two independent solutions to (8.31):

57
These estimates were computed in Mathematica, using the BesselJ function and the Find-
Root command.
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8.3. Fourier series on a disk 369

Figure 8.10. The Bess el function JQ, 3\, and J^.

We therefore obtain the following doubly indexed sequence of eigenvalues for — Ap

(on the disk and under Dirichlet conditions), with one or two independent eigen-
functions for each eigenvalue:

Since — Ap is symmetric under Dirichlet conditions, we know that eigenfunctions

corresponding to distinct eigenvalues are orthogonal. It turns out that (pmn and
/2"\
(Pmn are orthogonal to each other as well, as a direct calculation shows:
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370 Chapter 8. Problems in multiple spatial dimensions

For convenience, we will write

We now have a sequence of eigenfunctions of - Ap on fJ (the disk of radius A

centered at the origin), and these eigenfunctions are orthogonal on £7. Just as in
the case in which f) was a rectangle, it is possible to represent any function in C(0)
in terms of these eierenfunctions:

The coefficients are determined by the usual formulas:

Using the properties of the Bessel functions developed above, we can simplify
((VmniVmn)
(!) (2) (2) ^\
(!) \ andA (((pmrnVmn):

and, similarly,

We can now represent a function /(r, 0) as in (8.46), where

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8.3. Fourier series on a disk 371

Given that software routines implementing the Bessel functions are almost as readily
available as routines for the trigonometric functions, it would appear that these
formulas are as usable as the analogous formulas on the rectangle. However, we
must keep in mind that we do not have formulas for the values of amn. Therefore,
to actually use Bessel functions, we must do a certain amount of numerical work to
obtain the needed values of amn and the eigenvalues \mn = c?mn.

Example 8.7. Consider the function f € C(£l) defined by

where fi is the unit disk (A = I ) . The corresponding function expressed in polar

coordinates is

We wish to compute an approximation to g using the eigenfunctions of — A p . This

is a particularly simple example, since, for any n > 0,

Similarly,

for every n > 0. It follows that g can be represented as follows:

This is not surprising; since g is independent of 9, it is reasonable that only the

eigenfunctions independent of 9 are needed to represent g.
Since we must compute numerical estimates of the eigenvalues \mn, we will
content ourselves with using 3 eigenfunctions, those corresponding to the eigenvalues
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372 Chapter 8. Problems in multiple spatial dimensions

To six digits, we have

(see (8.43)). Since A = 1 in this example, we have amn = smn and \mn = ^mn-
The needed coefficients are58

We now have the first three terms of the Fourier series for g. The graph of g is
shown in Figure 8.11, while the approximation is shown in Figure 8.12. Exercise 1
asks the reader to improve the approximation by using more terms.

Figure 8.11. The function g(r: 9} = 1 - r 2 .

8.3.6 Solving PDEs on a disk

Having found the eigenvalues and eigenfunctions of — Ap on the disk and under
Dirichlet conditions, we can now apply Fourier series methods to solve any of the
familiar equations: the Poisson equation, the heat equation, and the wave equation.
58
The integrals were computed in Mathematica, using the Integrate command.
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8.3. Fourier series on a disk 373

Figure 8.12. The approximation to function g(r,0] = I — r2, using three

terms of the Fourier series (see Example 8.7).

Example 8.8. We will solve (approximately) the BVP

where 0, is the unit disk. We have already seen that

where the coefficients cmo can be computed as in the previous example. We now
write

where the coefficients bmo are to be determined. (Since the forcing function is radial
(i.e. independent of 0), the solution will also be radial. Therefore, we do not need
the eigenfunctions that depend on 9.) Since each Jo(amQr) is an eigenfunction of
—A p under the given boundary conditions, we have
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374 Chapter 8. Problems in multiple spatial dimensions

where the eigenvalue Amo is given by Amo = #mo • Therefore, the PDE implies that

and so the solution is

We computed C\Q, c^o, c^o, «iO; &2Q, o,nd 0,3$ in the previous example, so we see
that

Example 8.9. We will now solve the wave equation on a disk and compare the
fundamental frequency of a circular drum to that of a square drum. We consider
the IBVP

where f) is the disk of radius A, centered at the origin. We write the solution as

Then, by the usual argument,

The wave equation then implies the following ODEs:

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8.3. Fourier series on a disk 375

From the initial conditions for the PDE, we obtain

where cmn, dmn are the (generalized) Fourier coefficients for <f>, and emn, fmn
are the (generalized) Fourier coefficients for 7. By applying the results of Section
4-7 and using the fact that \mn — o^nn, we obtain the following formulas for the
coefficients of the solution:

The smallest period of any of these coefficients is that of 0,1$:

The corresponding frequency, which is the fundamental frequency of this circular

drum, is

It would be reasonable to compare a circular drum of radius A (diameter 1A) with

a square drum of side length 1A. (Another possibility is to compare the circular
drum with a square drum of the same area. This is Exercise 9.) The fundamental
frequency of such a square drum is

The square drum sounds a lower frequency than the circular drum.

Exercises
1. Let g(r,9) = 1 — r 2 , as in Example 8.7. Compute the next three terms in the
series for g.
2. Let f(r,9] = I — r. Compute the first nine terms in the generalized Fourier
series for / (that is, those corresponding to the eigenvalues

Take fJ to be the unit disk.

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376 Chapter 8. Problems in multiple spatial dimensions

3. Solve the BVP

where £7 is the unit disk. Graph the solution. (Hint: Change to polar coordi-
nates and use the results of the previous exercise.)
4. Let /(r, 9} = r. Compute the first nine terms in the generalized Fourier series
for / (that is, those corresponding to the eigenvalues

Take f2 to be the unit disk.

5. Solve the BVP

where £7 is the unit disk. Graph the solution. (Hint: Change to polar coordi-
nates and use the results of the previous exercise.)
6. Let /(x) = (1 — #1 — Xz)(xi + xz). Convert to polar coordinates and compute
the first 16 terms in the (generalized) Fourier series (that is, those correspond-
ing to A mn , m = 1,2,3,4, n — 0,1,2,3). Graph the approximation and its
error.
7. Consider a disk made of copper (p = 8.97g/cm3, c = 0.379J/(gK), K =
4.04 W/(cmK)), of radius 10cm. Suppose that the temperature in the disk
is initially 4>(r,6) = rcos (0)(10 — r)/5. What is the temperature distribution
after 30 seconds (assuming that the top and bottom of the disk are perfectly
insulated, and the edge of the disk is held at 0 degrees Celsius)?
8. Consider an iron disk (p = 7.88 g/cm3, c = 0.437 J/(gK), « = 0.836W/(cmK))
of radius 15 cm. Suppose that heat energy is added to the disk at the constant
rate of

where the disk occupies the set

Assume that the top and bottom of the disk are perfectly insulated and that
the edge of the disk is held at 0 degrees Celsius.
(a) What is the steady-state temperature of the disk?
(b) Assuming the disk is initially 0 degrees Celsius throughout, how long
does it take for the disk to reach steady state (to within 1%)?
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8.4. Finite elements in two dimensions 377

9. Which has a lower fundamental frequency, a square drum or a circular drum

of equal area?
10. Show that (8.41) holds by deriving the power series for the right-hand side
and showing that it simplifies to the power series for the left-hand side.

8.4 Finite elements in two dimensions

We now turn our attention to finite element methods for multidimensional problems.
For the sake of simplicity, we will restrict our attention to problems in two spatial
dimensions and, as in one dimension, to piecewise linear finite elements.
The general outline of the finite element method does not change when we
move to two-dimensional space. The finite element method is obtained via the
following steps:
1. Derive the weak form of the given BVP.
2. Apply the Galerkin method to the weak form.
3. Choose a space of piecewise polynomials for the approximating subspace in
the Galerkin method.
The first step is very similar to the derivation in one dimension; as one might
expect, the main difference is that integration by parts is replaced by Green's first
identity. The Galerkin method is unchanged when applied to a two-dimensional
problem. The most significant difference in moving to two-dimensional problems is
in defining the finite element spaces. We must create a mesh on the computational
domain and define piecewise polynomials on the mesh. We will restrict ourselves to
triangulations and piecewise linear functions.

8.4.1 The weak form of a BVP in multiple dimensions

We begin with the following Dirichlet problem:

Here f) is a domain in R2 or R3; there is no difference in the following derivation.

We define the space V of test functions by

We then multiply the original PDE by an arbitrary v € V and apply Green's

identity:
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378 Chapter 8. Problems in multiple spatial dimensions

The last step follows from the fact that v vanishes on dtl.
We define the bilinear form a(-, •) by

We then obtain the weak form of the BVP (8.52):

The proof that a solution of the weak form also satisfies the original BVP follows
the same pattern as in Section 5.4.2 (see Exercise 6).

8.4.2 Galerkin's method

To apply Galerkin's method, we choose a finite-dimensional subspace Vn of V and
a basis {^1,^2, • • • , <f>n} ofVn. We then pose the Galerkin problem:

We write the solution as

and note that (8.54) is equivalent to:

Substituting (8.55) into (8.56), we obtain the following equations:

The stiffness matrix K and the load vector f are defined by

The reader will notice that the derivation of the equation Ku = f is exactly as in
Section 5.5, since Galerkin's method is described in a completely abstract fashion.
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8.4. Finite elements in two dimensions 379

The specific details, and the differences from the one-dimensional case, arise only
when the approximating subspace Vn is chosen.59
Moreover, just as in the one-dimensional case, the bilinear form a(-, •) defines
an inner product, called the energy inner product, and the Galerkin method pro-
duces the best approximation, in the energy norm, to the true solution u from the
approximating subspace Vn.

8.4.3 Piecewise linear finite elements in two dimensions

The graph of a first degree polynomial in two variables is a plane, and three points
determine a plane. Or, looking at it algebraically, the equation of a first degree
polynomial is determined by three parameters:

For this reason, it is natural to discretize a two-dimensional domain fU by defining

a triangulation on fi—that is, f) is divided into triangular subdomains. (If il is not
a polygonal domain, then f) itself must be approximated by a polygonal domain at
the cost of some approximation error.60) See Figure 8.13 for examples of triangular
meshes defined on various regions and Figure 8.14 for the graph of a piecewise linear
function. The reader should notice how the graph of a piecewise linear function is
made up of triangular "patches."
For a given triangulation T of il, we write n for the number of "free" nodes,
that is, nodes that do not lie on the boundary and hence do not correspond to a
Dirichlet boundary condition. We will denote a typical triangular element of T by
T, and a typical node by z. Let Vn be the following approximating subspace of V:
Vn = {v € C(fi) : v is piecewise linear on T, v(z) = 0 for all nodes z 6 dfl} .
To apply the Galerkin method, we must choose a basis for Vn. This is done exactly
as in one dimension. We number the free nodes of T as z i 5 z 2 , . . . , z n . Then, since
a piecewise linear function is determined by its values at the nodes of the mesh, we
define fa e Vn by the condition

A typical <fo is shown in Figure 8.15. Just as in the one-dimensional case, it is

straightforward to use property (8.57) to show that {</>i, 02, • • • , 0n} is a basis for
Vn and that, for any v 6 Vn,

59
Just as in Section 5.5, each of the symbols "u" and "f" has two meanings: u is the true
solution of the BVP, while u G Rn is the vector whose components are the unknown weights in
the expression (8.55) for the approximate solution vn. Similarly, / is the forcing function in the
BVP, while f e Rn is the load vector in the matrix-vector equation Ku = f.
60
Another way to handle this is to allow "triangles" with a curved edge.
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380 Chapter 8. Problems in multiple spatial dimensions

Figure 8.13. Triangular meshes defined on (1) a square (upper left), (2) a
union of three squares (upper right), (3) an annulus (lower left), and (4) a rhombus
(lower right). Since the annulus is not polygonal, the triangulated domain is only
an approximation to the original domain.

It is now straightforward (albeit quite tedious) to assemble the stiffness matrix

K and the load vector f—it is just a matter of computing the quantities o(0j,0f)
and (/,<&). We will illustrate this calculation on an example.

Example 8.10. For simplicity, we take as our example the constant coefficient
problem

where £) is the unit square:

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8.4. Finite elements in two dimensions 381

Figure 8.14. A piecewise linear function defined on the triangulation of

the annulus from Figure 8.13.

Figure 8.15. One of the standard piecewise linear basis functions.

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382 Chapter 8. Problems in multiple spatial dimensions

We choose a regular triangulation with 32 triangles, 25 nodes, and 9 free nodes.

The mesh is shown in Figure 8.16, with the free nodes labeled from 1 to 9.

Figure 8.16. The mesh for Example 8.10.

We begin with the computation of

The support?1 of fa is shown in Figure 8.17, which also labels the triangles in the
mesh, TI , TI ,..., Ts2. This support is made up of six triangles; on each of these
triangles, fa has a different formula. We therefore compute KH by adding up the
contributions from each of the six triangles:

On TI, V0i(x) = (l//i, 0), where h = 1/4 (observing how fa changes along
the horizontal and vertical edges ofTi leads to this conclusion). The area ofTi (and
of all the other triangles in the mesh) is /i 2 /2. Thus,

61
As we explained in Section 5.6, the support of a function is the set on which the function is
nonzero, together with the boundary of that set.
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8.4. Finite elements in two dimensions 383

On T-2, V^i(x) = (0, l/h), and we obtain

On T3, V^i(x) = (-1/fc, l/h), and

Figure 8.17. The support of 4>i (Example 8.10). The triangles of the
mesh, TI , T-2,..., T32 are also labeled.

It should be easy to believe, from symmetry, that

Adding up the contributions from the six triangles, we obtain

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384 Chapter 8. Problems in multiple spatial dimensions

Since the PDE has constant coefficients (and the basis functions are all the same
up to translation), it is easy to see that

We now turn our attention to the off-diagonal entries. For what values of
j ^ i will Kij be nonzero ? By examining the support of fa, we see that only fa,
04, and 05 have a support that overlaps (in a set of positive area, that is, not just
along the edge of a triangle) that of fa. The reader should study Figure 8.16 until
he or she is convinced of the following fundamental conclusion: The support of fa
and the support of fa have a nontrivial intersection if and only if nodes
i and j belong to a common triangle. By examining Figure 8.16, we see that
the following entries of K might be nonzero:

We now compute the first row ofK. We already know that KH = 4. Consult-
ing Fiaure 8.17, we see that

OnT3,

so

On T12,

so

Thus Ki2 = -l.

The reader can verify the following calculations:
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8.4. Finite elements in two dimensions 385

The rest of the calculations are similar, and the result is the following stiffness
matrix:

To compute the load vector f , we must evaluate the integrals

which is quite tedious when done by hand (unlike V0j, 0j itself is not piecewise
constant). We just show one representative calculation. We have

Therefore,
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386 Chapter 8. Problems in multiple spatial dimensions

Continuing in this manner, we find

We can now solve62 Ku = f to obtain

The resulting piecewise linear approximation is displayed in Figure 8.18.

The calculations in the previous example are elementary, but extremely time-
consuming, and are ideal for implementation in a computer program. When these
calculations are programmed, the operations are not organized in the same way as
in the above hand calculation. For example, instead of computing one entry in K
at a time, it is common to loop over the elements of the mesh and to compute
all the contributions to the various entries in K and f from each element in turn.
Among other things, this simplifies the data structure for describing the mesh. (To
automate the calculations presented above, it would be necessary to know, given a
certain node, which nodes are adjacent to it. This is avoided when one loops over
the elements instead of over the nodes.) Also, the various integrations are rarely
carried out exactly, but rather by using quadrature rules. These implementation
details are discussed in Section 10.1.
As we have discussed before, an important aspect of the finite element method
is the fact that the linear systems that must be solved are sparse. In Figure 8.19,
we display the sparsity pattern of the stiffness matrix for Poisson's equation, as in
Example 8.10, but with a finer grid. The matrix K is banded, that is, all of its
entries are zero except those found in a band around the main diagonal. Efficient
solution of banded and other sparse systems is discussed in Section 10.2.
62
It is expected that a computer program will be used to solve any linear system large than 2 x 2
or 3 x 3. We used MATLAB to solve Ku = f for this example.
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8.4. Finite elements in two dimensions 387

Figure 8.18. The piecewise linear approximation to the solution of (8.58).

Figure 8.19. The sparsity pattern of the discrete Laplacian (200 triangular
elements).
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388 Chapter 8. Problems in multiple spatial dimensions

8.4.4 Finite elements and Neumann conditions

We will close by describing briefly how Neumann conditions are handled in two-
dimensional finite elements. For the sake of generality, we will consider a problem
with possibly mixed boundary conditions. So suppose £7 is a domain in either R2 or
R3, and assume that dtl has been partitioned into two disjoint sets: d£l = I\ LJ T^.
We consider the following BVP:

As we discussed in Section 6.5, Dirichlet conditions are termed essential boundary

conditions because they must be explicitly imposed in the finite element method,
while Neumann conditions are called natural and need not be mentioned. We
therefore define the space of test functions by

The weak form of (8.59) is now derived exactly as on page 378; the boundary
integral

now vanishes because v = 0 on FI and du/dn — 0 on F2. Thus the weak form of
(8.59) is:

The bilinear form a(-, •) is defined exactly as before (the only difference from (8.53)
is in the space of test functions).
We now restrict our discussion once more to two-dimensional polygonal do-
mains. To apply the finite element method, we must choose an approximating
subspace of V. Since the boundary conditions are mixed, there are at least two
points where the boundary conditions change from Dirichlet to Neumann. We will
make the assumption that the mesh is chosen so that all such points are nodes (and
that all such nodes belong to F1; that is, that FI includes its "endpoints"). We can
then choose the approximating subspace of V as follows:

A basis for Vn is formed by including all basis functions corresponding to interior

nodes (as in the Dirichlet case), as well as the basis functions corresponding to
boundary nodes that do not belong to FI. For an example of a basis function
corresponding to a boundary node, see Figure 8.20.

Example 8.11. We consider the BVP

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8.4. Finite elements in two dimensions 389

Figure 8.20. A standard piecewise linear basis function corresponding to

a boundary node.

u(x) = 0, x € T3, (8.61)

du
—(x)
an
= o, x e r i u r 2 u r 4 ,
where Jl is the unit square, as in the previous example, and TI, 1^, T$, and T± are
defined as in Figure 8.3. We use the same regular triangulation of ft, 05 in Example
8.10. Now, however, the boundary nodes belonging to TI, r 2 , and F4 are free nodes
(but not the corners (1,1) and (0,1) of Ci). It follows that Vn has dimension 20.
The free nodes are labeled in Figure 8.21.
The calculation of the new stiffness matrix K and load vector f proceed as
before, and the resulting piecewise linear approximation to the true solution is dis-
played in Figure 8.22.

If the BVP includes only Neumann conditions, then the stiffness matrix will
be singular, reflecting the fact that BVP either does not have a solution or has
infinitely many solutions. Special care must be taken to compute a meaningful
solution to Ku = f.

8.4.5 Inhomogeneous boundary conditions

In a two-dimensional problem, inhomogeneous boundary conditions are handled
just as in one dimension. Inhomogeneous Dirichlet conditions are addressed via the
method of shifting the data (with a specially chosen piecewise linear function), while
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390 Chapter 8. Problems in multiple spatial dimensions

Figure 8.21. The mesh for Example 8.11.

Figure 8.22. The piecewise linear approximation to the solution of (8.61).

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8.4. Finite elements in two dimensions 391

inhomogeneous Neumann conditions are taken into account directly when deriving
the weak form. Both types of boundary conditions lead to a change in the load
vector. Exercises 5 and 7 ask the reader to derive the load vectors in these cases.

Exercises
1. Consider the BVP

where £) is the unit square, k(x) = I + x\x^ and /(x) = 1. Produce the
piecewise linear finite element (approximate) solution using a regular grid
with 18 triangles.
2. Repeat Exercise 1, but suppose that the boundary conditions are homogeneous
Neumann conditions on the right side F2 of the square and homogeneous
Dirichlet conditions on the other three sides.
3. Repeat Exercise 1, but suppose that the boundary conditions are homogeneous
Neumann conditions on every part of the boundary of fi. Let the right-hand
side be /(x) = #1 — 1/2 (so that the compatibility condition is satisfied and
a solution exists).
4. If u does not belong to Vn, then

is not equal to u. Instead, w is the piecewise linear interpolant of u (relative to

the given mesh T). The interpolant of u is one piecewise linear approximation
to u] if u is the solution to a BVP, then the finite element method computes
another. The purpose of this exercise is to compare the two.
(a) Verify that w(x) = #1X2(1 — #i)(l — #2) is the solution to the Dirichlet
problem

where fi is the unit square.

(b) Let T be the regular triangulation of £) with 18 triangles. Compute the
finite element approximation to u using piecewise linear functions on T.
(c) Compute the piecewise linear interpolant of u relative to T.
(d) Which is a better approximation of u, the finite element approximation or
the interpolant? Justify your answer both theoretically and numerically.
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392 Chapter 8. Problems in multiple spatial dimensions

5. (a) Explain how to solve an inhomogeneous Dirichlet problem using piece-

wise linear finite elements.
(b) Illustrate the procedure on the following BVP:

Let J7 be the unit square and use a regular grid with 18 triangles.
6. Suppose u is a solution to (8.53). Prove that u also solves (8.52).
7. (a) Explain how to solve an inhomogeneous Neumann problem using piece-
wise linear finite elements.
(b) What is the compatibility condition for an inhomogeneous Neumann
problem?
(c) Illustrate the procedure on the following BVP:

Let fi be the unit square and use a regular grid with 18 triangles.

8.5 Suggestions for further reading

The foundation of PDEs in two or more spatial dimensions is advanced calculus.
Kaplan [29] gives a straightforward introduction; an alternative at the same level is
Greenberg [20]. A more advanced treatment can be found in Marsden and Tromba
[37].
All of the references cited in Sections 5.8 and 6.7 deal with PDEs in multiple
spatial dimensions. Another source of information about Bessel function is Folland
[15].
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Chapter 9

Mope about Fourier series

In the preceding chapters, we introduced several kinds of Fourier series: the Fourier
sine series, cosine series, quarter-wave sine series, quarter-wave cosine series, and
the full Fourier series. These series were primarily used to represent the solution to
differential equations, and their usefulness was based on two facts:
1. Each is based on an orthogonal sequence with the property that every con-
tinuous function can be represented in terms of this sequence.
2. The terms in the series represent eigenfunctions of certain simple differential
operators (under various boundary conditions). This accounts for the fact
that it is computationally tractable to determine a series representation of
the solution to the corresponding differential equation.
In this chapter we will go deeper into the study of Fourier series. Specifically,
we will consider the following questions:
1. What is the relationship among the various kinds of Fourier series?
2. How can a partial Fourier series be found and evaluated efficiently?
3. Under what conditions and in what sense can a function be represented by its
Fourier series?
4. Can the Fourier series method be generalized to more complicated differential
equations (including nonconstant coefficients and/or irregular geometry)?
Our discussion will justify many of the statements we made earlier in the book
concerning the convergence of Fourier series. It also introduces the fast Fourier
transform (FFT), which is an exciting and recent development (from the last half
of the twentieth century63) in the long history of Fourier series. The calculation of
N Fourier coefficients would appear to require O(JV 2 ) operations (for reasons that
63
The FFT was popularized in the 1960s, by the paper [12]. However, the method was known
to Gauss long before; see [25].

393
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394 Chapter 9. More about Fourier series

we explain in Section 9.2). The FFT reduces the operation count to O(NlogN), a
considerable savings when TV is large.
We begin by introducing yet another type of Fourier series, the complex
Fourier series, that is convenient both for analysis and for expressing the FFT.

9.1 The complex Fourier series

We saw in Chapter 4 that problems apparently involving only real numbers can
sometimes be best addressed with techniques that use complex numbers. For ex-
ample, if the characteristic roots r\ and r-2 of the ODE

are distinct, then the general solution is

This formula holds even if r\ and r% are complex, in which case u is complex-valued
for most choices of c\ and c^. (We also saw, in Section 4.2.1, how to recover the
general real-valued solution if desired.)
In a similar way, there are some advantages to using complex-valued eigenfunc-
tions, even when solving differential equations involving only real-valued functions.
Using Euler's formula,

we see that

and therefore

This suggests that the negative second derivative operator has complex exponential
eigenfunctions.
We leave it to the exercises (see Exercise 4) to show that nonzero solutions to
the BVP
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9.1. The complex Fourier series 395

exist only for A = 0,7r 2 /7 2 ,..., n 2 ?r 2 /£ 2 , — The eigenvalue A = 0 has eigenfunc-

tion 1 (the constant function), while each eigenvalue A = n2ir2/I2 has two linearly
independent eigenfunctions,

When n = 0, e™nx/1 reduces to the constant function 1 and A = n2?r2/72 reduces

to A = 0. Therefore, to simplify the notation, we will write the complete list of
eigenvalue-eigenfunction pairs as

In this section we use the eigenfunctions given in (9.2) to form Fourier series
representing functions on the interval (—£,(.). Since Fourier series calculations are
based on orthogonality, we must take a slight detour to discuss complex vector space
and inner products. Some of the following results have been used earlier in the text,
but only briefly in the course of demonstrating that a symmetric operator has only
real eigenvalues.

9.1.1 Complex inner products

As we discussed in Section 3.1, a vector space is a set of objects (vectors), along
with two operations, (vector) addition and scalar multiplication. To this point, we
have used real numbers as the scalars; however, the complex numbers can also be
used as scalars. For emphasis, when we use complex numbers as scalars, we refer
to the vector space as a complex vector space.
The most common complex vector space is C n , complex n-space:

Just as for R n , addition and scalar multiplication are defined componentwise.

The only adjustment that must be made in working with complex vector
spaces is in the definition of inner product. If u is a vector from a complex vector
space, then it is permissible to multiply u by the imaginary unit i to get iu. But if
there is an inner product (•, •) on the space, and if the familiar properties of inner
product hold, then

This suggests that either (w,u) or (iu,iu) is negative, contradicting one of the rules
of inner products (and making it impossible to define a norm based on the inner
product).
For this reason, the definition of inner product is modified for complex vector
spaces.
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396 Chapter 9. More about Fourier series

Definition 9.1. Let V be a complex vector space. An inner product on V is a

function taking two vectors from V and producing a complex number, in such a way
that the following three properties are satisfied:
1. (w,t>) = (v,u) for all vectors u and v;
2. (au + j3v, w] — a(u, w) + {3(v, w) and (w, au + fiv) — a(w, u) + fi(w, v) for all
vectors u, v, and w and all complex numbers a and 0;
3. (w, w) > 0 for all vectors u, and (u,u) — 0 if and only if u is the zero vector.

In the above definition, z denotes the complex conjugate of z € C. (If z =

x + iy, with x, y € R, then ~z = x — iy.)
For C n , the inner product is suggested by the fact that

for z € C. We define

It is straightforward to verify that the properties of an inner product are satisfied.

In particular,

If we now consider the space of complex-valued functions defined on an interval

[a, b], the same reasoning as in Section 3.4 leads to the complex L2 inner product,

(We will use the same notation as for the real L2 inner product, since, when / and g
are real-valued, the presence of the complex conjugate in the formula has no effect,
and the ordinary L2 inner product is obtained.)

9.1.2 Orthogonality of the complex exponentials

A direct calculation now shows that the eigenfunctions given in (9.2) are orthogonal
with respect to the (complex) L2 inner product:
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9.1. The complex Fourier series 397

The last step follows because e^n m 1

^ is 27r-periodic. We also have

This shows that the L2 norm of the eigenfunction is y/%1.

9.1.3 Representing functions with complex Fourier series

If / is a continuous, complex-valued function denned on [ — I , I ] , then its complex
Fourier series is

where

These complex Fourier coefficients are computed according to the projection theo-
rem; it follows that

is the element of the subspace

closest to / in the L2 norm. Also, we will show in Section 9.6 that the complex
Fourier series converges to / in the L2 norm under mild conditions on / (in partic-
ular, if / is continuous).
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398 Chapter 9. More about Fourier series

9.1.4 The complex Fourier series of a real-valued function

If / € C[—i,i] is real-valued, then, according to our assertions above, it can be
represented by its complex Fourier series. We now show that, since / is real-valued,
each partial sum (n = —TV, — JV + 1,..., AT) of the complex Fourier series is real,
and moreover that the complex Fourier series is equivalent to the full Fourier series
in this case.
So we suppose / is real-valued and that cn, n = 0, ±1, ±2,... are its complex
Fourier coefficients. For reference, we will write the full Fourier series of / (see
Section 6.3) as

where

Now,

For n > 0,

Similary, with n > 0, we have

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9.1. The complex Fourier series 399

Therefore,

(The reader should notice how all imaginary quantities sum to zero in this calcula-
tion.)
Therefore, for any N > 0,

This shows that every (symmetric) partial sum of the complex Fourier series of a
real-valued function is real and also that the complex Fourier series is equivalent to
the full Fourier series.

Exercises
1. Let / : [-1,1] ->• R be defined by f ( x ) = I — x2. Compute the complex
Fourier series

of /, and graph the errors

for TV = 10,20,40.
2. Let / : [—7r,7r] —>• R be denned by f ( x ) = x. Compute the complex Fourier
coefficients c n , n = 0, ±1, ±2,..., of /, and graph the errors

for TV = 10,20,40.
3. Let / : [—1,1] —> C be defined by f ( x ) = elx. Compute the complex Fourier
coefficients cn, n — 0, ±1, ±2,..., of /, and graph the errors
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400 Chapter 9. More about Fourier series

for N = 10,20,40. (Note: You will have to either graph the real and imaginary
parts of the error separately or just graph the modulus of the error.)
4. Consider the negative second derivative operator under periodic boundary
conditions on [—£,•£].
(a) Show that each pair listed in (9.2) is an eigenpair.
(b) Show that (9.2) includes every eigenvalue.
(c) Show that every eigenfunction is expressible in terms of those given in
(9.2).
(d) Compare these results to those derived in Section 6.3, and explain why
they are consistent.
5. Suppose that / : [—•£,•£] —> C is defined by f ( x ) = g(x] + ih(x), where g and
h are real-valued functions defined on [—i,£]. Show that the complex Fourier
coefficients can be expressed in terms of the full Fourier coefficients of g and
h.
6. Prove that, for any real numbers 0 and A,

(Hint: Use Euler's formula and trigonometric identities.)

7. Let TV be a positive integer, j a positive integer between 1 and N — 1, and
define vectors u e RN and v e RN by

\ / \ /

(For this exercise, it is convenient to index the components of x € RN as

0,1,..., TV — 1, instead of 1,2,..., TV as is usual.) The purpose of this exercise
is to prove that
(a) u • v = 0, that is, u and v are orthogonal.

These results are based on the following trick: The sum

is a finite geometric series, for which there is a simple formula. On the other
hand.

can be rewritten by replacing e7r'lJn/N by cos (jnir/N) +i sin (jrnr/N), expand-

ing the square, and summing. Find the sum (9.3) both ways, and deduce the
results given above.
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9.2. Fourier series and the FFT 401

9.2 Fourier series and the FFT

We now show that there is a very efficient way to estimate Fourier coefficients and
evaluate (partial) Fourier series. We will use the BVP

as our first example. To solve this by the method of Fourier series, we express u
and / in complex Fourier series, say

(cn, n = 0, ±1, ± 2 , . . . unknown) and

(dn,n = 0,±l,±2,... known). The differential equation can then be written as

and we obtain

The reader will notice the similarity to how the problem was solved in Section
6.3.2. (The calculations, however, are simpler when using the complex Fourier
series instead of the full Fourier series.) As in Section 6.3.2, the coefficient do must
be zero, that is,

must hold, in order for a solution to exist. When this compatibility condition holds,
the value of CQ is not determined by the equation and infinitely many solutions exist,
differing only in the choice of c0.
For analytic purposes, the formula (9.6) may be all we need. For example, as
we discuss in Section 9.5.1, (9.6) shows that the solution u is considerably smoother
than the forcing function / (since the Fourier coefficients of u decay to zero faster
than those of /). However, in many cases, we want to produce a numerical estimate
of the solution u. We may wish, for example, to estimate the values of u on a grid
so that we can graph the solution accurately. This requires three steps:
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402 Chapter 9. More about Fourier series

1. Compute the Fourier coefficients dn, n = 0, ±1, ±2,..., TV, of / by evaluating

the appropriate integrals.
2. Compute the Fourier coefficients cn, n = 0, ±1, ±2,..., TV, of u from formula
(9.6).
3. Evaluate the partial sum

on a grid covering the interval [—I, I], say Xj — jh, j = 0, ±1,±2,... ,±JV,
/i = £/JV.
If JV is chosen large enough, this will produce accurate estimates of u(xj), j —
0,±1,±2,...,±JV.
Until this point, we have implicitly assumed that all of the calculations nec-
essary to compute u would be done analytically (using various integration rules to
compute the necessary Fourier coefficients, for example). This is not always possi-
ble (some integrals cannot be computed using elementary functions) and not always
desirable when it is possible (because there may be more efficient methods). We
will therefore consider how to estimate u.

9.2.1 Using the trapezoidal rule to estimate Fourier coefficients

We begin by estimating the integrals defining the Fourier coefficients of /:

A simple formula for estimating this integral is the so-called (composite) trapezoidal
rule, which replaces the integral by a discrete sum that can be interpreted as the
eiim rvf arooc nf trar^ovnirlc'

where h = (b — a)/N and Xj = a + jh, j = 0,1,2,..., N. Figure 9.1 shows the

geometric interpretation of the trapezoidal rule. Although the trapezoidal rule is
generally only second-order (that is, the error is O (h2}), it is highly accurate for
periodic functions ,64
To apply the trapezoidal rule to the computation of dn, we define the grid
Xj = jh, j = 0, ±1, ±2,..., ±N, h = i/N. Then

For details, see any book on numerical analysis, for example, [2].
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9.2. Fourier series and the FFT 403

Figure 9.1. Illustration of the trapezoidal rule for numerical integration;

the (signed) area under the curve is estimated by the areas of the trapezoids.

Since

and

we can simplify this to

where

and

The reader should take note of the special definition of f-N, which reduces to simply
f_N = f(x-N) = /(-£) when / is 2^-periodic (so that f(-l) = f ( t } } .
The sequence of estimates F-N, F_JV+I, • • • , FN-I is essentially produced by
applying the discrete Fourier transform to the sequence /-AT, f-N+i, • • • , /jv-i, as
we now show.
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404 Chapter 9. More about Fourier series

9.2.2 The discrete Fourier transform

Just as a function defined on \—i, —H\ can be synthesized from functions, each having
a distinct frequency, so a finite sequence can be synthesized from sequences with
distinct frequencies.

Definition 9.2. Let 0,0,0,1,..., OM-I be a sequence of real or complex numbers.

Then the discrete Fourier transform (DFT) maps ao, a i , . . . , OM-I to the sequence

where

The original sequence can be recovered by applying the inverse DFT:

The proof of this relationship is a direct calculation (see Exercise 5). We will often
refer to the sequence A0,Ai,... ,AM-I as the DFT of ao>«i, • • • >«M-I, although
the correct way to express the relationship is that A0,Ai,..., AM-I is the image
under the DFT of OQ, a i , . . . , OM-I (the DFT is the mapping, not the result of the
mapping). This abuse of terminology is just a convenience, and is quite common.
As another convenience, we will write the sequence 00,01,... ,OM-I as {aj}1^1,
or even just {a,j} (if the limits of j are understood).
We will now show that the relationship between the sequences {/jj^T.1^ and
[Fn}n=-N can be expressed in terms of the DFT. (The reader will recall that
Fn = dn, the nth Fourier coefficient of the function / on [—I,i}.} Since elQ is
27r-periodic, we have

We can therefore write, for n = —N, —N + 1,..., N — 1,

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9.2. Fourier series and the FFT 405

If we define a sequence {fj}?=0 *^

then we have

Moreover, by the periodicity of eze, we can write

Defining the sequence (Fn}^0 l by

we have

Thus {Fn} is the DFT of {/j}. With this rearrangement of terms understood, we
can say that {Fn} is the DFT of {fj}.
To actually compute {Fn}n=-N f rom {/jljL^-V' we perform the following
three steps:
1. Replace the sequence

with

and label the latter sequence as {fj}2j~0 l

.

2. Compute the DFT of {fj}2^1 to get {Fn}^-i.

3. The desired sequence {Fn}^~^N is

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406 Chapter 9. More about Fourier series

The representation of the original sequence in terms of its DFT and the com-
plex exponentials can be viewed as trigonometric interpolation, since it provides
a combination of complex exponentials (and hence sines and cosines) that inter-
polates the sequence /_AT,/_JV+I,-• • ,/JY-I and therefore the function /. To be
precise, define a function / : R -» C by

where Fn, n = 0, ±1, ±2,... is defined by (9.8). Then / satisfies

and

(see Exercise 4).

Example 9.3. We define f : [—1,1] —>• R by /(#) = x3. We will compute the
interpolating function I of the previous paragraph with N = 3. The sequence {fj}
is (approximately)

(recall that /_ 3 - ( f ( x - 3 ) + fM)/2 = (/(-I) + /(l))/2 = (-1 + l)/2 = Q). The

sequence {Fn} is then given by65

In Figure 9.2, we display the function f , the sequence {fj}, and the interpolating
function

We now have two important facts:

1. By computing a DFT, we can estimate IN of the complex Fourier coefficients
of a known function.
65
The calculation was performed in MATLAB using a built-in function for computing the DFT.
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9.2. Fourier series and the FFT 407

Figure 9.2. The function f ( x ) — x3, the sequence {fj}, and the trigono-
metric interpolating function I ( x ) = X) n __ 3 Fnetwnx (see Example 9.3).

2. Conversely, given the first 2AT complex Fourier coefficients of a periodic func-
tion, we can estimate the function (on a regular grid with IN + 1 nodes) by
computing an inverse DFT.

These facts are significant because there is a fast algorithm for computing the DFT;
this algorithm is called, appropriately enough, the fast Fourier transform (FFT).
There is a similar fast algorithm for the inverse DFT, which is simply called the
inverse FFT.
A direct implementation of formula (9.9) requires O((M) 2 ) arithmetic oper-
ations to compute a DFT. The FFT algorithm, on the other hand, can require as
little as O(Mlog2 (M)) operations to obtain the same result. The efficiency of the
FFT depends on the prime factorization of M; if M is the product of small primes,
then the FFT is very efficient. The ideal situation is that M be a power of 2; in
this case, the O(Mlog 2 (M)) operation count applies. There are many books that
explain how the FFT algorithm works, such as Kammler [28], Chapter 6. We will
not concern ourselves with the implementation of the algorithm in this text, but
just regard the FFT as a black box for computing the DFT.66
66
The FFT is one of the most important computer algorithms for computational science (indeed,
the original paper [12] announcing the algorithm is reputed to be the most widely cited mathemat-
ical paper of all time—see [28], page 295). For this reason, implementations of the FFT exist on
every major computer platform and it is also a feature of computer packages such as MATLAB,
Mathematica^ and Maple.
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408 Chapter 9. More about Fourier series

Using the above results, we can devise an efficient algorithm for solving (ap-
proximately) the BVP (9.4):
1. Using the FFT, estimate the Fourier coefficients d-w,d-N+i, • • •,djv-i of /.
2. Use (9.6) to estimate the corresponding Fourier series of the solution u.
3. Use the inverse FFT to estimate the values of u on the grid —i, —l+h,..., i—h,
h = t/N.

Example 9.4. We use the above algorithm to estimate the solution of

The forcing function f(x] = x3 satisfies the compatibility condition, as can easily
be verified. An exact solution is u(x) = (x — x5)/2Q, which corresponds to choosing
CQ = 0 in the Fourier series

We will use N = 128 = 27; which makes the FFT particularly efficient. Using
(9.8), implemented by the FFT, we produce the estimates

(Recall the /_i28 i$ taken as the average of f(—1) and /(I); in this case, this aver-
age is 0.) To indicate accuracy of the computed Fourier coefficients, we graph the
logarithm of the absolute error in the resulting trigonometric interpolating function
I ( x ] , as given by (9.11), in Figure 9.3. As this graph shows, the error is essentially
zero at the interpolation nodes and very small in between, except near the endpoints
where Gibbs's phenomenon is evident (because f is not periodic). (We graph the
logarithm of the error because of the great disparity in the magnitude of the error
near the endpoints and in the interior of the interval. If we graphed the error itself,
only the Gibbs's phenomenon would be discernible on the scale of the graph.)
We next compute the estimates 0/c_i28,C-i27 5 ... ,0127.'

and we take c$ — 0. Finally, we use the inverse FFT to produce the estimates
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9.2. Fourier series and the FFT 409

Figure 9.3. Logarithm of error in the trigonometric interpolating function

We then have

We graph the error in the computed solution in Figure 9-4-

9.2.3 A note about using packaged FFT routines

There is more than one way to define the discrete Fourier transform, and therefore
various implementations of the FFT may implement slightly different formulas. For
example, the formulas for the DFT and the inverse DFT are asymmetric in that the
factor of 1/M appears in the DFT (9.9) but not in the inverse DFT (9.10). However,
some software packages put the factor of 1/M in the inverse DFT instead.67 It is
also possible to make symmetric formulas by putting a factor of 1/vM in each of
the DFT and the inverse DFT.68 One can also define the DFT while indexing from
-N to N - 1, as in (9.8).
Given the diversity in definitions of the DFT and therefore of the FFT (which,
as the reader should bear in mind, is just a fast algorithm for computing the DFT),
it is essential that one knows which definition is being used before trying to apply
a packaged FFT routine.
67
MATLAB is one such package.
68
Mathematica does this by default.
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410 Chapter 9. More about Fourier series

Figure 9.4. Error in computed solution in Example 9.4-

9.2.4 Fast transforms and other boundary conditions; the

discrete sine transform
Fast transform methods are not restricted to problems with periodic boundary
conditions. Discrete transforms can be defined that are useful for working with
sine, cosine, quarter-wave sine, and quarter-wave cosine series, as well as with the
full Fourier series. A comprehensive source of software for the corresponding fast
transforms is [48].
As an example, we discuss the discrete sine transform (DST) and its use in
solving problems with Dirichlet conditions. The DST of a sequence /i, /2, • • • , /AT-I
is defined by

It can be shown that the DST is its own inverse, up to a multiplicative constant:
applying the DST to F0,FI, ..., FN-I produces the original sequence multiplied by
27V (see Exercise 9).
In solving a BVP or an IBVP with Dirichlet conditions, the main calculations
are:

1. computing the Fourier sine coefficients of a given function;

2. computing the solution from its Fourier coefficients.

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9.2. Fourier series and the FFT 411

As with the DFT and complex Fourier series, we can solve these problems approx-
imately using the DST. If / e (?[(),£], then the Fourier sine coefficients of / are
cnvpn V>v

Using the regular grid Xj = jh, j — 0,1,2,..., A/", h = t/N, and the trapezoidal
rule, we obtain

where fj = f ( x j ) . The trapezoidal rule simplifies due to the fact that sin(O) =
sin (n?r) = 0. We therefore see that the approximate Fourier sine coefficients are
just a multiple of the DST of the sequence /(#i), /(a^), ••••> f(%N-i)-
On the other hand, suppose the Fourier sine series of u is

and we know Ci,C2,. - . , cjv-i (or approximations to them). We then have, for
j = l,2,...,JV-l,

and we see that u can be estimated on a regular grid by another application of the
DST.

9.2.5 Computing the DST using the FFT

As mentioned above, there are special programs available for computing transforms,
such as the DST, using FFT-like algorithms. However, these programs are more
specialized and therefore less widely available than the FFT.69 Fortunately, the
DST can be computed using the DFT (and hence the FFT) and a few additional
manipulations. We will now explain how to do this.
69
For example, MATLAB has an FFT command, but no fast DST command.
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412 Chapter 9. More about Fourier series

We assume that {fj}f=ll is a sequence of real numbers and that we wish to

compute the DST of {fj}. We define a new sequence {fj}™^1 by

We then define {Fn}2^ to be the DFT of {fj}:

Since we are interested in the DST, we will look at the imaginary part of Fn, which
is (using the fact that /0 = /AT = 0)

(using the fact that fj+N = /ZN-N-J = /N-J for j = 1,2,..., TV — 1). We have

and so

It follows that the sequence

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9.2. Fourier series and the FFT 413

is the DST of {/_,-}.

The reader should note that, when using the FFT to compute the DST, N
should be a product of small primes for efficiency.
A similar technique allows one to compute the discrete cosine transform (DCT)
using the FFT. The DCT is explored in Exercise 10.

Exercises
1. Define a sequence {fj}}=0 by

Compute the DFT {Fn} of {fj} and graph its magnitude.

2. Let / : [—7r,7r] —> R be defined by /(#) = x 2 . Use the DFT to estimate the
complex Fourier coefficients cn of /, n = — 8 , — 7 , . . . , 7 . Compare with the
exact values: CQ — 7r2/3, cn = 2(—l) n /n 2 , n = ±1, ±2, —
3. Let / : [—1,1] ^ R be defined by f ( x ) = x(l - x2}. The complex Fourier
coefficients of / are

Use the inverse DFT to estimate / on a grid, and graph both / and the
computed estimate on [—1,1]. Use c_ie, c _ i 5 , . . . , Ci5.
4. Show that, with / defined by (9.11), the interpolation equations (9.12) and
(9.13) hold.
5. Let ao, « i , . . . , CLN-I be a sequence of real or complex numbers, and define

Prove that

Hint: Substitute the formula for An into

and interchange the order of summation. (A dummy index, say m, must be

used in place of j in the formula for An.) Look for a geometric series and use
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414 Chapter 9. More about Fourier series

6. Suppose u satisfies periodic boundary conditions on the interval [—•£,•£], and

is the complex Fourier series of u. Prove that

is the complex Fourier series of —d?u/dx2.

7. Use the DST to estimate the first 15 Fourier coefficients of the function f(x} =
x(l — x) on the interval [0,1]. Compare to the exact values

8. The Fourier sine coefficients of f ( x ) = x(l — x) on [0,1] are

Use the DST and ai, 02, • • • , «es to estimate / on a grid with 63 evenly spaced
points.
9. Let /o, /i,..., /jv-i be a sequence of real numbers, and define F0, FI , . . . , FN-I
by (9.15). Then define # 0 ,£i, • • • ,9N-i by

Show that QJ = 2JV/j, j = 0,1,..., N — I. Hint: Proceed according to the

hint in Exercise 5. You can use the fact that the vectors

are orthogonal in RN l for j, m = 1,2,..., N — l,j^m (see Exercise 3.5.7).

Also, each of these vectors has norm \/N/1 (see Exercise 9.1.7).
10. The DOT maps a sequence {fj}^=0 of real numbers to the sequence {Fn}^=0,
where
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9.3. Relationship of sine and cosine series to the full Fourier series 415

(a) Reasoning as in Section 9.2.4, show how the DCT can be used to estimate
the Fourier cosine coefficients of a function in C[0,£j.
(b) Reasoning as in Section 9.2.4, show how the DCT can be used to estimate
a function from its Fourier cosine coefficients.
(c) Modifying the technique presented in Section 9.2.5, show how to compute
the DCT using the DFT (and hence the FFT). (Hint: Given {fj}?=0,
define {&*£„ by

and treat {fj}^-^N by the three step process on page 405.)

(d) Show that the DCT is its own inverse, up to a constant multiple. To be
precise, show that if the DCT is applied to a given sequence and then the
DCT is applied to the result, one obtains IN times the original sequence.

9.3 Relationship of sine and cosine series to the full

Fourier series
In Section 9.1, we showed that the complex and full Fourier series are equivalent
for a real-valued function. We will now show that both the Fourier cosine and the
Fourier sine series can be recognized as special cases of the full Fourier series and
hence of the complex Fourier series. This will show that the complex Fourier series
is the most general concept.
To understand the relationships between the various Fourier series for real-
valued functions, we must understand the following terms:

Definition 9.5. Let f : R ->• R. Then f is

1. odd if f(-x) = —f(x) for all x G R;
2. even if f(—x) — j ( x ] for all x 6 R;
3. periodic with period T if T > 0, f ( x + T) = f(x] for all x e R; and this
condition does not hold for any smaller positive value ofT.

Examples of odd functions include polynomials with only odd powers and
sin (x). Polynomials with only even powers and cos (x) are examples of even func-
tions, while sine and cosine are the prototypical periodic functions (both have period
2?r). The algebraic properties defining odd and even functions imply that the graph
of an odd function is symmetric through the origin, while the graph of an even
function is symmetric across the y-axis (see Figure 9.5).
We will show that the full Fourier series of an odd function reduces to a sine
series, and that the full Fourier series of an even function reduces to a cosine series.
We need this preliminary result:
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416 Chapter 9. More about Fourier series

Figure 9.5. Examples of odd (left) and even (right) functions.

Lemma 9.6.
1. Suppose f : R —>• R is odd. Then

2. Suppose f : R —>• R is even. Then

Proof. Suppose / is odd. Then

Making the change of variables x = — s in the first integral on the right, we obtain

The result for even / is proved by making the same change of variables.

We can now derive the main result.

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9.3. Relationship of sine and cosine series to the full Fourier series 417

Theorem 9.7. Let f 6 L2(—t,I), and suppose that

is the full Fourier series of f .

1. If f is odd. then

and

That is, the full Fourier series (on [—1, i]) of an odd function is the same as
its Fourier sine series (on [0,f\).
2. If f is even, then
6n = 0, n = l,2,3,...
and

That is, the full Fourier series (on [—1,1]) of an even function is the same as
its Fourier cosine series (on [Q,i]).

Proof. If / is odd, then

is odd and

is even. This, together with the previous lemma, yields the first result.
If / is even, then

is even and

is odd. Prom this we obtain the second conclusion.

We can use the preceding result in the following fashion. Suppose we wish
to understand the convergence of the Fourier sine series of / : (0, i) —>• R. Define
fodd '• (—£•,£) —>• R-5 the odd extension of /, by
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418 Chapter 9. More about Fourier series

Then, by the previous theorem, the (full) Fourier series of f0dd is the sine series of /,
so the convergence of the sine series can be understood in terms of the convergence
of a related (full) Fourier series.
Similarly, given / : (0,^) -> R, we define feven : (—£,£) -> R, the even
extension of /, by

The Fourier series of feven is the cosine series of /, so, again, the convergence of
the cosine series can be examined in terms of the convergence of a related Fourier
series.
Figure 9.6 shows the odd and even extensions of / : [-1,1] ->• R defined by
f ( x ) = 1 + x.

Figure 9.6. The function f(x} = l + x and its odd (left) and even (right)
extensions.

Exercises
1. Compute the Fourier sine series of f ( x ) = x on the interval [—1,1] and graph
the sum of the first 50 terms on the interval [—3,3]. To what function does
the series appear to converge? What is the period of this function?
2. Compute the Fourier cosine series of f ( x ) = x on the interval [—1,1] and
graph it on the interval [—3,3]. To what function does the series appear to
converge? What is the period of this function?
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9.4. Pointwise convergence of Fourier series 419

3. Suppose / : [0,^] —>• R is continuous.

(a) Under what conditions is f0dd continuous?

(b) Under what conditions is feven continuous?

4. Consider a function / : [—•£,•£] —>• R, and let cn, n = 0, ±1,±2,... be its

complex Fourier coefficients.

(a) Suppose / is odd. What special property do the coefficients cn, n =

0, ±1, ±2,... have?
(b) Suppose / is even. What special property do the coefficients cn, n =
0, ±1, ±2,... have?

5. Show how to relate the quarter-wave sine series of / : [0,£| -> R to the full
Fourier series of a related function. (Hint: This other function will be denned
on the interval [-2^,2^].)

6. Show how to relate the quarter-wave cosine series of / : [0, t] —>• R to the full
Fourier series of a related function. (Hint: This other function will be defined
on the interval [-2^,2^].)

9.4 Pointwise convergence of Fourier series

Given the relationships that exist among the various Fourier series, it suffices to
discuss the convergence of complex Fourier series. The convergence of other series,
such as the Fourier sine series, will then follow directly.
If / is a real- or complex-valued function defined on [—.£, £], then the partial
sums
w

form a sequence of functions. Before discussing the convergence of these partial

sums specifically, we describe different ways in which a sequence of functions can
converge.

9.4.1 Modes of convergence for sequences of functions

Given any sequence {/AT}^=I of functions defined on [a, 6] and any (target) function
/, also defined on [a, 6], we define three types of convergence of the sequence to /.
That is, we assign three different meanings to "/AT ->• / as N —>• oo."

1. We say that {/AT} converges pointwise to / on [a, b] if, for each x £ [a, 6], we
have /jv(ar) ->• f ( x ) as N ->• oo (i.e. |/(ar) - /AT(X)| -)• 0 as N -> oo).

2. We say that {/AT} converges to / in L2 (or in the mean-square sense) if

ll/ ~ /wll —>• 0 as ./V —>• oo. The reader will recall that the (L 2 ) norm of a real-
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420 Chapter 9. More about Fourier series

or complex-valued function g on [a, b] is

Therefore, /TV —> f in the mean-square sense means that

3. We say that {/AT} converges to / uniformly on [a, b] if

Actually, this definition is stated correctly only if all of the functions involved
are continuous, so that the maximum is guaranteed to exist. The general
definition is: {/AT} converges to / uniformly on [a, b] if, given any e > 0,
there exists a positive integer Ne such that, if N > Ne and x e [a, 6], then
\f(x) — /TV(X)| < e. The intuitive meaning of this definition is that, given any
small tolerance e, by going far enough out in the sequence, /N will approximate
/ to within this tolerance uniformly, that is, on the entire interval.
The following theorem shows that the uniform convergence of a sequence im-
plies its convergence in the other two senses. This theorem is followed by examples
that show that no other conclusions can be drawn in general.

Theorem 9.8. Let {/AT} be a sequence of complex-valued functions defined on

[a,6]. // this sequence converges uniformly on [a,b] to f : [a,b] -» C, then it also
converges to f pointwise and in the mean-square sense.

Proof. See Exercise 5.

Example 9.9. We define

Figure 9.7 shows the graphs of g§, giQ, and #20 • Then {gN} converges pointwise
to the zero function. Indeed, pAr(O) = 0 for all N, so clearly pAr(O) -» 0, and if
0 < x < 1, then for N sufficiently large, 2/N < x. Therefore gN(x) = 0 for all N
sufficiently large, and so gN(x) —> 0.
A direct calculation shows that gN —>• 0 in L2:
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9.4. Pointwise convergence of Fourier series 421

Figure 9.7. The functions g$, gw, #20 (see Example 9.9).

The convergence is not uniform, since

Example 9.10. This example is almost the same as the previous one. We define

(see Figure 9.8). We have HN -> 0 pointwise on [0,1], and {h^} does not converge
uniformly to 0 on [0,1], by essentially the same arguments as in the previous exam-
ple. In this example, however, the sequence also fails to converge in the L2 norm.
We have
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422 Chapter 9. More about Fourier series

Figure 9.8. The functions h^, HIQ, H^Q (see Example 9.10).

We saw in Theorem 9.8 that a uniformly convergent sequence also converges

pointwise and in the mean-square sense. Example 9.9 shows that neither point-
wise nor mean-square convergence implies uniform convergence, while Example 9.10
shows that pointwise convergence does not imply mean-square convergence. We will
see, in the context of Fourier series, that mean-square convergence does not imply
pointwise convergence either.

9.4.2 Pointwise convergence of the complex Fourier series

We now begin to develop conditions under which the Fourier series of a function con-
verges pointwise, uniformly, and in the mean-square sense. We begin with pointwise
convergence.

The partial Fourier series as integration against a kernel

Our starting point is a direct calculation showing that a partial Fourier series of a
function / can be written as the integral of / times a term from a delta sequence.
The difficult part of the proof will be showing that this sequence really is a delta
sequence; that is, that it satisfies the sifting property. (Delta sequences and the
sifting property were discussed in Sections 4.6 and 5.7, but the essence of those
discussion will be repeated here, so it is not necessary to have studied the earlier
sections. The concepts from those section must be modified slightly here anyway,
to deal with periodicity.)
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9.4. Pointwise convergence of Fourier series 423

We assume that co,c±i,c±2,... are the complex Fourier coefficients of / :

[-*,<]->C:

We write

and then substitute the formula for cn and simplify:

We already see that the /N can be written as

where the Dirichlet kernel KN is defined by

With the formula for a finite geometric sum,

and using some clever manipulations, we can simplify the formula for KN consid-
erably:
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424 Chapter 9. More about Fourier series

The kernel KN, for TV = 20, is graphed in Figure 9.9.

Figure 9.9. The kernel K2Q.

Periodic convolution

The convolution of two functions g : R —> C and h : R -» C is defined by

The integral sign without limits means integration over the entire real line (we do
not discuss here conditions on g and h that guarantee that these integrals exists).
The formula for /jv is similar to a convolution, except that the integration is over
the finite interval [—1,1]. A fundamental property of an ordinary convolution is its
symmetry; the change of variables that replaces x — s by s yields
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9.4. Pointwise convergence of Fourier series 425

A similar formula holds for integrals such as that in (9.16), provided the functions
involved are periodic.
A direct calculation shows that if #, h are 2^-periodic functions defined on R,
then

The last step follows from the fact that s >-)• g(s)h(x — s) is 2^-periodic, and so its
integral over anv interval of length 21 is the same. We refer to

as the periodic convolution of g and h.

We can extend the idea of a periodic convolution to nonperiodic functions by
using the periodic extension of a function. If g is defined on [—£, £], then its periodic
extension is the function gper defined for all x G R by

For example, in Figure 9.10 we graph the function gper, where g(x] = x on [—1,1].
For any g and h defined on [—i, ^], periodic or not, we interpret the periodic
convolution of g and h to be

We will often write this convolution as simply

but g and h are assumed to be replaced by their periodic extensions if necessary

(that is, if they are not periodic).
The kernel KN is 2^-periodic. Provided the complex Fourier series of / con-
verges, the limit is obviously a 2£-periodic function (because each function eZ7rnx^
is 2^-periodic). Therefore, it is natural to consider fper, the periodic extension of
/, and to interpret (9.16) as a periodic convolution. We then have

a fact which we will use below.

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426 Chapter 9. More about Fourier series

Figure 9.10. The periodic extension of g : [—1,1] -> R, g(x) — x.

KN as a delta sequence
An examination of the graph of the kernel K^ (see Figure 9.9) shows that most of
its "weight" is concentrated on a small interval around 0 = 0. The effect of this on
the periodic convolution

is that the integral produces a weighted average of the values of /, with most of
the weight on the values of f ( s ) near s — x. Moreover, this effect is accentuated as
N —> oo, so that if / is regular enough, we obtain pointwise convergence. Thus KN
acts like a delta sequence (see Section 4.6).
How regular must / be in order for convergence to occur? It turns out that
mere continuity is not sufficient, as there are continous functions on [-€, i] whose
Fourier series fail to converge at an infinite number of points. Some differentiability
of / is necessary to guarantee convergence. On the other hand, we do not really want
to require / to be continuous, since we often encounter discontinuities in practical
problems, if not of /, then of fper.
A suitable notion of regularity for our purposes is that of piecewise smoothness.
We make the following definitions.

Definition 9.11. Suppose f is a real- or complex-valued function defined on (a,b),

except possibly at a finite number of points. We say that f has a jump discontinuity
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9.4. Pointwise convergence of Fourier series 427

at XQ G (a, b) if

both exist but are not equal. (Recall that if both one-sided limits exist and are equal
to f ( x o ) , then f is continuous at x — XQ.)
We say that f is piecewise continuous on (a, b) if
1. f is continuous at all but a finite number of points in (a,b);
2. every discontinuity of f in (a, b) is a jump discontinuity;
3. lima._>a+ f ( x ) and \im.x_^b- f(x] exist.
Finally, we say that f is piecewise smooth on (a, b) if both f and df/dx are
piecewise continuous on (a, b).

An example of a piecewise smooth function is given in Figure 9.11.

Figure 9.11. A piecewise smooth function.

Before we give the main result, we give two lemmas that we will find useful.

Lemma 9.12.

Proof. This is proved by direct calculation (see Exercise 4).

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428 Chapter 9. More about Fourier series

The next lemma is called Bessel's inequality and follows directly from the
projection theorem.

Lemma 9.13. Suppose {0j : j = l,2,...} is an orthogonal sequence in an

(infinite-dimensional) inner product space V, and f € V. Then

Proof. By the projection theorem, for each JV,

is the element of the subspace VN = span {</>i, < / > 2 , . . . , 0jv} closest to /, and /AT is
orthogonal to / — /N. Therefore, by the Pythagorean theorem,

This implies that

Moreover, since 0i, </>2, ^>s, • • • are mutually orthogonal, we have (also by the Pythagorea
theorem)
JVf n

Therefore,

holds for each TV, and the result follows.

Since a Fourier series is based on an orthogonal series, Bessel's inequality

can be applied to the sequence of Fourier coefficients. For instance, if cn, n =
0, ±1, ±2,... are the complex Fourier coefficients of / e L2(—l,l), then

and

Therefore,
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9.4. Pointwise convergence of Fourier series 429

Bessel's inequality yields

Similar results hold for Fourier sine or cosine coefficients.

We can now state and prove the main result concerning the pointwise conver-
gence of Fourier series. The reader should note that the convergence of the Fourier
series is naturally expressed in terms of the properties of fper rather than those of
/•

Theorem 9.14. Suppose f : (—l,€) -» C is piecewise smooth. Then the complex

Fourier series of f,

converges to fper(x) if x is a point of continuity of fper, and to

if fper has a jump discontinuity atx.

Proof. As before, we write

If fper is continuous at x, then

From now on, for conciseness, we will write / rather than fper and remember to
interpret f ( s ) in terms of the periodic extension of / whenever s is outside of the
infprval f — P t\ Alsn -rarp writ.p

With this understanding, our task is to show that, for each x G [—f.,1],

To do this, it suffices to show that

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430 Chapter 9. More about Fourier series

and

We will prove that (9.20) holds; the proof of (9.19) is similar. Equation (9.20) is
eauivalent to

By (9.18),

so

We can recognize this integral as l/(2£) times the L2 inner product (on the interval
(0,£)) of the functions

and

The sequence

is an orthogonal sequence with respect to the L2 inner product (see, for example,
Exercise 5.2.2). Bessel's inequality then implies that

and therefore

This is the desired result.

However, there is one problem with this argument. Bessel's inequality (Lemma
9.13) requires that F^ and the orthogonal sequence belong to a common inner
product space. We will take this space to be the space V of all piecewise continuous
functions defined on [0,£|. Certainly the functions
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9.4. Pointwise convergence of Fourier series 431

belong to V (continuous functions are piecewise continuous). The proof, therefore,

reduces to showing that F^ e V.
Since fper has only jump discontinuities, F(x) also has only jump discontinu-
ities, except possibly at s = 0, where there is a zero in the denominator. If we show
that

exists as a finite number, this will show that F^ is piecewise continuous, and hence
in V. Since / and df/dx each has at most a finite number of jump discontinuities,
there is an interval (0,e) such that the function s !->• f ( x - s) is continuous and
differentiate on (0,e). It follows from the mean value theorem that, for each s €
(0,e), there exists 7S e (0,1) such that

Also, by the mean value theorem, there exists As € (0,1) such that

Thus, for all s > 0 near zero, we have

This shows that lims_>0+ F(x)(s) exists, which completes the proof.

Example 9.15. We will compute the complex Fourier series of g : [—1,1] -> R
defined by g(x) = x. Figure 9.10 shows thatgper is piecewise smooth, and continuous
except at integral values of x. We therefore expect that the Fourier series of g will
converge to gper(x} except when x is an integer. At the points of discontinuity, the
average of the left- and right-hand limits is 0, which will be the limit of the series
at those points.
The Fourier coefficients of g are
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432 Chapter 9. More about Fourier series

The partial Fourier series

for N = 10,20,40, are shown in Figure 9.12.

Figure 9.12. The partial Fourier series /4o for Example 9.15.

The following results can be derived immediately from the relationship be

tween the complex Fourier series and various other forms of Fourier series.

Corollary 9.16.

1. Suppose f : (—£, i) -> R is piecewise smooth. Then the full Fourier series of
f,

converges to fper(x} if x is a point of continuity of fper, ana to

if f per has a jump discontinuity atx.

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9.4. Pointwise convergence of Fourier series 433

2. Suppose f : (0, t) —> R is piecewise smooth, and let f0dd be the periodic, odd
extension of f to R (that is, the periodic extension to R of the odd extension
°f f t° (—£•>£))• Then the Fourier sine series of f,

converges to f0dd(%) if % is a point of continuity of f0dd, and to

if fodd has a jump discontinuity at x.

3. Suppose f : (0,£) —> R is piecewise smooth, and let feven be the periodic, even
extension of f toU (that is, the periodic extension to R of the even extension
of f to (—£,1)). Then the Fourier cosine series of f,

converges to feven(x) if x is a point of continuity of feven, and to

if feven has a jump discontinuity atx.

Proof. See Exercise 6.

Example 9.17. Let f : (0,1) —> R be defined by f ( x ) = 1. Then the periodic, odd
extension of f , f0dd, is defined by

(the so-called "square wave"). Thus f0dd is discontinuous at every integer value of
x; at those points of dicontinuities, the average of the left and right endpoints is
zero. Figure 9.13 shows f0dd together with its partial sine series having 5, 10, 20,
and 40 terms. As the above corollary guarantees, the sine series converges to f at
every point of continuity (every nonintegral point, in this case) and to zero at every
point of discontinuity.

We can draw some further conclusions from Theorem 9.14 and Corollary 9.16:
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434 Chapter 9. More about Fourier series

Figure 9.13. The square-wave function from Example 9.17, together with
its Fourier sine series with 5, 10, 20, and 40 terms.

Corollary 9.18.
1. If f : (—£,£) —> C is continuous and piecewise smooth, then fper is continuous
everywhere except (possibly) at the points ±£,±31,— It follows that the
Fourier series of f converges to f(x) for all x € (—i,i).
2. If f : [—t,£\ ->• C is continuous and piecewise smooth, and f(—t] = f ( l ) ,
then fper is continuous everywhere, and so the Fourier series of f converges
to f(x] for all x € [—•£,•£] (including the endpoints).
3. If f : [0,1] —>• R is continuous and piecewise smooth, then f0dd (the periodic
extension of the odd extension of f ) is continuous everywhere except (possi-
bly) at the points 0, ±£, ±21, — It follows that the Fourier sine series of f
converges to f(x) for all x e (0,^).
4- If f '• [0,^] —>• R is continuous and piecewise smooth, and /(O) = f ( i ) = 0,
then f0dd is continuous everywhere. It follows that the Fourier sine series of
f converges to f(x] for all x € [0,£] (including the endpoints).
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9.4. Pointwise convergence of Fourier series 435

5. If f : [0, t] —>• R is continuous and piecewise smooth, then feven (the periodic
extension of the even extension of f ) is continuous everywhere. It follows that
the Fourier cosine series of f converges to f(x) for all x G [0,^] (including
the endpoints).

Proof. The conclusions all follow directly from Corollary 9.16, except for the
following: If / : [0,1] —> R is continuous, then feven is continuous, and f0dd is
continuous provided /(O) — f(i] = 0. The reader is asked to verify these conclusions
in Exercise 7. D

When fper (or f0dd, or feven) is continuous everywhere, we can draw a stronger
conclusion, as we show in the next section. The reader should note that, from the
point of view of approximating a given function, the cosine series is more powerful
than the sine series, since feven is continuous everywhere for any continuous / :
[Q,£] -» R. Therefore, for example, Gibbs's phenomena cannot occur with the
cosine series approximating such a function.

Exercises
1. Let / : [-7r,7r] ->• R be defined by f(x) = x3. Does the full Fourier series of
/ converge (pointwise) on R? If so, what is the limit of the series?
2. Define / : [-2,2] ->• R by f(x] = x3 + 1. Write down the limits of
(a) the Fourier sine series of / (regarded as a function defined on [0,2]),
(b) the Fourier cosine series of / (regarded as a function defined on [0,2]),
and
(c) the full Fourier series of /.
3. Find an example of a function / : [0,1] —>• R such that it is not the case that
the Fourier cosine series of / converges to / at every x € [0,1].
4. Using the original formula for KN,

prove that (9.18) holds.

5. Prove Theorem 9.8. For simplicity, assume all of the functions are continuous.
6. Prove Corollary 9.16.
7. Suppose / : [0,1] —>• R is continuous. Prove that feven is continuous every-
where, and that if /(O) = f(£) — 0, then f0dd is continuous everywhere.
8. (a) Extend Corollaries 9.16 and 9.18 to the case of the quarter-wave cosine
series. (Hint: see Exercise 9.3.6.)
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436 Chapter 9. More about Fourier series

(b) Define / : [0,1] -> R by f(x] = 1 + x. To what function does the

quarter-wave cosine series of / converge?
9. (a) Extend Corollaries 9.16 and 9.18 to the case of the quarter-wave sine
series. (Hint: see Exercise 9.3.5.)
(b) Define / : [0,1] —> R by f(x] = 1 + x. To what function does the
quarter-wave sine series of / converge?

9.5 Uniform convergence of Fourier series

In the previous section, we proved the pointwise convergence of the Fourier series
of a piecewise smooth function. We will now consider conditions under which the
convergence is actually uniform. The property of uniform convergence is very de-
sirable, since it implies that a finite number of terms from the Fourier series can
approximate the function accurately on the entire interval; in particular, uniform
convergence rules out the possibility of Gibbs's phenomenon, which was introduced
in Section 5.2.2 and will be discussed further below.
The rapidity with which a Fourier series converges, and, in particular, whether
it converges uniformly or not, is intimately related to the rate at which its coefficients
converge to zero. We address this question first.

9.5.1 Rate of decay of Fourier coefficients

In the following theorems, we will show that the Fourier coefficients cn, n =
0,±1,±2,..., o f / satisfy

where the exponent k is determined by the degree of smoothness of /. Recall that

(9.21) means that there is a constant M > 0 such that

The same condition that guarantees pointwise convergence of Fourier series

also ensures that that the Fourier coefficients decay—converge to zero—at least as
fast as 1/n, n = 1,2,3, —

Theorem 9.19. Suppose that f : (—£,1) -> C is piecewise smooth, and let cn,
n = 0, ±1, ±2,..., be the complex Fourier coefficients of f . Then

Proof. Since / is piecewise smooth, there are a finite number of discontinuities of

/ and/or df/dx. We label these points as
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9.5. Uniform convergence of Fourier series 437

and write XQ — —t, xm = t. We then have

It then suffices to show that, for each j = 1,2,..., m,

Since / is continuously differentiable on ( x j - i , X j ) , and the limits of both / and

df/dx exist at the endpoints of this interval, we can apply integration by parts to
obtain

Since each of these three terms is bounded by a constant times l/|n|, the result
follows. We have used the fact that / and df/dx, being piecewise continuous, are
both bounded on (—1,1).

When / has some additional smoothness, its Fourier coefficients can be shown
to decay more rapidly.

Theorem 9.20. Suppose f : (—(.,£) —>• C has the property that its periodic exten-
sion fper and the first k — 2 derivatives of fper are continuous, where k >2, and
the (k — l)st derivative of f is piecewise smooth. If cn, n = 0, ±1, ±2,..., are the
complex Fourier coefficients of f, then

In particular, if fper is continuous and its derivative is piecewise smooth, then

Proof. Suppose fper is continuous and df/dx is piecewise smooth. Then, by inte-
gration by parts, we have
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438 Chapter 9. More about Fourier series

Since fper is continuous, f (—(.+) = /(^—), and e™n = e I7rn

since el9 is 27r-periodic.
Therefore, we obtain

where dn, n = 0, ±1, ±2,..., are the Fourier coefficients of df/dx. By Theorem 9.19,
we have s * \

and so

as desired.
The proof of the general case is similar; one shows that the Fourier coefficients
of dk~1f/dxk~1 are of order l/|n|, the Fourier coefficients of dk~2f/dxk~2 are of
order l/|n| , and so forth to obtain the desired result.

Example 9.21.

1. Define f : (—1,1) —> R by f ( x ) = x. Then fper has jump discontinuities

(at x = (2k - 1), k = 0, ±1,±2,...), and, by Theorem 9.20, the Fourier
coefficients of f must be of order l/|ri|. In fact, the Fourier coefficients are

with CQ = 0.

2. Define f : (—1,1) —>• R by f ( x ) = x2. Then fper is continuous, but its

derivative has jump discontinuities (at x = (2k — 1), k = 0, ±1, ±2,...). By
Theorem 9.20, the Fourier coefficients of f must be of order l/|n|2. In fact,
the Fourier coefficients are

with CQ — 1/3.

3. Define f : (—1,1) —>• R by f ( x ) = x5—2x3+x. Then fper and its derivative are
continuous, but its second derivative has jump discontinuities (atx = (2k —I),
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9.5. Uniform convergence of Fourier series 439

k — 0, ±1, ±2,...). By Theorem 9.20, the Fourier coefficients of f must be of

order l/|n| 3 . In fact, the Fourier coefficients are

with CQ — 0.
4- Define f : (—1,1) —>• R by f(x] = x4 — 2x2 + 1. Then fper and its first two
derivatives are continuous, but its third derivative has jump discontinuities (at
x — (2k — 1}, k = 0,±1,±2,...J. By Theorem 9.20, the Fourier coefficients
of f must be of order l/\n 4 . In fact, the Fourier coefficients are

with CQ = 8/15.
In Figure 9.14 we graph the error in approximating each of the above four functions
by a truncated Fourier series with 41 terms (the constant term and the 20 lowest
frequencies). The results are as expected; as fper gets smoother, the convergence of
the Fourier series to f becomes more rapid.

9.5.2 Uniform convergence

It now follows immediately that, if fper is sufficiently smooth, then its Fourier series
converges uniformly to /.

Theorem 9.22. Suppose f : (—1,1) —> C is continuous, df/dx is piecewise

smooth, and f(—i) = f ( l } . Then the partial sums of the complex Fourier series of
f converge uniformly to f on (—i,t) (and therefore to fper on RJ.

Proof. The boundary conditions imply that fper is continuous, so by Theorem

9.14, we know that the Fourier series of / converges point wise to fper on R. We
must therefore show that the convergence is uniform. Since

we have

Therefore, by Theorem 9.20, there is a constant M such that

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440 Chapter 9. More about Fourier series

Figure 9.14. The errors in approximating each function from Example

9.21 by its partial Fourier series with 41 terms: f ( x ) = x (upper left), f ( x ) = x2
(upper right), f ( x ) = x5 — 2x3 + x (lower left), f(x] = x4 - 2ar2 + 1 (lower right).

i7rnx/l
(using the fact that e = 1). This holds for all x € R, and so

Since the infinite series

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9.5. Uniform convergence of Fourier series 441

is convergent, the tail of the series tends to zero, which shows that

tends to zero at a rate that is independent of x 6 R. This proves the desired result.

As with pointwise convergence, the uniform convergence of other types of

Fourier series can be deduced from their relationship to the complex Fourier series.

Corollary 9.23.
1. Suppose f : (—t,i] —>• R is continuous and piecewise smooth, df/dx is piece-
wise smooth, and f(—£) = /(£)• Then the full Fourier series of f converges
uniformly to f on (—1,1) (and therefore to fper on R,).
2. Suppose f : (0,^) -> R is continuous, df/dx is piecewise smooth, and /(O) =
f(i] = 0. Then the Fourier sine series converges uniformly to f on (—£,£}
(and hence to f0dd, the periodic, odd extension of f, on all ofH).
3. Suppose f : (0,£) —> R is continuous and df/dx is piecewise smooth. Then
the Fourier cosine series converges uniformly to f on (—i-,K) (and hence to
feven, the periodic, even extension of f, on all ofH).

Proof.
1. This follows immediately from the equivalence of the full Fourier series and
the complex Fourier series.
2. This follows from the fact that the sine series of / is the full Fourier series of
fodd and from the fact that the continuity of / and the boundary conditions
/(O) = f(t] = 0 guarantee that f0dd is continuous.
3. This follows from the fact that the cosine series of / is the full Fourier series
of feven and from the fact that the continuity of / guarantees that Seven is
continuous.

The special property of the cosine series is important; no boundary conditions

must be satisfied in order for the convergence to be uniform. Indeed, the relevant
boundary conditions for a cosine series are Neumann conditions, which involve
df/dx. The Fourier cosine coefficients of / are O (l/|n| 3 ) or O (l/|n| 2 ) according
to whether / satisfies or does not satisfy homogeneous Neumann conditions (see
Exercise 4), but in either case, the Fourier series converges uniformly to /.

Example 9.24. Let f : [0,1] —> R be defined by f(x) = x2. Since f does not
satisfy the Dirichlet conditions, the sine series does not converge uniformly on [0,1].
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442 Chapter 9. More-about Fourier series

However, even though f does not satisfy the Neumann conditions either, the cosine
series does converge uniformly on [0,1]. Figure 9.15 illustrates these results.

Figure 9.15. Approximating f ( x ) — x2 by sine and cosine series (40 terms

in each series).

In Example 9.21, we showed several functions with progressively smoother

periodic extensions. The smoother the periodic extension, the faster the Fourier
coefficients decay to zero, and the better the partial Fourier series approximates the
original function. We now give an extreme example of this.

Example 9.25. Define f : (-1,1) -»• R by f ( x ) = ecos(27ra;). Then fper and all
of its derivatives are continuous. By Theorem 9.20, the Fourier coefficients of f
converge to zero faster than any power of l/\n\. It is not possible to compute a
formula for these coefficients (the integrals that must be computed are intractable),
but we can estimate them using the techniques discussed in Section 9.2. Figure 9.16
shows the error in estimating f with 41 terms in its Fourier series. This graph
should be compared with Figure 9.14-
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9.5. Uniform convergence of Fourier series 443

Figure 9.16. The errors in approximating f(x) = ecos(27ra;) by its partial

Fourier series with 41 terms (see Example 9.25).

9.5.3 A note about Gibbs's phenomenon

A standard theorem in real analysis is the following: If a sequence of continuous
functions converges uniformly, then the limit function is also continuous. Every par-
tial Fourier series is a continuous function, so if fper is discontinuous, it is impossible
for its Fourier series to converge uniformly. Gibbs's phenomenon is the nonuniform
convergence of the Fourier series near a jump discontinuity of fper. Near the end of
the 19th century, Gibbs showed that, near a jump discontinuity, the partial Fourier
series overshoot the true value of / by about 9% of the jump70 (cf. Exercise 3).

Exercises
1. Consider the following functions defined on [—1,1]:

Rank /, g, and h in order of the speed of convergence of their Fourier series

and illustrate with eraohs.
70
The history is briefly described by Kammler [28], page 45.
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444 Chapter 9. More about Fourier series

2. Find an example of a function / : [—1,1] —>• R whose Fourier coefficients are

but not

(Hint: Choose / to be afifth-degreepolynomial.)

3. Consider the function / : [— 1,1] —>• R defined by

Verify numerically that the overshoot in Gibbs's phenomenon is about 9% of

the jump at x = 0.
4. Suppose / : (0,^) -> R is continuous and df/dx is piecewise smooth.
(a) Prove that the periodic, even extension of / is continuous and therefore
that the Fourier cosine coefficients of / are O (l/|n| 2 ).
(b) Prove that the Fourier cosine coefficients of / are 0 (l/|n| 3 ) if and only
if

9.6 Mean-square convergence of Fourier series

We now wish to show that, for a large class of functions / : (—1,1) —> C, the
complex Fourier series of /,

converges to / in the mean-square sense. Mean-square convergence means that if

we write

then

In contrast to pointwise or uniform convergence, it turns out that the mildest as-
sumption about / guarantees mean-square convergence of the Fourier series.
In order to discuss mean-square convergence, it had better be the case that /
has a finite L2 norm: a
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9.6. Mean-square convergence of Fourier series 445

It turns out that this essential assumption is the only assumption required to guar-
antee the convergence of the Fourier series to / in the mean-square sense. To justify
this statement, we must begin with some technical preliminaries. The technicalities
are sufficiently subtle as to be beyond the scope of this book—the reader will have
to accept certain assertions on faith.

9.6.1 The space L2(-t,£)

We wish to identify the space of all functions / : (—(., i] —)• C such that the complex
Fourier series of / converges to / in the mean-square sense. Accepting the truth of
the statement in the previous paragraph, it would be natural to define

There is more to this definition than meets the eye, however.

First of all, one of the essential properties of a norm is the following:

When / is a function, / = 0 means that / is the zero function: f ( x ) — 0 for all

x e (—1,1). As long as we restrict ourselves to continuous functions, (9.23) holds.71
However, a discontinuous function can be nonzero and yet have I/2 norm equal to
zero. For example, consider the function / : (—1,1) -> R defined by

This function is not the zero function, but

since the integrand is zero everywhere except a single point. Therefore, in order
for (9.23) to be satisfied, we have to agree that / and g are regarded as the same
function provided

We will have more to say about this below.

There is another difficulty with (9.22). Since our interest is mean-square
convergence of functions, the following property is desirable: If {/N} is a sequence
71
If / is continuous and not the zero function, then, by continuity, there must exist an interval
(a, 6) C (—1,1) on which / is nonzero, and so

must be positive.
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446 Chapter 9. More about Fourier series

of functions in L2(—l,l) and /AT —>• / in the mean-square sense, then / 6 L2(—£,l).
Is this property satisfied by L?(-t, t) as defined by (9.22)? The answer is, it depends
on the definition of the integral used in (9.22). For example, any function with an
infinite singularity fails to be Riemann integrable; as an example, consider the
function / : [— 1,1] —>• R defined by

This function is not Riemann integrable on (—1,1) because of the infinite disconti-
nuity at x = 0. However, \f(x}\2 has a finite area under its graph, as the following
calculation shows:

Therefore, we would like to include / in L 2 (—1,1), which means that we must

interpret the integral as an improper Riemann integral when / has a finite number
of singularities.
However, allowing improper Riemann integrals is not enough, since it is pos-
sible to construct a sequence {/N} with the following properties:
1. /jv has N infinite discontinuities;

2. /TV is square-integrable when the integral is interpreted as an improper Rie-

mann integral;

3. {/AT} converges in the mean-square sense to a function with an infinite number

of discontinuities.
A function with an infinite number of discontinuities cannot be Riemann integrable,
even in the improper sense.
Faced with these difficulties, mathematicians eventually concluded that a bet-
ter notion of integration was needed, which was created by Henri Lebesgue (the "L"
in L2). The definition of the Lebesgue integral is beyond the scope of this book,
but we can describe its important features. The theory begins with a measure for
subsets of R that agrees with our intuition for simple sets (for example, the measure
of an interval [a, b] is b — a). The Lebesgue measure is defined in a consistent fashion
even for very complicated subsets of R, but not for all subsets. Sets whose Lebesgue
measure is defined are called (Lebesgue) measurable. Any set with measure zero is
then neglible in a certain sense. Every set containing a finite number of points has
measure zero.72
The Lebesgue integral is defined for functions that are measurable; the prop-
erty of measurability is a regularity property like continuity or differentiability, but
72
Some sets having an infinite number of points also have measure zero. A countable set (a
set that can be put in one-to-one correspondence with the integers 1,2,3,...) has measure zero.
For example, the set of all rational numbers has measure zero. Some uncountable sets also have
measure zero, although, obviously, such a set occupies a neglible part of the real line.
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9.6. Mean-square convergence of Fourier series 447

much weaker—functions with an infinite number of discontinuities can be mea-

surable, for example. We cannot give the precise definitions of these concepts—
measurable set, measurable function, Lebesgue integral—in this text. The defini-
tions, however, have the following consequences:

1. Two measurable functions / and a satisfy

if and only if / and g differ only on a set of measure zero. It is in this sense
that a set of measure zero is negligible: functions differing only on a set of
measure zero are regarded as being the same.

2. If / is Riemann integrable, then it is Lebesgue integrable, and the two integrals

have the same value.

This last property assures us that whenever we are dealing with a continuous or
piecewise continuous function, we can compute its integral using the familiar tech-
niques of caculus. On the other hand, the Lebesgue integral is sufficiently powerful
to handle pathological cases that arise inevitably when mean-square convergence
is studied. We will discuss other properties of Lebesgue integration and L2 (—£,(.)
below.
We can now define L2(—l,l) more precisely as the set of all measurable func-
tions / : (—t,K) —> C satisfying

with the understanding that two functions that differ only on a set of measure zero
represent the same element of the space.
In order to understand the L2 theory of Fourier series, we need two more facts
about L2(—l.,l}, facts that we cannot prove here, as their development would take
us too far astray. Even stating the second fact takes a certain amount of work.
The first fact, Theorem 9.26, allows us to prove that the Fourier series of every L2
function converges to the function in the mean-square sense.

Theorem 9.26. Let f e L2(—l,l), and let e be any positive real number (no matter
how small). Then there is an infinitely differentiate function g : [—•£,•£] —>• C such
that

Moreover, g can be chosen to satisfy g(—t] = g(i] = 0.

This theorem simply says that any L2(—t, (,} function can be approximated ar-
bitrarily well, in the mean-square sense, using a smooth function satisfying Dirichlet
conditions.
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448 Chapter 9. More about Fourier series

9.6.2 Mean-square convergence of Fourier series

Accepting the facts presented above about L2(—£,£), we can now prove the desired
result.

Theorem 9.27. // / € L2(—l,t), then its Fourier series converges to f in L2.

That is, let

be the complex Fourier series of f , and define

Then

Proof. We must show that for any e > 0, there exists a positive integer 7Ve such
that

for every N > Ne. The proof is a typical e/3 argument—we show that /N is close to
/ by using the triangle inequality with two intermediate functions. To be specific,
let g be a smooth function satisfying g(—I) = g(i] and

We will show that /N is close to / (for TV sufficiently large) by showing that fw is

close to QN (where QN is the corresponding partial Fourier series for g) and QN is
close to g- we then use the fact that g is close to / by construction.
Let d n , n = : 0 , ± l , ± 2 , . . . b e the Fourier coefficients of p, and define

By Corollary 9.23, QN —>• g uniformly on [—1, £], and therefore there exists a positive
integer Nf such that

It follows that
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9.6. Mean-square convergence of Fourier series 449

and so

Finally, we have that /AT — QN is the partial Fourier series of the function f — g, and
hence that /AT — QN is the projection onto the space spanned by

It follows that

Thus we obtain

This completes the proof.

Now that we have obtained this fundamental result, we can draw some further
conclusions. First, a question of terminology: the above theorem shows that the
complex exponentials e™nx/1, n = 0, ±1, ±2,..., are complete in I/ 2 (—£,£).

Definition 9.28. Let V be an (infinite-dimensional) inner product space. We say

that an orthogonal sequence {<f>j}^i is complete if every v £ V satisfies

where the convergence is in the sense of the norm on V.

The completeness of an orthogonal sequence in an infinite-dimensional inner

product space is thus analogous to the property of spanning for a finite collection of
vectors in a finite-dimensional vector space. Moreover, orthogonality implies linear
independence, so a complete orthogonal sequence for an infinite-dimensional vector
space is analogous to a basis for a finite-dimensional vector space.
A result that is sometimes useful is the following.

Theorem 9.29. Let {(f)j : j — 1,2,...} be a complete orthogonal sequence in an

inner product space V. Then

Proof. By the completeness of {</>j : j = 1,2,...}, we have, for any v e V,

It follows immediately that if (v, 0j)y = 0 for all j = 1,2,3,..., then v = 0.

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450 Chapter 9. More about Fourier series

This result justifies a fact that we have used constantly in developing Fourier series
methods for BVPs: Two functions are equal if and only if they have the same
Fourier coefficients.

Corollary 9.30. Let {fij : j = 1,2,...} be a complete orthogonal sequence in an

inner product space V. Then, for any u, v e V,

Proof. Obviously, if u = v, then (u, 0j)y = (v, 0j)v for all j. On the other hand,
if (u, (f)j)v = ( v > 0j)v for all j, then w = u — v satisfies

By the preceding theorem, this implies that w = 0, that is, that u = v.

Finally, because all other Fourier series (sine, cosine, full, quarter-wave sine,
quarter-wave cosine) are special cases of the complex Fourier series, all of the above
results extend to these other Fourier series as well. For example, we define L 2 (0,^)
to be the space of all measurable functions / : (0,^) -> R such that

Then, if / e £2(0, £), the Fourier sine series of / converges to / in the mean-square
sense (see Exercise 6).
We have now completed the basic theory used in the earlier chapters of this
book. In the next section, we discuss one further point for the sake of tying up a
loose end.

9.6.3 Cauchy sequences and completeness

We assume that {^j}^! is an orthogonal sequence in an inner product space V
and also, without loss of generality, that each (f>j has norm one (so the sequence is
orthonormal). If v 6 V and

then, by Bessel's inequality,

We now consider the converse: If 01,02,03,... is any sequence of complex

numbers satisfying
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9.6. Mean-square convergence of Fourier series 451

does the series

converge to a vector in VI To consider this question, we write

and note that, if m > n, then

It follows that

(using the orthogonality of {0i, 02,0s, • • • } ) • Since we are assuming that (9.25)
holds, we conclude that

It follows that

This is the mark of a sequence that "ought" to converge.

Definition 9.31. Let V be a normed vector space, and suppose {un} is a sequence
in V. We say that {un} is Cauchy if, for any e > 0, there exists a positive integer
N such that

or, in brief,

The terms of a Cauchy sequence "bunch up," as do the terms of a convergent

sequence. Indeed, it is easy to show that every convergent sequence is a Cauchy
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452 Chapter 9. More about Fourier series

sequence. On the other hand, the converse (does every Cauchy sequence converge?)
depends on the space as well as on the norm of the space.

Example 9.32. Define a sequence of rational numbers {xn} by the rule that xn
is the number obtained by truncating the decimal expansion of IT after n digits (so
xi = 3, X2 = 3.1, #3 = 3.14, and so on). Then {xn} is certainly Cauchy (ifm > n,
then \xm—xn\ < W~n+1). However, the question of whether {xn} converges depends
on the space under consideration. If the space is Q, the set of rational numbers, then
{xn} fails to converge. On the other hand, if the space is R, then {xn} converges,
and the limit is the irrational number TT.

This last example may seem rather trivial; it just points out the fact that
the real number system contains numbers that are not rational, and that without
the irrational numbers there are "holes" in the system. The next example is more
relevant to our study.

Example 9.33. Define f : [0,1] -»• R by

Let /AT : [0,1] —>• R be the function defined by the partial Fourier sine series of
f with N terms. Then \\f — /N\\L* ~* 0 as n —> °°j so {fn} is convergent and
hence Cauchy. However, if the space under consideration is (7[0,1], the space of all
continuous functions defined on the interval [0,1], and the norm is the L2 norm,
then {/AT} is still Cauchy and yet is not convergent (since f 0 C[0,1]).

We see that the second example is analogous to the first. The space (7[0,1],
which is a subspace of L 2 (0,1), has some "holes" in it, at least when the norm is
taken to be the L2 norm.
We have a name for a space in which every Cauchy sequence converges.

Definition 9.34. Let V be a normed vector space. If every Cauchy sequence in V

converges to an element of V, then we say that V is complete.

We now have two different (and unrelated) uses for the word "complete." An
orthogonal sequence in an inner product space can be complete, and a normed
vector space can be complete.
The above examples show that Q is not complete, and neither is C[0,1] under
the L2 norm.73 On the other hand, R is complete (as is R n ). Also, the space
L 2 (0,1) is complete, the proof of which result is beyond the scope of this book.
73
A standard result from analysis is that C[0,1] is complete under a different norm, namely, the
norm of uniform convergence:

This result follows from the fact that if a sequence of continuous functions converges uniformly to
a function, the limit function must also be continuous.
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9.6. Mean-square convergence of Fourier series 453

Theorem 9.35. Both real and complex L2(a,b) are complete spaces.

We can now answer the question we posed at the beginning of this section: If
{0j} is an orthonormal sequence in a complex inner product space V and {a,j} is a
sequence of complex numbers satisfying

does

converge to an element of VI The answer is that if V is complete, the convergence

is guaranteed.

Theorem 9.36. Let V be a complete (complex) inner product space, and let
<^i>02,03, • • • be an orthonormal sequence in V. If 01,02,03,... is a sequence of
complex numbers satisfying

then

converges to an element ofV.

Proof. Since V is complete, it suffices to show that the sequence {vn} of partial
sums,

is Cauchy. If m > n, then

and, since the sequence {4>j} is orthonormal, we have

Since the series

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454 Chapter 9. More about Fourier series

is convergent, its tail must converge to zero, which shows that

This completes the proof.

The conclusion of all this is that if a (complex) inner product space contains
a complete orthonormal sequence {0j}, then there is a one-to-one correspondence
between V and the space

The vector v 6 V corresponds to {(v, (f>j)v} G ^ 2 - In certain regards, then, V and

I2 are really the same space, with the elements given different names. We say that
V and I2 are isomorphic.
In particular, L2(—l,l) and I2 are isomorphic, and I/ 2 (0,^) is isomorphic to
real £2.

Exercises
1. Consider the sine series

(a) Explain why this series converges to a function / 6 L 2 (0,1).

(b) Graph the partial sine series with TV terms, for various values of TV, and
guess the function /. Then verify your guess by calculating the Fourier
sine coefficients of /.
2. Consider the series

where cn = 1/n for n ^ 0, and CQ — 0.

(a) Explain why this series converges to a function / in (complex) £ 2 (-l, 1).
(b) Graph the partial series with 2TV + 1 terms, for various values of TV, and
guess the function /. Then verify your guess by calculating the Fourier
coefficients of /.

3. Does the sine series

converge in the mean-square sense to a function / € £ 2 (0,1)? Why or why

not?
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9.7. A note about general eigenvalue problems 455

4. Consider the function / : [0,1] —»• R defined by /(#) = x 1 / 4 (l — x), and its
Fourier sine series

(a) Which of the convergence theorems of this chapter apply to /? What

kind of convergence is guaranteed: pointwise, uniform, mean-square?
(b) Estimate 01,02,... , OBS using some form of numerical integration. (One
option is to use the DST, as described in Section 9.2.4. Another possi-
bility is to use the formula

and some form of numerical integration. In this case, because of the

singularity at x — 0, it is a good idea to change variables so that the
integrand is smooth. Use x — s4.)
(c) Graph / together with its partial Fourier sine series. Also graph the
difference between the two functions.
5. (a) For what values of k does the function / : [0,1] -» R defined by f ( x ) = xk
belong to L 2 (0,1)? (Consider both positive and negative values of k.)
(b) Estimate the first 63 Fourier sine coefficients of f ( x ) = x"1/4.
(c) Graph /(#) = x -1 / 4 , together with its partial Fourier sine series (with
63 terms). Also graph the difference between the two functions.
6. Prove that if / 6 L2(Q,€), then the Fourier sine series of / converges to / in
the mean-square sense.
7. Let {vj} be a sequence of vectors in a normed vector space V, and suppose
Vj -> v E V. Prove that {vj} is Cauchy.

9.7 A note about general eigenvalue problems

We will now briefly discuss the general eigenvalue problem

We assume that fJ is a bounded domain in R2 with a smooth boundary, and that

the coefficient k is a smooth function of x satisfying fc(x) > ko > 0 for all x € f).
We have already seen, for a constant coefficient and the case in which £) is
a rectangular domain or a disk, that (9.26) has an infinite sequence of solutions.
Moreover, the eigenpairs had certain properties that we could verify directly: the
eigenvalues were positive, the eigenfunctions were orthogonal, and so forth.
The properties we observed in Sections 8.2 and 8.3 extend to the general
eigenvalue problem (9.26), although they cannot be verified by directly computing
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456 Chapter 9. More about Fourier series

the eigenpairs. Instead, the results can be deduced from some fairly sophisticated
mathematical arguments that are beyond the scope of this book. Therefore, we will
not attempt to justify all of our statements in this section.
We define Kr> : C&(ti) by

so that (9.26) can be written as simply

The following results hold:

1. All eigenvalues of KD are real and positive. To show this, we assume that
KDU = \u and (u,u) = I. Then

(The reader should notice that, since we cannot assume a priori that A and
u are real, we use the complex I/2 inner product.) This shows that A is a
nonnegative real number. Moreover,

the last step following from the Dirichlet boundary conditions. Therefore, KD
has only positive eigenvalues.
2. Eigenfunctions of KD corresponding to distinct eigenvalues are orthogonal.
As we have seen before, the orthogonality of eigenfunctions depends only on
the symmetry of the operator, which is easy to verify using integration by
parts (see Exercise 1).
3. The operator KD has an infinite sequence {\n}^L1 of eigenvalues satisfying
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9.7. A note about general eigenvalue problems 457

and

In the sequence {An}, each eigenvalue is repeated according to the dimension

of the associated eigenspace, that is, according to the number of linearly in-
dependent eigenfunctions associated with that eigenvalue. In particular, each
eigenvalue corresponds to only finitely many linearly independent eigenfunc-
tions.
It is always possible to replace a basis for a finite-dimensional subspace by an
orthogonal basis.74 Therefore, all of the eigenfunctions of KD can be taken
to be orthogonal. We will assume that {^n}^Li is an orthogonal sequence
satisfying

4. The set of eigenfunctions {ipn} is a complete orthogonal sequence in Z/ 2 (fi):

For each / 6 L2(ft), the series

converges in the mean-square sense to /. The space L 2 (J7) is defined as

was L2 (a, &)—informally, it is the space of square-integrable functions defined
on il, with the understanding that if two functions differ only on a set of
measure zero, then they are regarded as the same. The series (9.27) is called
a generalized Fourier series for /.
For specific domains, it may be more convenient to enumerate the eigenvalues and
eigenfunctions in a doubly indexed list rather than a singly indexed list as suggested
above. For example, the eigenvalue/eigenfunction pairs of the negative Laplacian
on the unit square are

It is possible (although not necessarily useful) to order the \mn and ^mn in (singly-
indexed) sequences.
The usefulness of the above facts for many computational tasks is limited,
since, for most domains f) and coefficients fc(x), it is not possible to obtain the
eigenvalues and eigenfunctions analytically (that is, in "closed form"). However, as
we have seen before, the eigenpairs give some information that can be useful in its
own right. It may be useful to expend some effort in computing a few eigenpairs
numerically. We illustrate this with an example.

Example 9.37. Consider a membrane that at rest occupies the domain tl, and
suppose that the (unforced) small transverse vibrations of the membrane satisfy the
74
The technique for doing this is called the Gram-Schmidt procedure; it is explained in elemen-
tary linear algebra texts such as [34].
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458 Chapter 9. More about Fourier series

IB VP

The question we wish to answer is: What is the lowest frequency at which the
membrane will resonate? This could be an important consideration in designing a
device that contained such a membrane.
The key point is that, if we knew the eigenvalues and eigenvectors of the nega-
tive Laplacian on fi (subject to Dirichlet conditions), then we could solve the IBVP
just as in the Fourier series method. Suppose the eigenpairs are

Then we can write the solution w(x,£) as

Substituting into the PDE yields

and so an(t) satisfies

Therefore,

with the coefficients bn and cn determined by the initial conditions. Therefore,

the fundamental frequency—the smallest natural frequency—of the membrane is
cx/V^TT).

This example shows that we would gain some useful information by computing
the smallest eigenvalue of the operator on £). We will revisit this example in Section
10.4, where we use finite element methods to estimate the smallest eigenvalue of
various domains.

Exercises
1. Prove that the operator K defined above is symmetric.
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9.8. Suggestions for further reading 459

2. Let the eigenvalues and eigenvectors of KD be

as in the text. Suppose that u € Of,(17) is represented in a generalized Fourier

series as follows:

Explain why the generalized Fourier series of KDU is equal to

3. Consider an iron plate occupying a domain £) in R2. Suppose that the plate
is heated to a constant 5 degrees Celsius, the top and bottom of the plate
are perfectly insulated, and the edges of the plate are fixed at 0 degrees. Let
w(x, t) be the temperature at x 6 fJ after t seconds. Using the first eigenvalue
and eigenfunction of the negative Laplacian on 0, give a simple estimate of
w(x,£) that is valid for large t. What must be true in order that a single
eigenpair suffices to define a good estimate? (The physical properties of iron
are p = 7.88g/cm3, c = 0.437 J/(gK), AC = 0.836 W/(cmK).)

9.8 Suggestions for further reading

The books cited in Section 5.8 as dealing with Fourier series all present the con-
vergence theory. More specialized books, both with a wealth of information about
Fourier series and other aspects of Fourier analysis, are Kammler [28] and Folland
[15]. Folland's book is classical in nature, while Kammler delves into a number of
applications of modern interest.
Briggs and Henson [7] gives a comprehensive introduction to the discrete
Fourier transform and covers some applications, while Van Loan [50] provides an
in-depth treatment of the mathematics of the fast Fourier transform. Other texts
that explain the FFT algorithm include Walker [51] and Brigham [8].
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Chapter 10

More about finite element

methods

In this chapter, we will look more deeply into finite element methods for solving
steady-state BVPs. Finite element methods form a vast area, and even by the end
of this chapter, we will have only scratched the surface. Our goal is modest: We
wish to give the reader a better idea of how finite element methods are implemented
in practice, and also to give an overview of the convergence theory.
The main tasks involved in applying the finite element method are
• Defining a mesh on the computational domain.
• Computing the stiffness matrix K and the load vector f.
• Solving the finite element equation Ku = f.
We will mostly ignore the first question, except to provide examples for simple do-
mains. Mesh generation is an area of study in its own right, and delving into this
subject is beyond the scope of this book. We begin by addressing issues involved
in computing the stiffness matrix and load vector, including data structures for
representing and manipulating the mesh. We will concentrate on two-dimensional
problems, triangular meshes, and piecewise linear finite elements, as these are suf-
ficient to illustrate the main ideas. Next, in Section 10.2, we discuss methods for
solving the finite element equation Ku = f, specifically, on algorithms for taking
advantage of the sparsity of this system of equations. In Section 10.3, we provide a
brief outline of the convergence theory for Galerkin finite element methods. Finally,
we close the book with a discussion of finite element methods for solving eigenvalue
problems, such as those suggested in Section 9.7.

10.1 Implementation of finite element methods

There are several issues that must be resolved in order to efficiently implement the
finite element method in a computer program, including
• Data structures for representation of the mesh.

461
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462 Chapter 10. More about finite element methods

• Efficient computation of the various integrals that define the entries in the
stiffness matrix and load vector.
• Algorithms for assembling the stiffness matrix and the load vector.
We will now discuss these issues.

10.1.1 Describing a triangulation

Before we can describe data structures and algorithms, we must develop notation
for the computational mesh. First of all, we will assume that the domain 0 on
which the BVP is posed is a bounded polygonal domain in R2, so that it can be
triangulated.75 Let

be the collection of triangles in the mesh under consideration, and let

be the set of nodes of the triangles in Th- (Standard notation in finite element
methods labels each mesh with /i, the length of the longest side of any triangle in
the mesh. Similarly, the space of piecewise linear functions relative to that mesh is
denoted Vh, and an arbitrary element of Vh as Vh- We will now adopt this standard
notation.)
To make this discussion as concrete as possible, we will use as an example a
regular triangular mesh, defined on the unit square, consisting of 32 triangles and
25 nodes. This mesh is shown in Figure 10.1.
In order to perform the necessary calculations, we must know which nodes are
associated with which triangles. Of course, each triangle has three nodes; we need
to know the indices of these three nodes in the list HI, 112,.. - , HM- We define the
mapping e by the property that the nodes of triangle Tj are ne(i;1), n e (j ;2 ), ne(i,3) •
(So e is a function of two variables; the first must take an integral value from 1 to
L, and the second one of the integers 1,2,3.)
In our sample mesh, there are 32 triangles (L = 32), and they are enumerated
as in Figure 10.2. The M = 25 nodes are enumerated as shown in Figure 10.3, which
explicitly shows the indices of the nodes belonging to each triangle. For example,

expressing the fact that the vertices of triangle 10 are nodes 6, 7, and 12.
Each of the standard basis functions for the space of continuous piecewise
linear functions corresponds to one node in the triangulation. The basis functions
75
If the domain fi has curved boundaries, then, in the context of piecewise linear finite elements,
the boundary must be approximated by a polygonal curve made up of edges of triangles. This
introduces an additional error into the approximation. When using higher-order finite elements, for
example, piecewise quadratic or piecewise cubic functions, then it is straightforward to approximate
the boundary by a piecewise polynomial curve of the same degree as is used for the finite element
functions. This technique is called the isoparametric method, and it leads to a significant reduction
in the error. We will ignore all such questions here by restricting ourselves to polygonal domains.
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10.1. Implementation of finite element methods 463

Figure 10.1. A triangulation of the unit square.

Figure 10.2. Enumerating the triangles in the sample mesh.

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464 Chapter 10. More about finite element methods

Figure 10.3. Enumerating the nodes in the sample mesh.

correspond to the degrees of freedom in the finite element approximation. However,

not every node in the triangulation need give rise to a degree of freedom; some
may be associated with Dirichlet boundary conditions which determine the weight
given to the corresponding basis function. For this reason, it is not sufficient to
identify the set of all nodes in the triangulation; we must also determine the free
nodes—those that do not correspond to a Dirichlet condition. We will label the free
nodes as n^, n/ 2 ,..., n/^.
Referring again to the sample mesh of Figure 10.1, if we assume that this mesh
will be used in a Dirichlet problem, only the interior nodes correspond to degrees
of freedom. Thus N = 9 and the free nodes can be enumerated in the same order
as the set of all nodes (left-to-right and bottom-to-top). This yields

We now define the standard basis function fa by the conditions that fa is a

continuous piecewise linear function relative to the mesh 7ft, and

The finite element space—the space of continuous piecewise linear functions

(relative to the mesh 7ft) that satisfy any given homogeneous Dirichlet conditions—
is then
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10.1. Implementation of finite element methods 465

10.1.2 Computing the stiffness matrix

We assume that the weak form of the B VP in question has been written in the form

and that the Galerkin problem takes the form

We need to compute the stiffness matrix K € R N x N , where

By design, most of these values will be zero; let us focus on a fixed i between 1 and
AT, and ask the question: For which values of j will KIJ be nonzero?
As an example, consider i — 5 for our sample mesh. The support of ^13 = 0/5
is shown in Figure 10.4. The question we must answer is: What other basis functions
(f>fj have a support that intersects of ^13 (the intersection must have a positive
area; if the intersection is just an edge of a triangle, this will not lead to a nonzero
contribution to K). It is easy to see that the desired basis functions correspond to
nodes of triangles of which 1113 is itself a node, that is, to the nodes of the triangles
shaded in Figure 10.4.

Figure 10.4. The support 0/^13.

It is possible to store all of the necessary connectivity information (that is, to

store, along with each node, a list of nodes belonging to a common triangle). With
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466 Chapter 10. More about finite element methods

this information, one can compute the matrix K by rows, according to the following
algorithm:
for i = 1 , 2 , . . . , N
for each j = l,2,...,N such that the supports of (f)fj and (f>ft overlap,
compute Kij = a (<j>f., 0^).
However, this is probably not the most common approach, for the following reason:
In order to compute the necessary integrals, one must know the nodes that form the
vertices of each triangle. It turns out that the stiffness matrix can be formed with
only this information, that is, without explicitly storing the connectivity information
mentioned above.
The integral represented by a (0^., <}>f.) is naturally decomposed into the sum
of several integrals, one for each triangular element making up the domain of inte-
gration. It is convenient to make this decomposition, as <j>f4 and 0^. are given by
different formulas on the different elements. It is then natural to compute, for each
element Tk, the contributions to various entries of the stiffness matrix K.
For example, consider % = 5, j = 1 in our sample mesh. Then a ((f>f^ 0/J is
the sum of two integrals, one over triangle Ti2 and the other over Ti3:

There is no reason that these two integrals must be computed together, as long as
both contributions to K5i are eventually accumulated.
Following the above reasoning, a standard algorithm for computing K is to
loop over the elements (i.e. the triangles) in the mesh (rather than over the nodes)
and compute the contributions to K from each element in turn. Since each triangle
has three nodes, a given element contributes to up to 9 entries in K. There is
one piece of information, however, that is not available unless we make a point to
record it in the data structure: the "inverse" of the mapping i t-t fa. In the course
of assembling the stiffness matrix, we need to be able to decide if a given node n^ is
a free node (that is, if j = fa for some i) and, if so, to determine i. So let us define
a mapping j •->• gj by

The algorithm then takes the following form:

for A? = 1,2,...,L
f o r » = 1,2,3
for j = 1,2,3
if P = 9e(k,i) ^ 0 and q = ge(kij) ± 0
Add the contribution to Kpq obtained by integrating over Tk.
The condition that ge(k,i) / 0 indicates that the ith vertex (i = 1,2,3) of triangle
Tk is a free node, and similarly for <?e(fc,j) • The integral mentioned in the last line
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10.1. Implementation of finite element methods 467

of this algorithm is the contribution to Kpq = a (0 e (fc,j)>0e(M)) fr°m the element

TV Also, it should be pointed out that, in the case that K is symmetric (as it is in
the examples considered in this book), part of the work can be eliminated: we just
compute the entries Kpq with q>p, and then assign the value of Kpq to Kqp.
We have described above the information needed to carry out this algorithm.
It is easy to store this information in arrays for use in a computer program. A
simple data structure would consist of four arrays:76
1. NodeList: An M x 2 array; the iih row consists of the x and y coordinates
of node n^.

2. ElementList: An L x 3 array; the kth row consists of e(fc,l),e(fc,2),e(fc,3).

3. FreeNodePtrs: An N x 1 array; the iih entry is /j.

4. NodePtrs: An M x 1 array; the iih entry is gi.

By way of example, Table 10.1 shows these arrays for the sample mesh of Figure
10.1. The information recorded in these arrays will suffice for straightforward finite
element problems with homogeneous Dirichlet or Neumann boundary conditions
(or even for inhomogeneous Dirichlet problems—see Exercise 5). For problems with
inhomogeneous Neumann conditions, it may also be necessary to record whether a
given edge belongs to the boundary. The ElementList array can be augmented by
columns containing flags indicating whether the edges lie on the boundary. (Or, of
course, these flags can be stored in independent arrays, if desired.) This extension
is left to the reader.

10.1.3 Computing the load vector

Computing the load vector f is similar to computing the stiffness matrix, only easier.
We loop over the elements and, for each node n/{ of a given triangle, compute the
contribution to f i . The value fi will be the sum of integrals over one or more
triangles, and this sum is accumulated as we loop over the triangular elements.
for k = 1 , 2 , . . . , L
for i = 1,2,3
if P = 9e(k,i) / 0
Add the contribution to fp obtained by integrating over T^.

10.1.4 Quadrature
Up to this point, we have computed all integrals exactly, perhaps with the help of a
computer package such as Mathematica or Maple. However, this would be difficult to
incorporate into a general-purpose computer program for finite elements. Moreover,
it is not necessary to compute the various integrals exactly, and it may be more
76
Using modern techniques, such as modular programming or object-oriented programming, one
might define a structure or a class to represent a mesh.
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468 Chapter 10. More about finite element methods

ElementList
1 1 6 7
2 1 2 7
3 2 7 8
NodeList NodePtrs
4 2 3 8
5 3 8 9
1 0 0 1 0
2 0.2500 0 2 0
6 3 4 9
3 0.5000 0 3 0
7 4 9 10
4 0.7500 0 4 0
8 4 5 10
5 1.0000 0 5 0
9 6 11 12
6 0 0.2500 6 0
10 6 7 12
7 0.2500 0.2500 7 1
11 7 12 13
8 0.5000 0.2500 8 2 PreeNodePtrs
12 7 8 13
13 8 13 14
9 0.7500 0.2500 9 3 1 7
10 1.0000 0.2500 10 0 2 8
14 8 9 14
11 0 0.5000 11 0 3 9
15 9 14 15
12 0.2500 0.5000 12 4 4 12
16 9 10 15
13 0.5000 0.5000 13 5 5 13
17 11 16 17
14 0.7500 0.5000 14 6 6 14
18 11 12 17
15 1.0000 0.5000 15 0 7 17
19 12 17 18
16 0 0.7500 16 0 8 18
20 12 13 18
17 0.2500 0.7500 17 7 9 19
21 13 18 19
18 0.5000 0.7500 18 8
22 13 14 19
19 0.7500 0.7500 19 9
23 14 19 20
20 1.0000 0.7500 20 0
24 14 15 20
21 0 1.0000 21 0
25 16 21 22
22 0.2500 1.0000 22 0
26 16 17 22
23 0.5000 1.0000 23 0
27 17 22 23
24 0.7500 1.0000 24 0
28 17 18 23
25 1.0000 1.0000 25 0
29 18 23 24
30 18 19 24
31 19 24 25
32 19 20 25

Table 10.1. The data structure for the mesh of Figure 10.1.

efficient to use numerical integration (quadrature). It is only necessary to choose

a quadrature rule that introduces an error small enough that it does not affect the
rate of convergence of the error in the approximate solution to zero as the mesh is
refined.
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10.1. Implementation of finite element methods 469

A quadrature rule is an approximation of the form

where w\, w?,..., Wk, the weights, are real numbers and (si, £1), ($2, £ 2 ) , . . . , (fifc, £&),
the nodes, are points in the domain of integration R. Equation (10.1) defines a k
point quadrature rule.

Choosing a quadrature rule

There are two issues that must be resolved: the choice of a quadrature rule and its
implementation for an arbitrary triangle. We begin by discussing the quadrature
rule. A useful way to classify quadrature rules is by their degree of precision. While
it may not be completely obvious at first, it is possible to define rules of the form
(10.1) that give the exact value when applied to certain polynomials. A rule has
degree of precision d if the rule is exact for all polynomials of degree d or less. Since
both integration and a quadrature rule of the form (10.1) are linear in /, it suffices
to consider only monomials.
As a simple example, consider the rule

This rule has degree of precision 1, since

Equation (10.2) is the one-point Gaussian quadrature rule. For one-dimensional

integrals, the n-point Gaussian quadrature rule is exact for polynomials of degree
2n — 1 or less. For example, the two-point Gauss quadrature rule, which has degree
of precision 3, is

The Gaussian quadrature rules are defined on the reference interval [-1,1]; to apply
the rules on a different interval requires a simple change of variables.
In multiple dimensions, it is also possible to define quadrature rules with a
given degree of precision. Of course, things are more complicated because of the
variety of geometries that are possible. We will exhibit rules for triangles with
degree of precision 1 and 2. These rules will be defined for the reference triangle
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470 Chapter 10. More about finite element methods

TR with vertices (0,0), (1,0), and (0,1) (see Figure 10.5). The following one-point
rule has degree of precision 1:

(see Exercise 1), while the following two-point rule has degree of precision 2:

(see Exercise 2).

Figure 10.5. The reference triangle TR.

What degree of precision is necessary in applying the finite element method?

Here is a rule of thumb: The quadrature rule should compute the exact entries in the
stiffness matrix in the case of a PDE with constant coefficients. Such a quadrature
rule will then be accurate enough, even in a problem with (smooth) nonconstant
coefficients, that the accuracy of the finite element method will not be significantly
degraded.
When using piecewise linear functions, the stiffness matrix is assembled from
integrals of the form

and the integrand is constant when k is constant (a linear function has a con-
stant gradient). Therefore, the one-point rule will give exact results for a constant
coefficient problem,77 and, by our rule of thumb, the same rule is adequate for
nonconstant coefficient problems.
If we were to use piecewise quadratic functions, then V0j • V0j would be
piecewise quadratic as well, and so we would need a quadrature rule with degree of
precision 2. The three-point rule (10.4) would be appropriate in that case.
77
Actually, a rule with degree of precision 0 would suffice; however, a rule cannot use less than
one quadrature node, and so we use the above one-point rule, which has degree of precision 1.
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10.1. Implementation of finite element methods 471

Integrating over an arbitrary triangle

There is still the following technical detail to discuss: How can we apply a quadra-
ture rule defined on the reference triangle TR to an integral over an arbitrary triangle
T? We assume that T has vertices (pi,p2), (tfi^), and (ri,r2). We can then map
(^1,^2) G TR to (xi,#2) € T by the linear mapping

The mapping (10.5) sends (0,0), (1,0), and (0,1) to (pi,p2), (tfi,<?2), and (ri,r 2 ),
respectively. We will denote this mapping by x = F(y), and we note that the
Jacobian matrix of F is

We can now aonlv the rule for a change of variables in a multiple integral:78

As the determinant of J is the constant

it is easy to apply the change of variables and then any desired quadrature rule.
For example, the three-point rule (10.4) would be applied as follows:

Exercises
1. Verify that (10.3) produces the exact integral for the monomials 1, x, y.
2. Verify that (10.4) produces the exact integral for the monomials 1, x, ?/, x 2 ,
xy, y2.
3. Let T be the triangular region with vertices (1,0), (2,0), and (3/2,1), and let
/ : T -> R be defined by /(x) = x\x\. Compute

78
This rule is explained in calculus texts such as Gillett [17], or more fully in advanced calculus
texts such as Kaplan [29].
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472 Chapter 10. More about finite element methods

directly, and also by transforming the integral to an integral over TR, as

suggested in the text. Verify that you obtain the same result.
4. A common way to create a mesh on a domain il is to establish a coarse
mesh, and then to refine it until it is suitable. A simple way to refine a
triangular mesh is to replace each triangle with four triangles by connecting
the midpoints of the three edges of the original triangle. An example is shown
in Figure 10.6, in which a mesh with two triangles is refined to a mesh with
eight triangles by this method. This technique of replacing a triangle with
four triangles can be repeated several times until the mesh is fine enough.
(a) Consider the coarsest mesh in Figure 10.6. Describe the mesh using
the notation in the text, and also compute the arrays NodeList, Ele-
mentList, FreeNodePtrs, NodePtrs. Assume that the mesh will be
used for a Dirichlet problem.
(b) Repeat for the finer mesh in Figure 10.6.
(c) Refine the (right-hand) mesh from Figure 10.6 one more time, and com-
pute the arrays describing the refined mesh.
Note: There is not a unique right answer to this exercise, since the nodes and
elements can be ordered in various ways.

Figure 10.6. A coarse mesh (left), refined in the standard fashion (right).
(Note: The mesh is a triangulation of the rhombus in both figures; the circumscribed
box just indicates the axes.)
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10.2. Solving sparse linear systems 473

5. Explain how to use the information stored in the data structure suggested in
the text to solve an inhomogeneous Dirichlet problem.
6. Consider the data structure suggested in the text. What information is lacking
that is needed to solve an inhomogeneous Neumann problem?

10.2 Solving sparse linear systems

As we have mentioned several times, the finite element method is a practical nu-
merical method, even for large two- and three-dimensional problems, because the
matrices that it produces have mostly zero entries. A matrix is called sparse if a
large percentage of its entries are known to be zero. In this section, we wish to
briefly survey the subject of solving sparse linear systems.
Methods for solving linear systems can be divided into two categories. A
method that will produce the exact solution in a finite number of steps is called a
direct method. (Actually, when implemented on a computer, even a direct method
will not compute the exact solution because of unavoidable round-off error. To be
precise, a direct method will compute the exact solution in a finite number of steps,
provided it is implemented in exact arithmetic.) The most common direct methods
are variants of Gaussian elimination. Below, we discuss modifications of Gaussian
elimination for sparse matrices.
An algorithm that computes the exact solution to a linear system only as
the limit of an infinite sequence of approximations is called an iterative method.
There are many iterative methods in use; we will discuss the most popular: the
conjugate gradient algorithm. We also touch on the topic of preconditioning, the
art of transforming a linear system so as to obtain faster convergence with an
iterative method.

10.2.1 Gaussian elimination for dense systems

In order to have some standard of comparison, we first briefly discuss the standard
Gaussian elimination algorithm for the solution of dense systems. Our interest is
in the operation count—the number of arithmetic operations necessary to solve an
n x n dense system. The basic algorithm is simple to write down. In the following
description, we assume that no row interchanges are required, as these do not use
any arithmetic operations anyway.79 The following pseudo-code solves Ax = b,
where A € R n x n and b 6 R n , overwriting the values of A and b:

79
In general, Gaussian elimination is numerically unstable unless partial pivoting is used. Partial
pivoting is the technique of interchanging rows to get the largest possible pivot entry. This ensures
that all of the multipliers appearing in the algorithm are bounded above by one, and in virtually
every case, that roundoff error does not increase unduly. There are special classes of matrices,
most notably the class of symmetric positive definite matrices, for which Gaussian elimination is
provably stable with no row interchanges.
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474 Chapter 10. More about finite element methods

The first (nested) loop is properly called Gaussian elimination; it systemati-

cally eliminates variables to produce an upper triangular system that is equivalent
to the original system. The second loop is called back substitution; it solves the
last equation, which now has only one variable, for # n , substitutes this value in
the preceding equation and solves for or n _i, and so forth. The pseudo-code above
overwrites the right-hand-side vector b with the solution x.
The Gaussian elimination part of the algorithm is equivalent (when, as we
have assumed, no row interchanges are required) to factoring A into the product of
an upper triangular matrix U and a unit lower triangular matrix (that is, a lower
triangular matrix with all ones on the diagonal) L: A = LU. As the algorithm
is written above, the matrix A is overwritten with the value of U (on and above
the diagonal) and L (below the diagonal—there is no need to store the diagonal of
L, since it is known to consist of all ones). At the same time, the first loop above
effectively replaces b by L-1b. The back substitution phase is then equivalent to
replacing L~ x b by U~ 1 L~ 1 b = A -1 b. The factorization A = LU is simply called
the LU factorization.
It is not difficult to count the number of arithmetic operations required by
Gaussian elimination and back substitution. It turns out to be

with most of the operations used to factor A into LU (the computation of L x b

and then U~ 1 L~ 1 b requires only O(2n 2 ) operations). (Exercise 1 asks the reader
to verify these results.)
When the matrix A is symmetric and positive definite80 (SPD), then one can
take advantage of symmetry to factor the matrix as A = LLT, where L is lower
triangular. This factorization is called the Cholesky factorization. (The Cholesky
factor L is not the same matrix L appearing in the LU factorization—in particular,
it does not have all ones on the diagonal—but it is closely related.) The symmetry
of A makes the Cholesky factorization less expensive than the LU factorization;
the operation count is O(n3/3). For simplicity (because the Cholesky factorization
is less familiar and harder to describe than the LU factorization), we will discuss
the direct solution of linear systems in terms of Gaussian elimination and the LU
factorization. However, the reader should bear in mind that the stiffness matrix K
is SPD, and so the Cholesky factorization is preferred in practice.
80
The reader should recall that a symmetric matrix A e R n X n is called positive definite if
x G R n , x ^ 0 =» x • Ax > 0.
The matrix A is positive definite if and only if all of its eigenvalues are positive.
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10.2. Solving sparse linear systems 475

n time (s)
100 0.0116
200 0.107
400 1.57
800 12.7
1600 102

Table 10.2. Time required to solve an n x n dense linear system on a

personal computer.

The operation counts shows how the computation time increases as the size
of the system increases—doubling the size of the system causes an 8-fold increase
in computation time. As a frame of reference, Table 10.2 gives the time required to
solve an n x n linear system on a reasonably good personal computer at the time
of this writing.81
With the rapid improvements in computer hardware of the last two decades,
it might seem that concerns about algorithmic efficiency are less significant than
they used to be. Indeed, many problems that required mainframe computers 25
years ago can now easily be solved on inexpensive personal computers. However,
with an operation count of 0(2n3/3), it is not difficult to encounter problems that
exceed available computing power. For example, consider the discretization of a
three-dimensional cube. If there are N divisions in each dimension, then the size of
the system will be on the order of N3 x N3, and, if a dense linear system of this order
is to be solved (or even if a sparse linear system is solved by a dense method, that
is, a method that does not take advantage of sparsity), then the operation count
will be O(N9). Merely to refine the mesh by a factor of 2 in each dimension will
increase the computation time by a factor of 512. (We are not even considering the
memory requirements.) Thus, given the times in Table 10.2, to solve a problem on
a 10 x 10 x 10 grid might take a minute; to solve the same problem on a 20 x 20 x 20
grid would take more than 8 hours!
This discussion should convince the reader that algorithmic efficiency is critical
for solving some realistic problems. We now discuss the solution of sparse systems;
a comparison of operation counts will show the advantages of a method, such as
finite elements, that leads to sparse linear systems.

10.2.2 Direct solution of banded systems

When the mesh employed in the finite element method has a regular structure, the
resulting stiffness matrix tends to be banded. The entries of a banded matrix are
zero except for those in a band close to the main diagonal. The precise definition
is the following.

Definition 10.1. Let A e R n x n . We say that A is banded with half-bandwidth

81
The CPU is a 450 MHz Pentium II. Of course, the rate of improvement of CPUs being what
it is, this will no longer be considered a reasonably good CPU by the time this book is published!
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476 Chapter 10. More about finite element methods

P if

As an example, consider the stiffness matrix arising from solving Poisson's

equation:

Suppose £7 is the unit square (J7 = {x € R2 : 0 < x\ < 1,0 < #2 < l})> and we
apply the finite element method with a regular triangulation of f) and piecewise
linear finite element functions. Dividing the x and y intervals, [0,1], into n subin-
tervals each, we obtain 2n2 elements and (n + I) 2 nodes. Only the interior nodes
are free, so the stiffness matrix is (n — I) 2 x (n — I) 2 . As we showed in Example
8.10, a typical free node rifi iteracts with nodes

(also with nodes n/ i-n and n/i+n, but, with constant coefficients, the corresponding
entries of K turn out to be zero due to cancellation), so that the subdiagonals of
A indexed by — n + 1, — 1 and the superdiagonals indexed by 1, n — 1, along with
the main diagonal, contain nonzero entries. Thus A is banded with half-bandwidth
n - 1. See Figure 10.7 for the sparsity pattern of A.
It is completely straightforward to apply Gaussian elimination with back sub-
stitution to a banded system. Indeed, the typical step of the algorithm is just as
in the dense case, except that the inner loops run over a limited range of indices—
keeping the computation within the band. Here is the algorithm:

(Here, again, we assume that no row interchanges are required.)

It is easy to show that the above algorithm requires O(2p2n) operations (see
Exercise 2)—a considerable savings if p <£ n. For example, consider solving Pois-
son's equation in two dimensions, as discussed above. The discrete Laplacian (under
Dirichlet conditions), is an (n — I) 2 x (n — I) 2 banded matrix with half-bandwidth
n — 1. The cost of solving such a banded system is O(2(n — I) 4 ), as opposed to a
cost of
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10.2. Solving sparse linear systems 477

Figure 10.7. The sparsity pattern of the discrete Laplacian (200 triangular
elements).

if the standard Gaussian elimination algorithm is used. (For SPD matrices, these
operation counts can be divided by two.)
The cost of a direct method performed on a sparse matrix is controlled, not
merely by the number of nonzeros in the matrix, but by the fill-in that occurs during
the course of the algorithm. Fill-in is said to have occurred whenever an entry that
is originally zero becomes nonzero during the course of the algorithm. In factoring
a banded matrix, fill-in occurs within the bands, as can be seen by inspecting the
L and U factors (see Figure 10.8). Entries that become nonzero during the course
of the algorithm must be included in subsequent calculations, increasing the cost.

10.2.3 Direct solution of general sparse systems

When A is sparse but not banded, it is more difficult to predict the cost of a direct
method. The cost is governed by the degree of fill-in, and when the matrix is not
banded, the fill-in is unpredictable. Figure 10.9 shows a symmetric sparse matrix
A with the nonzeros placed randomly, and also the resulting fill-in. The original
matrix has a density of 9.46%, while the lower triangular factor of A has a density
of over 61%.
Sparse matrices whose sparsity pattern is unstructured are particularly suited
to iterative methods. Iterative methods only require the ability to compute matrix-
vector products, such as Ap (and possibly, for nonsymmetric matrices, the product
A T p). Therefore, the particular sparsity pattern is relatively unimportant; the cost
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478 Chapter 10. More about finite element methods

Figure 10.8. The sparsity pattern of the L (left) and U (right) factors of
the discrete Laplacian (200 triangular elements).

of the matrix-vector product is mostly governed by the density of the matrix (the
percentage of nonzero entries).

10.2.4 Iterative solution of sparse linear systems

Even when A is sparse, it may be too costly, in terms of arithemtic operations or
memory (or both), to solve Ax = b directly. An alternative is to use an iterative
algorithm, which produces a sequence of increasingly accurate approximations to the
true solution. Although the exact solution can generally not be obtained except in
the limit (that is, an infinite number of steps is required to get the exact solution),
in many cases a relatively few steps can produce an approximate solution that
is sufficiently accurate. Indeed, we should keep in mind that, in the context of
solving differential equations, the "exact" solution to Ax = b is not really the
exact solution—it is only an approximation to the true solution of the differential
equation. Therefore, as long as the iterative algorithm introduces errors no larger
than the discretization errors, it is perfectly satisfactory.
Many iterative algorithms have been developed, and it is beyond the scope of
this book to survey them. We will content ourselves with outlining the conjugate
gradient (CG) method, the most popular algorithm for solving SPD systems. (The
stiffness matrix K from a finite element problem, being a Gram matrix, is SPD—see
Exercise 6.) We will also briefly discuss preconditioning, a method for accelerating
convergence.
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10.2. Solving sparse linear systems 479

Figure 10.9. A random sparse matrix (left) and its lower triangular factor
(right).

The CG method is actually an algorithm for minimizing a quadratic form. If

A e R nxn ig SPD and 0 : Rn -» R is denned by

then a direct calculation (see Exercise 3) shows that

Therefore, the unique stationary point of 0 is

Moreover, a consideration of the second derivative matrix shows that this stationary
point is the global minimizer of 0 (a quadratic form defined by an SPD matrix is
analogous to a scalar quadratic ax2+bx+c with a > 0—see Figure 10.10). Therefore,
solving Ax = b and minimizing 0 are equivalent.
We can thus apply any iterative minimization algorithm to 0, and, assuming
it works, it will converge to the desired value of x. A large class of minimization
algorithms are descent methods based on a line search. Such algorithms are based
on the idea of a descent direction: Given an estimate x^ of the solution, a descent
direction p is a direction such that, starting from x^, 0 decreases in the direction
of p. This means that, for all a > 0 sufficiently small,
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480 Chapter 10. More about finite element methods

Figure 10.10. The graph of a quadratic form defined by a positive definite

matrix. The contours of the function are also shown.

holds. Equivalently, this means that the directional derivative of 0 at xW in the

direction of p is negative, that is,

Given a descent direction, a line search algorithm will seek to minimize 0 along the
ray (x^ + ap : a > 0} (that is, it will search along this "line," which is really a
ray).
Since 0 is quadratic, it is particularly easy to perform the line search—along
a one-dimensional subset, (j> reduces to a scalar quadratic. Indeed,

(the symmetry of A was used to combine the terms x^ • Ap/2 and p • Ax^/2)-
The minimum is easily seen to occur at
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10.2. Solving sparse linear systems 481

How should the descent direction be chosen? The obvious choice is the steepest
descent direction

since the directional derivative of </> at x^ is as negative as possible in this direction.

The resulting algorithm (choose a starting point, move to the minimum in the
steepest descent direction, calculate the steepest descent direction at that new point,
and repeat) is called the steepest descent algorithm. It is guaranteed to converge to
the minimizer x of 0, that is, to the solution of Ax = b. However, it can be shown
that the steepest descent method converges slowly, especially when the eigenvalues
of A differ greatly in magnitude (when this is true, the matrix A is said to be
ill-conditioned).
For an example of a line search in the steepest descent direction, see Figure
10.11 and Exercise 7.

Figure 10.11. The contours of the quadratic form from Figure 10.10. The
steepest descent direction from x = (4,2) (marked by the "o") is indicated, along
with the minimizer in the steepest descent direction (marked by "o"). The desired
(global) minimizer is marked by "x."

Example 10.2. To test the algorithms described in this section, we will use the
BVP
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482 Chapter 10. More about finite element methods

where fi is the unit square and

The exact solution is

We establish a regular mesh on £7 by dividing the x\ and #2 intervals into 64 subin-

tervals each. This results in 2 • 642 triangles and 632 = 3969 free nodes. The finite
element equation, Ku = f, is therefore 3969 x 3969 (a fairly large system, but very
sparse).
We apply the steepest descent algorithm to solve Ku = f. One hundred steps,
starting with the zero vector as the initial estimate, produces an estimate of u that
differs from the exact value u by about 76% in the Euclidean norm. The error in
the corresponding piecewise linear function, compared to the exact solution u, is
about 72% in the energy norm. By comparison, the exact solution u of Ku = f
corresponds to a piecewise linear function that has an error of about 3% in the
energy norm.
Clearly these results are not very good. If we take 1000 steps instead of 100,
the errors become about 25% in the Euclidean norm and 23% in the energy norm.
It appears that we can obtain an accurate answer using steepest descent, but only
by taking a large number of steps.

10.2.5 The conjugate gradient algorithm

The conjugate gradient (CG) algorithm is another descent algorithm that is usually a
great improvement over the steepest descent method. The problem with the steepest
descent method is that, while the steepest descent direction is locally optimal, from
a global point of view, the search directions are poorly chosen. Indeed, it can be
shown that successive search directions are orthogonal (see Exercise 4). It is not
efficient to approach the desired solution via orthogonal steps (after all, the shortest
path between two points follows a straight line).
The CG algorithm defines the successive search directions to satisfy a pleas-
ing global property—basically that each step preserves the optimality property of
previous steps. To be precise, after k steps of CG, the estimated solutions is the
minimizer of 0 over the /^-dimensional subset spanned by the first k search direc-
tions.
It is rather difficult to derive the CG algorithm—the final form results from
several nonobvious simplifications. We will content ourselves with showing the
critical step: the computation of the search direction. We will assume that the
initial estimate of the solution is x^°^ = 0, that the first k search directions are
p(i) ? p(2) ^ ^ p(fc) ^ ^d tnat after k steps we have determined ai, 0:2, • • • , &k so that

solves
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10.2. Solving sparse linear systems 483

We now wish to find a new search direction p(fe+1) with the following property: If

where ctk+i solves

then x(fc+1) solves

It is not clear that such a p(fc+1) can be found; however, it can be, as we now show.
To solve (10.11), we must find /?i, /92, • • • , 0k+i such that

is as small as possible. (We separate the last term, 0k+ip(k+1\ from the sum
because we already know how to make

as small as possible.) Some straightforward algebra shows that

Here is the crucial observation: If we can choose p(fc+1) so that

is zero, then

The minimization problem is then "decoupled." That is, we can independently

choose 8-1. 8<> 81. to minimize
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484 Chapter 10. More about finite element methods

and @k+i to minimize

and the resulting /?i,$2, • • • ,flk+i will be the solution of (10.11). This is what we
want, since we already have computed the minimizer of (10.12).
Our problem then reduces to finding p(fe+1) to satisfy

It is certainly sufficient to satisfy

We can assume by induction that

We can recognize condition (10.13) as stating that the vectors p^,p^,... , p^

are orthogonal with respect to the inner product82

To compute the search direction p( fc+1 ), then, we just take a descent direction
and subtract off its component lying in the subspace

the result will be orthogonal to each of the vectors p^\p^,. - - , p^- We will use
the steepest descent direction r = — V^(x( fc )) to generate the new search direction.
To achieve the desired orthogonality, we must compute the component of r in Sfc
by projecting r onto Sk in the inner product defined by A. We therefore take

For reasons that we cannot explain here, most of the inner products r • ApW are
zero, and the result is

We can then use the formula from (10.9) to find the minimizer ak+i in the direction
of p(fe+1), and we will have found x(fe+1).
By taking advantage of the common features of the formulas (10.9) and (10.14)
(and using some other simplifications), we can express the CG algorithm in the
following efficient form. (The vector b — Ax(fc) is called the residual in the equation
Ax = b—it is the amount by which the equation fails to be satisfied.)
82
It can be shown that, since A is positive definite, x • Ay defines an inner product on R n ; see
Exercise 5.
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10.2. Solving sparse linear systems 485

r = b — Ax (* Compute the initial residual *)

p «— r (* Compute the initial search direction *)
Ci <- r • r
for fc = l , 2 , . . .
v «— Ap
c2 <- p • v
o: <— ^ (* Solve the one-dimensional minimization problem *)
x -f- x + ap (* Update the estimate of the solution *)
r «— r — CKV (* Compute the new residual *)
c3 «- r • r
£<-S
p -f- ftp + r (* Compute the new search direction *)
Ci <-C 3

The reader should note that only a single matrix-vector product is required at each
step of the algorithm, making it very efficient. We emphasize that we have not
derived all of the steps in the CG algorithm.83
The name "conjugate gradients" is derived from the fact that many authors
refer to the orthogonality of the search directions, in the inner product defined
by A, as A-conjugacy. Therefore, the key step is to make the (negative) gradient
direction conjugate to the previous search directions.

Example 10.3. We apply 100 steps of the CG method to the system Ku = f from
Example 10.2. The result differs from the exact solution u by about 0.001% in the
Euclidean norm, and the corresponding piecewise linear function is just as accurate
(error of about 3% in the energy norm) as that obtained from solving Ku = f
exactly.

10.2.6 Convergence of the CG algorithm

The CG algorithm was constructed so that the fcth estimate, x( fc ), of the solution
x minimizes (j> over the fc-dimensional subspace Sk = spanjp^^p^ 2 ),... ,p^}.
Therefore, x^ n ) minimizes 0 over an n-dimensional subspace of R n , that is, over all
of Rn. It follows that x(n) must be the desired solution: x(n) = x.
Because of this observation, the CG algorithm can be regarded as a direct
method—it computes the exact solution after a finite number of steps (at least
when performed in floating point arithmetic). There are two reasons, though, why
this property is irrelevant:
1. In floating point arithmetic, the computed search directions will not actually
be A-conjugate (due to the accumulation of round-off errors), and so, in fact,
x^ n ) may differ significantly from x.

2. Even apart from the issue of round-off errors, CG is not used as a direct
method for the simple reason that n steps is too many! We look to iterative
83
For a complete derivation and discussion of the CG algorithm, see [19], for example.
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486 Chapter 10. More about finite element methods

methods when n is very large, making Gaussian elimination too expensive.

In such a case, an iterative method must give a reasonable approximation in
much less than n iterations, or it also is too expensive. The CG algorithm
is useful precisely because it can give very good results in a relatively small
number of iterations.

The rate of convergence of CG is related to the condition number of A, which

is denned as the ratio of the largest eigenvalue of A to the smallest. When the
condition number is relatively small (that is, when A is well-conditioned), CG will
converge rapidly. The algorithm also works well when the eigenvalues of A are
clustered into a few groups. In this case, even if the largest eigenvalue is much
larger than the smallest, CG will perform well. The worst case for CG is a matrix
A whose eigenvalues are spread out over a wide range.

10.2.7 Preconditioned CG
It is often possible to replace a matrix A with a related matrix whose eigenvalues
are clustered, and for which CG will converge quickly. This technique is called
preconditioning, and it requires that one find a matrix M (the preconditioned that is
somehow similar to A (in terms of its eigenvalues) but is much simpler to invert. At
each step of the preconditioned conjugate gradient (PCG) algorithm, it is necessary
to solve an equation of the form Mq = r.
Preconditioners can be found in many different ways, but most require an
intimate knowledge of the matrix A. For this reason, there are few general-purpose
methods. One method that is often used is to define a preconditioner from an
incomplete factorization of A. An incomplete factorization is a factorization (like
Cholesky) in which fill-in is limited by fiat. Another method for constructing pre-
conditioners is to replace A by a simpler matrix (perhaps arising from a simpler
PDE) that can be inverted by FFT methods.

Exercises
1. Suppose A 6 R n x n . Determine the exact number of arithmetic operations
required for the computation of A = LU via Gaussian elimination. Further
count the number of operations required to compute L-1b and U~ 1 L~ 1 b.
Verify the results given in the text. The following formulas will be useful:

2. Suppose A € R nxn is banded with half-bandwidth p. Determine the exact

number of arithmetic operations required to factor A into LU.
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10.2. Solving sparse linear systems 487

3. Let A 6 R n x n be symmetric, and suppose b € R n . Define (f> as in (10.7).

Show that (10.8) holds. (Hint: One method is to write out

and then show that

Another method is to show that

In either case, the symmetry of A is essential.)

4. Let A e R n x n be SPD, let b,y e Rn be given, and suppose a* solves

where

Show that

is orthogonal to V0(y).
5. Suppose A e R n x n is SPD. Show that

defines an inner product on Rn.

6. Let {vi, v 2 , . . . , vn} be a linearly independent set of vectors in an inner prod-
uct space, and let G E R n x n be the corresponding Gram matrix:

Prove that G is SPD. (See the hint for Exercise 3.4.6.)

7. The quadratic form shown in Figures 10.10 and 10.11 is

where
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488 Chapter 10. More about finite element methods

(a) Perform one step of the steepest descent algorithm, beginning at x(°) =
(4,2). Compute the steepest descent direction at x(°) and the minimizer
along the line defined by the steepest descent direction. Compare your
results to Figure 10.11.
(b) Now compute the second step of the steepest descent algorithm. Do you
arrive at the exact solution of Ax = b?
(c) Perform two steps of CG, beginning with x(°) = 0. Do you obtain the
exact solution?

8. When applying an iterative method, a stopping criterion is essential: One

must decide, on the basis of some computable quantity, when the computed
solution is accurate enough that one can stop the iteration. A common stop-
ping criterion is to stop when the relative residual,

falls below some predetermined tolerance e.

(a) Write a program implementing the CG algorithm with the above stop-
ping criterion.
(b) Use your program to solve the finite element equation Ku = f arising
from the BVP (10.10) for meshes of various sizes. For a fixed value of
e, how does the number of iterations required depend on the number of
unknowns (free nodes)?

9. Explain how the CG algorithm must be modified if the initial estimate x(°)
is not the zero vector. (Hint: Think of using the CG algorithm to compute
y = x — x(°). What linear system does y satisfy?)

10.3 An outline of the convergence theory for finite

element methods
We will now present an overview of the convergence theory for Galerkin finite ele-
ment methods for BVPs. Our discussion is little more than an outline, describing
the kinds of analysis that are required to prove that the finite element method
converges to the true solution as the mesh is refined. We will use the Dirichlet
problem

as our model problem.

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10.3. An outline of the convergence theory for finite element methods 489

10.3.1 The Sobolev space H*(n)

We begin by addressing the question of the proper setting for the weak form of the
BVP. In Section 8.4, we derived the weak form as

However, as we pointed out in Section 5.6 (for the one-dimensional case), the choice
of Cf^rj) for the space of test functions is not really appropriate for our purposes,
since the finite element method uses functions that are not smooth enough to belong
to <?£>(£)) • Moreover, the statement of the weak form does not require that the test
functions be so smooth.
We can define the appropriate space of test functions by posing the following
question: What properties must the test functions have in order that the variational
equation

be well-defined? The energy inner product is essentially the L2 inner product of

(The coefficient of the PDE, fc(x), is also involved. However, if we assume that k
is smooth and bounded, then, for the purposes of this discussion, it may as well
be constant and therefore can be ignored.) It suffices, therefore, that the partial
derivatives of u and v belong to L2(t)}, and it is natural to define the space

An issue that immediately arises is the definition of the partial derivatives of u.

Need du/dxi, du/dx^ exist at every point of £)? If so, then the use of piecewise
linear functions is still ruled out.
The classical definition of partial derivatives (as presented in calculus books
and courses), in terms of limits of difference quotients, is purely local. There is
another way to define derivatives that is more global in nature, and therefore more
tolerant of certain kinds of singularities. We begin by defining the space Co°(tl) to
be the set of all infinitely differentiable functions whose support84 does not intersect
the boundary of fi. (That is, the support of a (70°(fJ) function is strictly in the
interior of fi.) If / is any smooth function defined on fK and (f> G (70° (fJ), then, by
integration by parts,

(the boundary integral must vanish since 0 and all of its derivatives are zero on the
boundary). We can define a derivative of / G L 2 (f2) by this equation: If there is a
function g € L2 (17) such that

84
The reader will recall that the support of a function is the closure of the set on which the
function is nonzero.
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490 Chapter 10. More about finite element methods

then g is called the (weak) partial derivative of / with respect to x\, and denoted
df/dxi. The definition of df/dx2 in the weak sense is entirely analogous.
We use the same notation for the weak partial derivatives as we do for the
classical partial derivatives; it can be proved that if the classical partial derivatives
of / exist, then so do the weak partial derivatives, and the two are the same. The
definition (10.17) is to be interpreted in terms of weak derivatives. The space Hl(tl)
is an example of a Sobolev space.
It can be shown that continuous piecewise linear functions belong to /f1(J7),
while, for example, discontinuous piecewise linear functions do not. Exercise 2
explores this question in one dimension; a more complete justification is beyond the
scope of this book.
The standard inner product for Hl(tl) is

and the induced norm is

A function g is a good approximation to / in the H1 sense if and only if g is a

good approximation to / and Vg is a good approximation to V#. If we were to
measure closeness in the L2 norm, on the other hand, V# need not be close to V/.
For an example of the distinction (in one dimension, which is easier to visualize),
see Figure 10.12.
Just as the expression a(u, v) makes sense as long as u and v belong to Hl (0),
the right-hand side (/, v) of the variational equation is well-defined as long as /
belongs to L 2 (f2). It is in this sense that the variational equation a(u,v) = (f,v) is
called the weak form of the BVP: the equation makes sense under relatively weak
assumptions on the functions involved.
We now define the subspace #o(fJ) of Hl(ft) by

Then, by the so-called trace theorem, HQ (17) is a well-defined and closed subspace
of H1^). Moreover, it can be shown that Hl(fl) (and hence #Q(^)) is complete
under the Hl norm. (The notion of completeness was defined in Section 9.6.)
Moreover, the energy inner product is equivalent to the H1 norm on the subspace
HQ($I), which implies that HQ(O,) is complete under the energy norm as well. It
then follows from the Riesz representation theorem that the weak form of the BVP,
which we now pose as

has a unique solution for each / e L 2 (f2). When / is continuous and there is a
classical solution u to the BVP, then u is also the unique solution to the weak form
of the BVP.
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10.3. An outline of the convergence theory for finite element methods 491

Figure 10.12. Two functions belonging to Hl(Q, 1) (left) and their deriva-
tives (right). The difference in the two functions is less than 5% in the L2 norm,
but it is more than 91% in the H1 norm.

The various analytical results mentioned in this section, such as the trace
theorem, completeness of the Sobolev space Hl(£t), and the Riesz representation
theorem, are discussed in advanced books on finite elements, such as [6].

10.3.2 Best approximation in the energy norm

We now know that the weak form of the BVP (10.15) has a unique solution u €
HQ($}) for each / e L 2 (f)). Moreover, given a triangulation T of fi, the space
Vh of continuous piecewise linear functions relative to T, satisfying the Dirichlet
boundary conditions, is a finite-dimensional subspace of -ffg(fl). We can therefore
apply the Galerkin method to compute the best approximation from Vh, in the
energy norm, to the true solution u.

10.3.3 Approximation by piecewise polynomials

We have seen (at least in outline) that the weak form (10.19) has a unique solution
u, and that we can compute the best approximation to u from the finite element
space Vh. The next question is: How good is the best approximation from V/j,?
This is a question of piecewise polynomial approximation, and the simplest way to
answer it is to consider the piecewise linear interpolant of the true solution, which
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492 Chapter 10. More about finite element methods

is (using the usual notation)

where x^, x / 2 , . . . , ~x.fN are the free nodes of the mesh. If we can determine how well
HI approximates u in the energy norm, then, since uj € Vh and the finite element
approximation Uh is the best approximation to u from Vh, we know that the error
in Uh is no greater.
It can be shown that, if u has some extra smoothness (in particular, if u is a so-
lution of the strong form of the BVP, so that it is twice continuously differentiable),
then

where h is the length of the largest side of any triangle in the mesh Th and C is a
constant that depends on the particular solution u but is independent of the mesh.85
It follows that

also holds, since

This completes the outline of the basic convergence theory for piecewise linear
Galerkin finite elements.

10.3.4 Elliptic regularity and L2 estimates

It would be desirable to have an estimate on the error in the L2 norm. This can
be obtained by a standard "duality" argument, provided "elliptic regularity" holds.
Assuming that the coefficient k is smooth, when the domain £) has a smooth bound-
ary, or when £) is convex86 with a piecewise smooth boundary, then the solution of
(10.15) is smoother than the right-hand side / by two degrees of differentiability.
Thus, if / lies in L 2 , then u and its partial derivatives up to order two lie in L2.
This property (that the solution is smoother than the right-hand side) is referred
to as elliptic regularity. As long as elliptic regularity holds, it can be shown (by the
duality argument mentioned above) that

so that

In each of the three previous inequalities, the constant C represents a generic con-
stant (not necessarily the same in each inequality) that can depend on the particular
solution u and the domain f) but is independent of h.
85
There are some restrictions on the nature of the meshes TH as h —>• 0, basically that the
triangles do not become arbitrarily "skinny."
86
A set fi is called convex if, whenever the endpoints of a line segment lie in J7, then the entire
line segment lies in fi.
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10.3. An outline of the convergence theory for finite element methods 493

Exercises
1. Suppose 0 € Co*(ti) and / : fi ->• R is smooth. Prove that

for i = 1,2. What would the boundary integral be in this integration by parts
formula if it were not assumed that 0 is zero on dfi?
2. The purpose of this exercise is to illustrate why continuous piecewise linear
functions belong to /^(O,!), but discontinuous piecewise linear functions do
not.
(a) Define / : [0,1] -» R by

Then / is differentiate (in the classical sense) everywhere except at

x = 1/2, and

Show that / belongs to H1 (0,1) and that its weak derivative is as defined
above by verifying that

for every 0 6 C™(Q, 1). (Hint: Start with the integral on the right,
rewrite it as the sum of two integrals, and apply integration by parts to
each.)
(b) Define g : [0,1] ->• R by

Then g, just like /, is differentiate (in the classical sense) except at

x = 1/2, and

However, g £ ^1(0,1). Show that it is not the case that

for every 0 e C^°(0,l).

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494 Chapter 10. More about finite element methods

3. Let f] be the unit square and define /, g € Hl(ty by

Compute the relative difference in / and g in the L2 and H1 norms.

4. The exact solution of the BVP

is u(x) = x3(l — x). Consider the regular mesh with three elements, the
subintervals [0,1/3], [1/3,2/3], and [2/3,1].

(a) Compute the piecewise linear finite element approximation to u, and call
it v.
(b) Compute the piecewise linear interpolant of w, and call it w.
(c) Compute the error in v and w (as approximations to u) in the energy
norm. Which is smaller?

10.4 Finite element methods for eigenvalue problems

In Section 9.7, we described how eigenvalues and eigenfunctions exist for noncon-
stant coefficients problems on (more or less) arbitrary domains, but we gave no
techniques for finding them. We will now show how finite element methods can
be used to estimate eigenpairs. This will be a fitting topic to end this book, as it
ties together our two main themes: (generalized) Fourier series methods and finite
element methods.
We will consider the following model problem:

We follow the usual procedure to derive the weak form: multiply by a test function,
and integrate by parts:
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10.4. Finite element methods for eigenvalue problems 495

In the last step, the boundary term vanishes because of the boundary conditions
satisfied by the test function v. The weak form of the eigenvalue problem is therefore

We now apply Galerkin's method with piecewise linear finite elements. We

write Vh for the space of continuous piecewise linear functions, satisfying Dirichlet
conditions, relative to a given mesh 7ft. As usual, {0i,02, • • • ,(f>n} will represent
the standard basis for Vh- Galerkin's method now reduces to

or to

Substituting the formula for Uh, we obtain

where K 6 R n x n and M e R n x n are the stiffness and mass matrices, respectively,

encountered before. If we find A and u satisfying Ku = AMu, then A and the
corresponding piecewise linear function Uh will approximate an eigenpair of the
differential operator.
We do not have the space here to discuss the accuracy of eigenvalues and
eigenfunctions approximated by this method; the analysis depends on the theory
that was only sketched in the previous section. Only the smaller eigenvalues com-
puted by the above method will be reliable estimates of the true eigenvalues. To
keep our discussion on an elementary level, we will restrict our attention to the
computation of the smallest eigenvalue. (The reader will recall that this smallest
eigenvalue can be quite important, for example, in mechanical vibrations. It defines
the fundamental frequency of a system modeled by the wave equation.)
Given two matrices K e R n x n and M e R n x n , the problem

is called a generalized eigenvalue problem. It can be converted to an ordinary eigen-

value problem in a couple of ways. For example, when M is invertible, then multi-
plying both sides of the equation by M""1 yields
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496 Chapter 10. More about finite element methods

which is the ordinary eigenvalue problem for the matrix M 1 K. However, this
transformation has several drawbacks, not the least of which is that M-1K will
usually not be symmetric even if both K and M are symmetric. (The reader should
recall that symmetric matrices have many special properties with respect to the
eigenvalue problem: real eigenvalues, orthogonal eigenvectors, etc.)
The preferred method for converting Ku = AMu into an ordinary eigenvalue
problem uses the Cholesky factorization . Every SPD matrix can be written as
the product of a nonsingular lower triangular matrix times its transpose. The
mass matrix, being a Gram matrix, is SPD (see Exercise 10.2.6), so there exists a
nonsingular lower triangular matrix L such that M = LLT. We can then rewrite
the problem as follows:

This is an ordinary eigenvalue problem for A, and A is symmetric because K is.

This shows that the generalized eigenvalue problem Ku = AMu has real eigenval-
ues. The eigenvectors corresponding to distinct eigenvalues are orthogonal when
expressed in the transformed variable x, but not necessarily in the original variable
u. However, given distinct eigenvalues A and // and corresponding eigenvectors u
and v, the piecewise linear function Uh and Vh with nodal values given by u and v
are orthogonal in the L2 norm (see Exercise 1).
There is a drawback to using the above method for converting the generalized
eigenvalue problem to an ordinary one: There is no reason why A should be sparse,
even though K and M are sparse. For this reason, the most efficient algorithms for
the generalized eigenvalue problem treat the problem directly instead of using the
above transformation. However, the transformation is useful if one has access only
to software for the ordinary eigenvalue problem.

Example 10.4. We will estimate the smallest eigenvalue and the corresponding
eigenfunction of the negative Laplacian (subject to Dirichlet conditions) on the unit
square fi. The reader will recall that the exact eigenpair is

We establish a regular mesh on £), with 2n2 triangles, (n+1)2 nodes, and (n—I)2 free
nodes. We compute the stiffness matrix K and the mass matrix M, and solve the
generalized eigenvalue problem using the function eig from MATLAB. The results,
for various values ofn, are shown in Table 10.3. The reader should notice that the
eigenvalue estimate is converging faster than the eigenfunction estimate. This is
typical. As the results suggest, the error in the eigenvalue is O(h2), while the error
in the eigenfunction is O(h) (measured in the energy norm).
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10.4. Finite element methods for eigenvalue problems 497

n Error in AH Error in t/>n

2 12.261 1.5528
4 3.1266 0.84754
8 0.76634 0.43315
16 0.19058 0.21772
32 0.047583 0.10900

Table 10.3. Errors in the finite element estimates of the smallest eigen-
value and corresponding eigenfunction of the negative Laplacian on the unit square.
The errors in the eigenfunction are computed in the energy norm.

The reader will recall from Section 9.7 that the fundamental frequency of a
membrane occupying a domain 17 is ci/A7/(27r), where AI is the smallest eigenvalue
of the negative Laplacian on 17 (under Dirichlet conditions) and c is the wave speed.
Therefore, the fundamental frequency of a square membrane of area 1 is

Using finite elements, we can compute the fundamental frequency for membranes
of other shapes. In the next example, we consider an equilateral triangle with area
1.

Example 10.5. Consider the triangle 17 whose vertices are

This triangle is equilateral and has area 1. We use the finite element method to
estimate the smallest eigenvalue of the negative Laplacian on this domain, using
5 successive regular grids. The coarsest has 16 triangles, and is shown in Figure
10.13. The remaining grids are obtaining by refining the original grid in the standard
fashion (see Exercise 10.1.4). The finest mesh has 4096 triangles. The estimates
of the smallest eigenvalue, as obtained on the successively finer meshes, are

27.7128, 23.9869, 23.0873, 22.8662, 22.8112.

We conclude that the smallest eigenvalue is AI = 22.8, and the fundamental fre-
quency is

In Exercise 3, the reader is asked to study the fundamental frequency of a

membrane in the shape of a regular n-gon having area 1.
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498 Chapter 10. More about finite element methods

Figure 10.13. The coarsest mesh from Example 10.5.

Exercises
1. (a) Suppose u, v e Rn contain the nodal values of piecewise linear functions
Uh,Vh € Vh, respectively. Explain how to compute the L2 inner product
of Uh and Vh from u and v.
(b) Show that if u and v satisfy

where A / // and K and M are the stiffness and mass matrices, respec-
tively, then the corresponding piecewise linear functions Uh,Vh € Vh are
orthogonal in the I/2 inner product.
2. The results of this section are easily specialized to one-dimensional problems.
Consider the eigenvalue problem

where k(x] = 1 + x. Use finite elements to estimate the smallest eigenvalue A.

3. (Hard) This exercise requires that you write a program to assemble the stiff-
ness and mass matrix for —A on an arbitrary triangulation of a polygonal
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10.5. Suggestions for further reading 499

domain fJ. You will also need access to a routine to solve the generalized
eigenvalue problem.
(a) Repeat Example 10.5, replacing the triangular domain by a domain
bounded by a regular pentagon with area 1.
(b) Let AI be the smallest eigenvalue of —A on a region having area 1 and
bounded by a regular n-gon. Form a conjecture about

(c) Test your hypothesis by repeating Example 10.5 for a regular n-gon,
choosing n to be the largest integer that is practical. (Whatever value of
n you choose, you have to create one or more meshes on the corresponding
n-gon.)
4. Repeat Exercise 2 using k(x) = 1 + (x — I) 2 .

10.5 Suggestions for further reading

An excellent introduction to the theory of finite element methods is the book by
Brenner and Scott [6] mentioned earlier. Strang and Fix [45] also discusses the con-
vergence theory for finite elements applied to time-dependent PDEs and eigenvalue
problems.
Most finite element references discuss the computer implementation of finite
elements in only general terms. Readers wishing to learn more about this issue can
consult the Texas Finite Element Series [3] and Kwon and Bang [32].
As mentioned early in this chapter, mesh generation is an important area of
study in its own right; it is treated by Knupp and Steinberg [31].
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Appendix A

Proof of Theorem 3.47

Theorem A.I. Let A 6 R n x n be symmetric, and suppose A has an eigenvalue

X of (algebraic) multiplicity k (meaning that A is a root of multiplicity k of the
characteristic polynomial of A). Then A has k linearly independent eigenvectors
corresponding to A.

Proof. We argue by induction on n. The result holds trivially for n = 1. We

assume it holds for symmetric (n — 1) x (n — 1) matrices, and suppose A e R n x n
is symmetric and has an eigenvalue A of (algebraic) multiplicity k. There exists
xi ^ 0 such that Axi = Axi. We can assume that ||xi|| = 1 (since Xi/||xi|| is also
an eigenvector of A), and we extend xi to an orthonormal basis {xi,x 2 ,... ,xn}.
Then

where X e R n x n is defined by X = [xi|x2| • • • |xn]. We have

and

501
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502 Appendix A. Proof of Theorem 3.47

(The symbol <% is 1 if i = j and 0 if i ^ j.) Therefore,

where B <E RCn-1)*^-1) [s defined by

The matrix B is symmetric. Also,

since XT = X"1 and therefore det (XT) = det (X) l. Itfollowsthat

Since A is an eigenvalue of A of multiplicity Ar, it must be an eigenvalue of B of

multiplicity k - 1, and therefore, by the induction hypothesis, B has k — 1 linearly
independent eigenvectors y2,ys, • • • , yfc corresponding to A. We define

for i = 2,3,..., k, and define Uj = XyV Then

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Appendix A. Proof of Theorem 3.47 503

(the columns of X are orthonormal, so X T X = I; this is why the factor of XTX dis-
appeared in the above calculation). This shows that u 2 ,113,..., u/t are eigenvectors
of A corresponding to A. Moreover,

(0 is the zero vector in Rn 1 ] , from which we can deduce that {ui, 112,..., u^} is
a linearly independent set of eigenvectors of A corresponding to A. This completes
the proof.
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Appendix B

Shifting the data in two

dmensions

B.O.I Inhomogeneous Dirichlet conditions on a rectangle

The method of shifting the data can be used to transform an inhomogeneous Dirich-
let problem to a homogeneous Dirichlet problem. This technique works just as it
did for a one-dimensional problem, although in two dimensions it is more difficult
to find a function satisfying the boundary conditions. We consider the BVP

where Q, is the rectangle defined in (8.10) and dtt = TI U T2 U T3 U T 4 , as in (8.13).

We will assume that the boundary data are continuous, so

Suppose we find a function p defined on J7 and satisfying p(x) = #(x) for all
x e dfL We then define v = u — p and note that

and

(since p satisfies the same Dirichlet conditions that u is to satisfy). We can then
solve

where

RDR
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506 Appendix B. Shifting the data in two dimensions

The result will be a rapidly converging series for v, and then u will be given by
u = v + p.
We now describe a method (admittedly rather tedious) for computing a func-
tion p that satisfies the given Dirichlet conditions. We first note that there is a
polynomial of the form

which assumes the desired boundary values at the corners:

A direct calculation shows that

We then define

We have thus replaced each gi by a function hi which differs from gi by a linear

function, and which has value zero at the two endpoints:

Finally, we define
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Appendix B. Shifting the data in two dimensions 507

The reader should notice how the second term interpolates between the boundary
values on FI and F3, while the third term interpolates between the boundary values
on F2 and IT^. In order for these two terms not to interfere with each other, it is
necessary that the boundary data be zero at the corners. It was for this reason that
we transformed the g^s into the h^s. The first term in the formula for p undoes
this transformation.
It is straightforward to verify that p satisfies the desired boundary conditions.
For example,

Thus the boundary condition on FI is satisfied. Similar calculations show that p

satisfies the desired boundary conditions on the other parts of the boundary.

Example B.I. We will solve the BVP

by the above method, where fJ is the unit square:

To compute p, we define
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508 Appendix B. Shifting the data in two dimensions

We can then define

Having computedp, we define v = u—p, so that

and

We then see that

where

We then obtain the following formula for u:

The solution is shown in Figure B.I.

B.0.2 Inhomogeneous Neumann conditions on a rectangle

We can also apply the technique of shifting the data to transform a BVP with
inhomogeneous Neumann conditions to a related BVP with homogeneous Neumann
conditions. However, the details are somewhat more involved than in the Dirichlet
case.
Suppose the Neumann conditions are

We first note that this is equivalent to

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Appendix B. Shifting the data in two dimensions 509

Figure B.I. The solution to the BVP (B.2), approximated by a Fourier

series with 400 terms.

We make the following observation: If there is a twice-continuously differentiable

function u satisfying the given Neumann conditions, then, since

we have
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510 Appendix B. Shifting the data in two dimensions

and

which together imply that

By similar reasoning, we have all of the following conditions:

We will assume that (B.3) holds.

We now explain how to compute a function p that satisfies the desired Neu-
mann conditions. The method is similar to that used to shift the data in a Dirichlet
problem: we will "interpolate" between the Neumann conditions in each dimension
and arrange things so that the two interpolations do not interfere with each other.
We use the fact that

satisfies

The first step is to transform the boundary data g\ to a function h\ satisfying

and similarly for 92,93,94 and /i2,/is,/i4. Since these derivatives of the boundary
data at the corners are (plus or minus) the mixed partial derivatives of the de-
sired function at the corners, it suffices to find a function q(xi,xz) satisfying the
conditions
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Appendix B. Shifting the data in two dimensions 511

We can satisfy these conditions with a function of the form

The reader can verify that the necessary coefficients are

If p is to satisfy the desired Neumann conditions, then

where

We can now define p — q by the interpolation described by (B.4), (B.5):

Then p satisfies the original Neumann conditions, as the interested reader can verify
directly. We will illustrate this computation with an example.

Example B.2. We will solve the BVP

by the above method, where f) is the unit square:

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512 Appendix B. Shifting the data in two dimensions

To compute p, we define

We can then define

Having computed p, we define v = u — p, so that

and

We can write the solution v(x\,xi} in the form

With

we have
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Appendix B. Shifting the data in two dimensions 513

where

It then follows that

and u(xi,X2) = ^(^1,^2) + p(a?i,#2)- -^ graph of the solution u, with aoo = 0, is

shown in Figure B.2.

Figure B.2. The solution to the BVP in Example B.2. This graph was
produced using a total of 40 terms of the (double) Fourier cosine series.
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Appendix C

Solutions to
odd-numbered exercises

Chapter 1
1. (a) First-order, homogeneous, linear, nonconstant-coefficient, scalar ODE.
(b) Second-order, inhomogeneous, linear, constant-coefficient, scalar PDE.
(c) First-order, nonlinear, scalar PDE.
3. (a) Second-order, nonlinear, scalar ODE.
(b) First-order, inhomogeneous, linear, constant-coefficient, scalar PDE.
(c) Second-order, inhomogeneous, linear, nonconstant-coefficient, scalar PDE.
5. (a) No.
(b) Yes.
(c) No.
7. There is only one such /: f ( t ) = tcos (t).
9. For any constant C ^ 1, the function w(t) = Cu(t) is a different solution of the
differential equation.

Section 2.1
1. The units of K are energy per length per time per temperature, for example, J/(cm s K) =
W/(cmK).
3. The units of Apcu&x are

5- &&*) = £ , « > *>.

7. Measuring x in centimeters, the steady-state temperature distribution is u(x] =
O.lx + 20, the solution of

515
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516 Appendix C. Solutions to odd-numbered exercises

The heat flux is

Since the area of the bar's cross-section is vr cm2, the rate at which energy is flowing
through the bar is 0.08027T = 0.252 W (in the negative direction).
9. Consider the right endpoint (x = I). Let the temperature of the bath be ue, so that
the difference in temperature between the bath and the end of the bar is u(i, t} — ut.
The heat flux at x = i is, according to Fourier's law,

so the statement that the heat flux is proportional to the temperature flow is written

where a > 0 is a constant of proportionality. This can be simplified to

The condition at the right end is similar:

(The sign change appears because, at the left end, a positive heat flux means that
heat flows into the bar, while at the right end the opposite is true.)
11. The IBVP is

13. (a) The rate is

(b) The rate of mass transfer varies inversely with t and directly with the square
of r.
15. We have

and
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Appendix C. Solutions to odd-numbered exercises 517

On the other hand,

Section 2.2
1. The sum of the forces on the cross-section originally at x = t must be zero. As
derived in the text, the internal (elastic) force acting on this cross-section is

while the external traction results in a total force of pA (force per unit area times
area). Therefore, we obtain

or

The other boundary condition, of course, is u(Q) — 0.

3. (a) The stiffness is the ratio of the internal restoring force to the relative change
in length. Therefore, if a bar of length t and cross-sectional area A is stretched
to a length of 1 +p (0 < p < 1) times I, then the bar will pull back with a force
of 195pA gigaNewtons. Equivalently, this is the force that must be applied to
the end of the bar to stretch the bar to a length of (1 +p)i.
(b) 196/195 m, or approximately 1.005 m.
(c) The BVP is

It is easy to show by direct integration that the solution is u(x] = o;/195,

and therefore u(l) = 1/195. Since u is the displacement (in meters), the final
position of the end of the bar is 1 + 1/195 m, that is, the stretched bar is
196/195 m.
5. The wave equation is
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bib Appendix C. Solutions to odd-numbered exercises

The units of / are N/m3 (force per unit volume). The units of the first term on the
left are

and the units of the second term on the left are

7. (a) We have

while

Therefore,

(b) Regardless of the value of 0, u(Q, t) = 0 holds for all t. The only way that
u(l, t) — 0 can hold for all t is if

so 9 must be one of the values

Section 2.3
1. Units of acceleration (length per time squared).
3. Units of velocity (length per time).
5. The internal force acting on the end of the string at, say, x = I , is

If this end can move freely in the vertical direction, force balance implies that (C.I)
must be zero.

Section 3.1
1. A function of the form f(x) = ax + b is linear if and only if b = 0. Indeed, if
/ : R —» R is linear, then f(x) — ax, where a = /(I).
3. (a) Vector space (subspace of C[0,1]).
(b) Not a vector space; does not contain the zero function. (Subset of C[0,1], but
not a subspace.)
(c) Vector space (subspace of C[Q, 1]).
(d) Vector space.
(e) Not a vector space; does not contain the zero polynomial. (Subsei of Pn, but
not a sub space.)
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Appendix C. Solutions to odd-numbered exercises 519

5. Suppose u € Cl[a,b] is any nonzero function. Then

while

Since L(1u) ^ 2Lu, L is not linear.

7. (a) The proof is a direct calculation:

and

Now,

as desired. The third equality follows from the commutative and associative
properties of addition, while the fourth equality follows from the distributive
property of multiplication over addition.
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520 Appendix C. Solutions to odd-numbered exercises

Section 3.2
1. The range of A is
{a(l,-l) : a € R } ,
which is a line in the plane. See Figure C.I.

Figure C.I. The range of A (Exercise 3.2.1).

3. (a) A is nonsingular.
(b) A is nonsingular.
(c) A is singular. Every vector in the range is of the form

That is, every y € R2 whose first and second components are equal lies in the
range of A. Thus, for example, Ax = b is solvable for

but not for

5. The solution set is not a subspace, since it cannot contain the zero vector (AO =
O^b).
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Appendix C. Solutions to odd-numbered exercises 521

7. The null space of L is the set of all first-degree polynomials:

9. (a) The only functions in C2[a, 6] that satisfy

are functions of the form u(x) = Cix + C?. The Neumann boundary condition
at the left endpoint implies that C\ = 0, and the Dirichlet boundary condition
at the right endpoint implies that €2 = 0. Therefore, only the zero function is
a solution to L^u = 0, and so the null space of Z/m is trivial.
(b) Suppose / G C[a,6] is given and u € C^[a, b] satisfies

Integrating once yields, by the fundamental theorem of calculus,

The last step follows from the Neumann condition at x = a. We now integrate
again:

This shows that L/mU = f has a unique solution for each / € C[a, b].
11. By the fundamental theorem of calculus,

satisfies Du = f . However, this solution is not unique; for any constant (7,

is another solution.
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522 Appendix C. Solutions to odd-numbered exercises

Section 3.3
1. (a) Both equal (14,4, -5).
(b) Both equal
3. The given set is not a basis. If A is the matrix whose columns are the given vectors,
then A/"(A) is not trivial.
5. We know that P% has dimension 3, and therefore it suffices to show either that the
given set of three vectors spans Ti or that it is linearly independent. If p e Pz, then
we write

and define the polynomial

Then

and, similarly, q(x-z) = p ( x z ) , q(xz) = p(%s)- But then p and q are second-
degree polynomials that agree at three distinct points, and three points determine
a quadratic (just as two points determine a line). Therefore,

and we have shown that every p € Pi can be written as a linear combination of

LI, 1/2,£3. This completes the proof.

Section 3.4
1. (a) The verification is a direct calculation of Vi • Vj for the 6 combinations of i, j.
For example,

and so forth,
(b)
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Appendix C. Solutions to odd-numbered exercises 523

3. We have

Therefore,

if and only if (x, y) = 0.

5. First of all, if

then since vn e W for each i, we have, in particular,

Suppose, on the other hand, that

If z is any vector in W, then, since {wi, W 2 , . . . , w n } is a basis for W', there exist
scalars ai, 0:2, • • • , otn such that

We then have

This completes the proof.

7. The best approximation to the given data is y — 2.0111x — 0.0018984. See Figure
C.2.
9. The projection of g onto 7*2 is

or

See Figure C.3.

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524 Appendix C. Solutions to odd-numbered exercises

Figure C.2. The data from Exercise 3-4-7 and the best linear approximation.

Figure C.3. The function g(x] = sin (TTX) and its best quadratic approxi-
mation over the interval [0,1].
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Appendix C. Solutions to odd-numbered exercises 525

Section 3.5
1. The eigenvalues of A are AI = 200 and A2 = 100, and the corresponding (normalized)
eigenvectors are

respectively. The solution is

3. The eigenvalues and eigenvectors of A are AI = 2, A2 = 1, AS = —1 and

The solution of the Ax = b is

5. The computation of u^ • b/Aj costs 2n operations, so computing all n of these ra-

tios costs 2n2 operations. Computing the linear combination is then equivalent to
another n dot products, so the total cost is

7. (a) For k = 2 , 3 , . . . , n — 1, we have

Thus

Similar calculations show that this formula holds for k = I and k = n also.
Therefore, s^' is an eigenvector of L with eigenvalue

(b) The eigenvalues \j are all positive and are increasing with the frequency j.
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526 Appendix C. Solutions to odd-numbered exercises

(c) The right-hand side b can be expressed as

while the solution x of Lx = b is

Since Xj increases with j, this shows that, in producing x, the higher frequency
components of b are dampened more than are the lower frequency components
of b. Thus x is smoother than b.

Section 4.1
1. Define

Then

3. Define

Then

5. Define

Then the first-order system is

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Appendix C. Solutions to odd-numbered exercises 527

Section 4.2
1. (a) We first note that the zero function is a solution of (4.4), so S is nonempty. If
u, v € S and a, /3 G R, then w = au + /3v satisfies

Thus w is also a solution of (4.4), which shows that S is a subspace.

(b) As explained in the text, no matter what the values of a, 6, c (a ^ 0), the
solution space is spanned by two functions. Thus S is finite-dimensional and
it has dimension at most 2. Moreover, it is easy to see that each of the sets
{e rit ,e r2 *} (n / r 2 ), {e"* cos (A*), eM* sin (At)}, and {er\tert} is linearly in-
dependent, since a set of two functions is linearly dependent if and only if one
of the functions is a multiple of the other. Thus, in every case, S has a basis
with two functions, and so S is two-dimensional.
3. Suppose that the characteristic polynomial of (4.4) has a single, repeated root r =
—6/(2a) (so 62 — 4ac = 0). Then, as shown in the text,

is a solution of (4.4) for each choice of ci, 02- We wish to show that, given fci, ki € R,
there is a unique choice of ci, ci such that -u(O) = ki, du/dt(0) = k^. We have

Therefore, the equations •u(O) = ki, du/dt(0) — k<2 simplify to

Since the coefficient matrix is obviously nonsingular (regardless of the value of r),
there is a unique solution Ci,C2 for each ki,kz.
5. (a) The only solution is u(x) = 0.
(b) The only solution is u(x) = 0.
(c) The function u(x) = sin (-KX) is a nonzero solution. It is not unique, since any
multiple of it is another solution.
7. By the product rule and the fundamental theorem of calculus,
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528 Appendix C. Solutions to odd-numbered exercises

Therefore, with

we have

= au(t) + /(*)•
Thus u satisfies the differential equation. We also have

so the initial condition holds as well.

Section 4.3
1. The solution is

3. The general solution is

5. XQ must be a multiple of the vector (1, —1).

7.

9. (a) The solution is

The population of the first species (x(t)) increases exponentially, while the
population of the second species (y(t)) goes to zero in finite time (y(t) = 0 at
t = ln(3)/4). Thus the second species becomes extinct, while the first species
increases without bound.
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Appendix C. Solutions to odd-numbered exercises 529

(b) If the initial populations are x(0) = r, y(0) = s, then the solution to the IVP
is

Therefore, if r = s, both populations decay to zero exponentially; that is, both

species die out.

Section 4.4
1. (a) Four steps of Euler's method yield an estimate of 0.71969.
(b) Two steps of the improved Euler method yield an estimate of 0.80687.
(c) One step of the RK4 method yields an estimate of 0.82380.
Euler's method gives no correct digits, the improved Euler method gives one correct
digit, and RK4 gives three correct digits. Each of the methods evaluated f ( t , u) four
times.

(b) The routine ode45 from MATLAB (version 5.3) required 421 steps to produce
a graph with the ending point apparently coinciding with the initial value.
The graph of y(t) versus x(t) is given in Figure C.4. The graphs of x(t)
and y ( t ) , together with the times steps, are given in Figure C.5. They show,
not surprisingly, that the time step is forced to be small precisely when the
coordinates are changing rapidly.
(c) The minimum step size taken by ode45 was 3.28 • 10~4, and using this step
length over the entire interval of [0, T] would require almost 19000 steps. This
is to be compared to the 421 steps taken by the adaptive algorithm. (Note: The
exact results for minimum step size, etc., will differ according to the algorithm
and tolerances used.)
5. (a) We first note that a+(ti— to) < t < b+(ti — to) if and only if a < t—(t\ — to) <b,
so the function v is well-defined. In fact,

(just replace t — (ti — to) by t in the last step).

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530 Appendix C. Solutions to odd-numbered exercises

Figure C.4. The orbit of the satellite in Exercise 4-4-3-

Figure C.5. The coordinates of the satellite in Exercise 4-4-3 (top two
graphs) with the step lengths taken (bottom graph).
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Appendix C. Solutions to odd-numbered exercises 531

We have

so v satisfies the ODE. Finally,

Therefore v is a solution to the given IVP.

(b) Consider the IVP

which has solution u(t) = t2/2 + l. The IVP

has solution v(t) = t 2 /2 + 1/2, which is not equal to

7. The exact solution is

(a) The following errors were obtained at t = 0.5:

At Error
1/4 2.4332e-05
1/8 1.3697e-06
1/16 8.1251e-08
1/32 4.9475e-09
1/64 3.0522e-10
1/128 1.8952e-ll
By inspection, we see that as At is cut in half, the error is reduced by a factor
of approximately 16, as expected for O(At 4 ) convergence.
(b) The following errors were obtained at t = 2.0:
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532 Appendix C. Solutions to odd-numbered exercises

At Error
1/4 5.0774e-03
1/8 3.2345e-03
1/16 3.1896e-04
1/32 1.0063e-04
1/64 8.9026e-06
1/128 3.4808e-06
The error definitely does not exhibit O(At 4 ) convergence to zero. The reason
is the lack of smoothness of the function 1 + \x — 1|; the rate of convergence
given in the text only applies to ODEs defined by smooth functions. When
integrating from t = 0 t o t = 0.5, the nonsmoothness of the right-hand side is
not encountered since x(t) < 1 on this interval. This explains why we observed
good convergence in the first part of this problem.

Section 4.5
1. (a) The exact solution is

(b) The norm of the error is approximately 0.089103.

(c) The norm of the error is approximately 0.10658.
3. The largest value is At = 0.04.
5. (a) Applying the methods of Section 4.3, we find the solution

(b) By trial and error, we find that At < 0.02 is necessary for stability. Specifically,
integrating from t = 0 t o t = l , n = 49 (i.e. At = 1/49) yields

while n > 50 yields

(c) With Xj+i = Xi + AtAxi and y[l) = ui • Xj, we have

A similar calculation shows that

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Appendix C. Solutions to odd-numbered exercises 533

For stability, we need

Since the eigenvalues of A are —1, —100, it is not hard to see that the upper
bound for At is At < 0.02, just as was determined by experiment.
(d) For the backward Euler method, a similar calculation shows that

Stability is guaranteed for any At, since

for every At > 0.

Section 4.6

3. The IVP is

The Green's function is G(t; s) — e k^ s

\ and the solution is

The mass converges, as t —>• oo, to

5. The solution is

Section 5.1
1. (a) Since MD is linear, it suffices to show that the null space of MD is trivial. If
MDU = 0, then, du/dx — 0, that is, u is a constant function: u(x) — c. But
then the condition u(0) = 0 implies that c = 0, and so u is the zero function.
Thus M(MD] = {0}.
(b) If u € CofO, f] and MDU — /, then we have

which imply that

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534 Appendix C. Solutions to odd-numbered exercises

But we also must have u(i) — 0, which implies that

If / € C[Q, I] does not satisfy this condition, then it is impossible for MDU = f
to have a solution.
3. (a) If v,w G S are both solutions of Lu = /, then Lv = Lw, or (by linearity)
L(v — w) = 0. Therefore v — w € A/"(Z>). But, since S is a subspace, v — w is
also in S. If the only function in both Af(L) and S is the zero function, then
v — w must be the zero function, that is, v and w must be the same function.
Therefore, if J\f(L) n S = {0}, then Lu = f can have at most one solution for
any/.
(b) We have already seen that Lu = f has a solution for any / € C[0, f\ (see the
discussion immediately preceding Example 5.2). We will use the result from
the first part of this exercise to show that the solution is unique.
The null space of L is the space of all first degree polynomials:

i. Suppose u € Af(L) n S. Then u(x) — ax + b for some a, b € R and

Then u(x) = 6, and

Therefore u is the zero function, and so A/"(L) H S = {0}. The uniqueness

property then follows from the first part of this exercise,
ii. Suppose u € A/"(L) n S. Then u(x) = ax + b for some o, b e R and

Then u(x) — ax, and

Therefore u is the zero function, and so N(L} C\S = {0}. The uniqueness
property then follows from the first part of this exercise.
5. The condition

implies that du/dx is zero, and hence that u is constant. The boundary conditions
on u would then imply that u is the zero function. But, by assumption, u is nonzero
(we assumed that (u, u) = 1). Therefore, (C.2) cannot hold.
7. (a) If LmU — 0, then u has the form u(x) = ax + b. The first boundary condition,
du/dx(Q) = 0, implies that a — 0, and then the second boundary condition,
u(i] = 0, yields 6 = 0. Therefore, u is the zero function and M(Lm] is trivial.
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Appendix C. Solutions to odd-numbered exercises 535

(b) For any / <E C[Q,£\, the function

belongs to C%, [0, i] and satisfies

This shows that Lmu = f has a solution for any / € C7[0,^], and therefore
K(Lto) = C[0,f\.
(c) Suppose u,v € Cft[Q,£\. Then

Thus Lm is symmetric.
(d) Suppose A is an eigenvalue of Lm with corresponding eigenfunction u, and
assume that u has been normalized so that (u,u) — I. Then

The last step follows because every nonzero function in CjjO, •£] has a nonzero
derivative.
9. Define u(x) = x(l — x), v(x) = x2(l — x). Then a direct calculation shows that

but
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536 Appendix C. Solutions to odd-numbered exercises

11. (a) Suppose u,v € C|[0,^]. Then

Applying the boundary conditions on u, v, we obtain

(b) If LRU = 0, then u must be a first degree polynomial: u(x) = ax + b. The

boundary conditions imply that a and b must satisfy the following equations:

The determinant is computed as follows:

The only solution is a = b = 0, that is, u = 0, so N(LR) is trivial.

Section 5.2

This last expression simplifies to four terms, each including the sine function evalu-
ated at an integer multiple of TT, and hence each equal to zero. Thus (un,um) = 0
for n 7^ TO.
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Appendix C. Solutions to odd-numbered exercises 537

3. The eigenpairs are

5. The characteristic polynomial is r 2 — r + (X — 5), so the characteristic roots are

Case 1: A = 21/4. In this case, the characteristic roots are r = 1/2,1/2 and the
general solution of the ODE is

The boundary condition u(Q) — 0 yields c\ = 0, and then the boundary condition
u(l) = 1 implies that c<i = 0. Thus there is no nonzero solution to the BVP, and
A = 21/4 is not an eigenvalue.
Case 2: A < 21/4. In this case, the characteristic roots, given by (C.3), are real and
distinct. The general solution of the ODE is

The boundary conditions lead to the system

This system has the unique solution c\ = ci = 0, so there is no nonzero solution for
A < 21/4. Hence no A < 21/4 is an eigenvalue.
Case 3: A > 21/4. In this case, the roots are complex conjugate:

The general solution of the ODE is

The boundary condition u(0) = 0 yields c\ = 0, so any eigenfunction is of the form

The Neumann condition at x = 1 is equivalent to the equation

Although this equation cannot be solved explicitly, a simple graph shows that there
are infinitely many solutions 0 < 6\ < 62 < • • •, with

Define A& by
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538 Appendix C. Solutions to odd-numbered exercises

that is,

Then A*,, A; = 1, 2 , . . . , are eigenvalues, and the corresponding eigenfunctions are

Using Newton's method, we find that

which yields

The eigenfunctions are vi,vz, as given by the above formula.

A direct calculation shows that

so vi and v? are not orthogonal.

The errors in approximating the original functions using 10 terms of the Fourier sine
series are graphed in Figure C.6.
9. sin (STTX) (That is, all of the Fourier sine coefficients are zero, except the third, which
is one.)
11. The series have the form

where

The errors in approximating the original functions using 10 terms of the Fourier
quarter-wave cosine series are graphed in Figure C.7.
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Appendix C. Solutions to odd-numbered exercises 539

Figure C.6. Errors in approximating four functions by 10 terms of their

Fourier sine series (see Exercise 5.2.7). Top left: g(x) = x; Top right: h(x) =
| — x — | ; Bottom left: m(x] = x — x3; Bottom right: k(x) =7x — 10x3

Section 5.3

5. We have

so
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540 Appendix C. Solutions to odd-numbered exercises

Figure C.7. Errors in approximating four functions by 10 terms of their

Fourier quarter-wave cosine series (see Exercise 5.2.11). Top left: g(x) = x; Top
right: h(x) = \ — x —\ ; Bottom left: m(x) = x — x3; Bottom right: k(x] =
7x-Wx3 +3x5.

Write C for du/dx(Q); then another integration yields

Finally, we choose C so that u(l) = 0, which yields C = 1/6. This yields

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Appendix C. Solutions to odd-numbered exercises 541

7. The Fourier quarter-wave sine coefficients of —Td2u/dx2 are

while those of u are

Using integration by parts twice, almost exactly as in (5.23), we can express &„ in
terms of an:

This gives the desired result. (Actually, since it is known that the negative second
derivative operator is symmetric under the mixed boundary conditions, we can just
appeal to (5.29), which is the above calculation written abstractly.)
9. Let ai, 0,2,as,... be the Fourier quarter-wave sine coefficients of u; then

where K = 3/2. We also have

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542 Appendix C. Solutions to odd-numbered exercises

Setting the two series equal and solving for a n , we find

The temperature distribution is graphed in Figure C.8.

Figure C.8. The temperature distribution (in degrees Celsius) in Exercise 5.3.9.

Section 5.4
1. Suppose f , g <E Cr>[0,<], so that

Then
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Appendix C. Solutions to odd-numbered exercises 543

3. Take p(x) = (x — c)3(d — x) 3 and V[c>d] as suggested in the hint.

5. Repeating the calculation beginning on page 173, we obtain

This shows that derivative with respect to time of the total energy is always negative,
and hence that the total energy is always decreasing.

Section 5.5
1. (a) Yes.
(b) No, o(/, /) = 0 for /(x) = 1, but / / 0.
(c) No, o(/, /) = 0 for f ( x ) = 1, but / / 0.
3. (a) The set S is the span of {x, x 2 } and therefore is a subspace.
(b) As discussed in the text, a(-,-) automatically satisfies two of the properties
of an inner product. Every function p in S satisfies p(Q) = 0, so a(-, •) also
satisfies the third property (a(u, u) = 0 implies that u = 0) for exactly the
same reason as given in the text for the subspace V (see page 181).
(c) The best approximation is p(x) = (9 — 3e)x2 + (4e — 10)x.
(d) The bilinear form is not an inner product on 7>2, since a(l, 1) = 0 but 1 / 0
(a constant is "invisible" to the energy inner product and norm). Therefore,
every polynomial of the form (9 — 3e)o;2 + (4e — 10)x + C € S is equidistant
from f ( x ) = ex in the energy norm.
5. Write p(x] — x(l — x) and q(x) — x(l/2 — x)(l — x). The approximation will be
v(x) = mp(x) + u-2q(x), where Ku = f. The stiffness matrix K is

and the load vector f is

Therefore,
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544 Appendix C. Solutions to odd-numbered exercises

The exact solution is

The exact and approximate solutions are graphed in Figure C.9.

Figure C.9. The exact and approximate solutions from Exercise 5.5.5.

7. (a) It will take about 103 times as long, or 1000 seconds (almost 17 minutes), to
solve a 1000 x 1000 system, and 1003 times as long, or 106 seconds (about 11.5
days) to solve a 10000 x 10000 system.
(b) Gaussian elimination consists of a forward phase, in which the diagonal entries
are used to eliminate nonzero entries below and in the same column, and a
backward phase, in which the diagonal entries are used to eliminate nonzero
entries above and in the same column. During the forward phase, at a typical
step, there is only 1 nonzero entry below the diagonal, and only 5 arithmetic
operations are required to eliminate it (1 division to compute the multiplier,
and 2 multiplications and 2 additions to add a multiple of the current row
to the next). Thus the forward phase requires O(5n) operations. A typical
step of the backward phase requires 3 arithmetic operations (a multiplication
and an addition to adjust the right-hand side and a division to solve for the
unknown). Thus the backward phase requires O(3n) operations. The grand
total is O(8n) operations.
(c) It will take about 10 times as long, or 0.1 seconds, to solve a 1000 x 1000
tridiagonal system, and 100 times as long, or 1 second, to solve a 10000 x 10000
tridiagonal system.
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Appendix C. Solutions to odd-numbered exercises 545

Section 5.6
1. (b) Here are the errors for n = 10, 20,40, 80:

n maximum error
10 1.6586 10~3
20 4.3226 10~4
4
40 1.1036 io-
80 2.7881 10~5
We see that, when n is doubled, the error decreases by a factor of approximately
four. Thus

3. The exact solution is u(x) — x(l — x )/12. Here are the errors for n = 10, 20,40,80:

n maximum error
10 1.1286 • 10~3
20 2.9710 • 10~4
40 7.6186 • 10~&
80 1.9288 • 10~&
We see that, when n is doubled, the error descreases by a factor of approximately
four. Thus

5. The weak form is

find u G V such that

The bilinear form is

Section 5.7

3. (a) This BVP models a bar whose top end (originally at x = 0) is free and whose
bottom end is fixed at x = i. If we apply a unit force to the cross-section
at x = s, then the part of the bar originally between x = s and x = t will
compress, and the part of the bar originally above x = s will just move rigidly
with u(x) — u(s) for 0 < x < s. The compression of the bottom part of the
bar will satisfy Hooke's law:
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546 Appendix C. Solutions to odd-numbered exercises

(the uncompressed length of the part of the bar between x = s and x = t is

i — x). Therefore we obtain

The Green's function is

(b) The Green's function is

(c) If A; is constant, then

(d)

5. By direct integration, we obtain the following solution to (5.67):

Since x = min{x, i\ for x € [0, £.], we can write

that is,

7. The Green's function is

Section 6.1
1. The steady-state solution of Example 6.2 satisfies the BVP
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Appendix C. Solutions to odd-numbered exercises 547

Either by solving this BVP or by taking the limit (as t —> oo) of the solution of
Example 6.2, we find that the steady-state solution is

3. The solution is

A graph of u(-, 0.1) is given in Figure C.10.

Figure C.10. The snapshot w(-,0.1), together with the initial temperature
distribution, for Exercise 6.1.3.

5. With

We also have
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548 Appendix C. Solutions to odd-numbered exercises

and

We define

and

Then v satisfies

7. Define v(x, t) = u(x, t) — xcos (t). Then v satisfies the following IBVP (with homo-
geneous boundary conditions, but with a nonzero source term):

This IBVP has solution

where

The solution to the original IBVP is then u(x,t) = v(x,t) + xcos(t). A graph of
«(•, 1.0) is given in Figure C.ll.
9. The temperature u(x, t) satisfies the IBVP

The solution is

The temperature at the midpoint after 20 minutes is

ti(50,1200) = 1.58 degrees Celsius.
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Appendix C. Solutions to odd-numbered exercises 549

Figure C.ll. The snapshot u(-, 1.0), together with the initial temperature
distribution, for Exercise 6.1.7.

11. (a) The steady-state temperature is us (x) = re/20,

(b) The temperature u(x,t) satisfies the IBVP

The solution is

Considering the results of Exercise 9, it is obvious that at least several thousand

seconds will elapse before the temperature is within 1% of steady state, so we
can accurately estimate u(x,t) using a single term of the Fourier series:

We want to find t large enough that

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550 Appendix C. Solutions to odd-numbered exercises

for all x e [0,100]. Using our approximation for u, this is equivalent to

A graph shows that

for all x, so we need

This yields

About 75 minutes and 20 seconds are required.

Section 6.2
1. The solution is

where

The graphs are given in Figure C.I2. /

3. (a) Ifu,v£ C^[0,4 then

This shows that LN is symmetric.

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Appendix C. Solutions to odd-numbered exercises 551

Figure C.12. The solution w(x,t) from Exercise 6.2.1 at times 0, 0.02,
0.04, and 0.06, along with the steady-state solution. These solutions were estimated
using 10 terms in the Fourier series.

(b) Suppose A is an eigenvalue of LN and it is a corresponding eigenvector, nor-

malized so that (u. u) = 1. Then

Thus LN cannot have any negative eigenvalues.

5. (a) Suppose u is a solution to the BVP. Then

This is the compatibility condition:

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552 Appendix C. Solutions to odd-numbered exercises

(b) The operator K : C^[0,£\ ->• C[Q,t\ defined by

has eigenpairs

The method of Fourier series can be applied to show that a unique solution
exists for each / G C[0,^]. (The key is that 0 is not an eigenvalue of K, as it
is of LN.)
7. As shown in this section, the solution to the IBVP is

where do, di, c?2, • • • are the Fourier cosine coefficients of if). We have

This last series certainly converges (as can be proved, for example, using the cora-
narisrm t.pst^ anr\

This shows that

The limit do is

the average of the initial temperature distribution.

9. The steady-state temperature is about 0.992 degrees Celsius.
11. (a) Suppose that the Fourier sine series of u(x,t) on (0,^) is

and u satisfies
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AnnpnHiv C Solutions to r»HH-nu inhered exerr.ises 553

The nth Fourier sine coefficient of —d2u/dx2 is computed as follows:

Since the values w(0, t) and u(l, t) are unknown, we see that it is not possible
to express the Fourier sine coefficients of —d2u/dx2 in terms of oi(t),a2(t), —
(b) The Fourier sine series of u(x, t) = t is

and the formal calculation of the sine series of —d2u/dx2 yields

However,

and so all of the Fourier sine coefficients of —d2u/dx2 should be zero. Thus
the formal calculation is wrong.

Section 6.3
1. The formula for the solution u is exactly the same as in Example 6.6, with a different
value for K (4.29 instead of 3.17). This implies that the amplitude of the solution
is reduced by about 26%. Therefore, there is less variation in the temperature
distribution in the silver ring as opposed to the gold ring.
3. fa) The IBVP is
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554 Appendix C. Solutions to odd-numbered exercises

(b) The solution is

where

(c) The steady-state temperature is the constant us = 25 + 7T4/9 degrees Celsius.

(d) We must choose t so that

holds for every x € [—STT, STT]. By trial and error, we find that about 360
seconds (6 minutes) are required.
5. (a) To show that Lp is symmetric, we perform the now familiar calculation: we
form the integral (Lpu, v) and integrate by parts twice to obtain (u, Lpv). The
boundary term from the first integration by parts is

Since both u and v satisfy periodic boundary conditions, we have

so the boundary term vanishes. The boundary term from the second integra-
tion by parts vanishes for exactly the same reason.
(b) Suppose Lpu = \u, where u has been normalized: (u, u) = 1. Then

The boundary terms vanishes because of the periodic boundary conditions:

7. (a) Since the ring is completely insulated, a steady-state temperature distribution

cannot exist unless the net amount of heat being added to the ring is zero.
This is exactly the same situation as a straight bar with the ends, as well as
the sides, insulated.
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Appendix C. Solutions to odd-numbered exercises 555

(b) Suppose u is a solution to (6.21). Then

The last step follows from the periodic boundary conditions.

(c) The negative second derivative operator, subject to boundary conditions, has a
nontrivial null space, namely, the space of all constant functions on (—i,i). In
analogy to the Predholm alternative for symmetric matrices, we would expect
a solution to the boundary value problem to exist if and only if the right-hand-
side function is orthogonal to this null space. This condition is

or simply

Section 6.4
1. We give the proof for the general case of a Gram matrix G. Suppose Gx = 0, where
x € R n . Then (x, Gx) = 0 must hold, and

Thus Gx = 0 implies that the vector

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556 Appendix C. Solutions to odd-numbered exercises

is the zero vector. But, since {wi, W 2 , . . . ,un} is linearly independent, this in turn
implies that x\ = xi = • • • = xn = 0, that is, that x = 0. Since the only vector
x € Rn satisfying Gx = 0 is the zero vector, G is nonsingular.
3. (a)

(b) The system of ODEs is

that is,

5. (a) Write pi = 8.97, p2 = 7.88,

and similarly for c(x) and K(X). Then the IBVP is

(b) The mass matrix M is tridiagonal and symmetric, and its nonzero entries are

and

The stiffness matrix K is tridiagonal and symmetric, and its nonzero entries
are

and
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Appendix C. Solutions to odd-numbered exercises 557

7. The solution is

where

The errors in Examples 6.8 and 6.9 are graphed in Figure C.13.

Figure C.13. The errors in Examples 6.8 and 6.9 (see Exercise 6.4-V-

9. (a) ThelBVPis

(b) The weak form is to find u satisfying

(c) The temperature distribution after 120 seconds is shown in Figure C.14.
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558 Appendix C. Solutions to odd-numbered exercises

Figure C.14. The temperature distribution after 120 seconds in Exercise 6.4-9.

Section 6.5
1. The BVP to be solved is

with k = 1.5 and f(x) = 10~7x(25 - z)(100 - z) +1/240. The steady-state temper-
ature is not unique; the solution with ii(100) = 0 is shown in Figure C.15.
3. (a) The total amount of heat energy being added to the bar is 0.51A W, where A
is the cross-sectional area (0.01 AW through the left end and 0.5AW in the
interior). Therefore, 0.51 AW must be removed through the right end; that is,
heat energy must be removed at a rate of 0.51 W/cm2 through the right end.
(b) The BVP is

The steady-state temperature is not unique; the temperature with w(100) = 0

is graphed in Figure C.16.
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Appendix C. Solutions to odd-numbered exercises 559

Figure C.I5. The computed steady-state temperature distribution fron

J^.fOTfnoo fi t\ 1

Figure C.I6. The computed steady-state temperature distribution from

Exercise 6.5.3.
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560 Appendix C. Solutions to odd-numbered exercises

5. (a) We have

Therefore,

(b) Suppose v G V and a(v, v) = 0. By definition of a(-, •), this is equivalent to

Since the integrand is nonnegative, this implies that the integrand is in fact
zero, and, since K(X) is positive, we conclude that

is the zero function. Therefore, v is a constant function,

(c) Thus, if Ku = 0, it follows that

is a constant function, where MO, 1*2, • • • , un are the components of u. But then
there is a constant C such that v(xi) — C, i = 0,1, 2 , . . . , n. These nodal
values of v are precisely the numbers UQ, MI, . . . , u n , so we see that u = Cuc,
which is what we wanted to prove.
7. (a) Define

Then the weak form of the BVP is

(b) The fact that a solution of the strong form is also a solution of the weak
form is proved by the usual argument: multiply the differential equation by an
arbitrary test function v € V", and then integrate by parts.
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Appendix C. Solutions to odd-numbered exercises 561

The proof that a solution of the weak form is also a solution of the strong form
is similar to the argument given on page 268. Assuming that u satisfies the
weak form (C.4), an integration by parts and some simplification shows that

Since V C V, this implies that the differential equation

holds, and we then have

Choosing any v € V with v(i} ^ 0 shows that the Neumann condition holds
at x — t.
9. The temperature distribution after 300 seconds is shown in Figure C.I7.

Figure C.I7. The temperature distribution from Exercise 6.5.9 (after 300
seconds).

11. Here is a sketch of the proof: If Ku = 0, then

where
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562 Appendix C. Solutions to odd-numbered exercises

But then, by the usual reasoning, v must be a constant function, and v(xn) = 0
(since (j)i(xn) = 0 for i = 0,1, 2 , . . . , n — 1). Thus v is the zero function, which implies
that the nodal values of v are all zero. Therefore u = 0, and so K is nonsingular.

Section 6.6
1. For t = 6060, only 2 terms are required for an accurate graph, while for t = 61,
about 150 terms are required.
3. The Green's function G(a;,t;r/,s) is given by

for to < s < t, while G(x, t; y, s) = 0 for s > t. Selected snapshots of G(x, t] 75,60)
are shown in Figure C.I8.

Graph of G(x,t;75,60) for various values of t

Figure C.18. Snapshots of the Green's function in Exercise 6.6.3 at t =

120,240,360,480,600 seconds. Twenty terms of the Fourier series were used to
create these graphs.

Section 7.1
1. Some snapshots of the solution are shown in Figure C.19.
3. The two waves join and add constructively, and then separate again. See Figure
C.19.
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Appendix C. Solutions to odd-numbered exercises 563

Figure C.19. (Top) Some snapshots of the solution to Exercise 7.1.1.

(Bottom) Constructive interference in Exercise 7.1.3. The "blip" in the center is
the result of two waves combining temporarily. (The velocity in this example is
c = l.)

Section 7.2
1. The solution is found by setting cn = 0 in Example 7.4:
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564 Appendix C. Solutions to odd-numbered exercises

A graph analogous to Figure 7.6 is given in Figure C.20.

Figure C.20. Fifty snapshots of the vibrating string from Example 7-4,
with no external force.

3. The solution is

where

and

The fundamental frequency is now c/100 instead of c/50. Fifty snapshots are shown
in Figure C.21.
5. The solution is

where

Fifty snapshots of the solution are shown in Figure C.22. The solution gradually
moves up; this is possible because both ends are free to move vertically.
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Appendix C. Solutions to odd-numbered exercises 565

Figure C.21. Fifty snapshots of the vibrating string from Example 7.4,
with the right end free.

Figure C.22. Fifty snapshots of the vibrating string from Example 7.4,
with both ends free.
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566 Appendix C. Solutions to odd-numbered exercises

7. The solution is

where

Snapshots of the solution are graphed in Figure C.23, which should be compared to
Figure 7.9.

Figure C.23. Snapshots of the displacement of the bar in Example 7.6,

taking into account the effect of gravity.

Section 7.3
1. The fundamental period is li/c = 0.2. Using h = 100/20 = 5, Dt = T/60, and the
RK4 method, we obtain the solution shown in Figure C.24.
3. (a) Since the initial disturbance is 24cm from the boundary and the wave speed
is 400cm/s, it will take 24/400 = 0.06s for the wave to reach the boundary.
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Appendix C. Solutions to odd-numbered exercises 567

Figure C.24. The computed solution of the wave equation in Exercise

7.3.1. Shown are 30 snapshots, plus the initial displacement. Twenty subintervals
in space and 60 time steps were used.

(b) The IBVP is

with c = 400 and 7 given in the statement of the exercise.

(c) Using piecewise linear finite elements and the RK4 method (with h = 50/80
and At = 6 • 10~ 4 ), we computed the solution over the interval 0 < t < 0.06.
Four snapshots are shown in Figure C.25, which shows that it does take 0.06
seconds for the wave to reach the boundary. (The reader should notice the
spurious "wiggles" in the computed solution; these are due to the fact that the
true solution is not smooth.)
5. It is not possible to obtain a reasonable numerical solution using finite elements. In
Figure C.26, we display the result obtained using h — 2.5-10~ 3 and At = 3.75-10~ 4 .
Three snapshots are shown.
7. (a) The weak form is
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568 Appendix C. Solutions to odd-numbered exercises

Figure C.25. The computed solution of the wave equation in Exercise 7.3.3.

Figure C.26. The computed solution of the wave equation in Exercise 7.3.5.

for t > to and v € V, where

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Appendix C. Solutions to odd-numbered exercises 569

(b) The system of ODEs has the same form as in the case of a homogeneous bar:

except that the entries in the mass matrix are now

and the entries in the stiffness matrix are now

The components of the vector f are unchanged (see Section 7.3.2).

Section 7.4
1. (a) The fundamental frequency is c/(2i) = c/80. Therefore

(b) We have c = T/p, where T is the tension. The density p is 10/40 = 0.25 g/cm,
so T is 4 • 108 dynes (gcm/s 2 ).
(c) The other resonant frequencies are the integer multiples of the fundamental
frequency: 1000,1500, 2000,... Hz.
3. Snapshots of the solution are shown in Figure C.27. The reason that resonance
does not occur is that the point source is placed at a point of the string that does
not move under the fourth standing wave (a fixed point). (In the formula (7.28),
sin (rmra) — sin (2vr) = 0.)

Section 8.1
1. The heat equation for a heterogeneous medium is

3. For this example,

5. Using the product rule for scalar functions, we obtain

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570 Appendix C. Solutions to odd-numbered exercises

Figure C.27. Solution to (7.26) with an oscillatory forcing term (see Exer-
cise 7.4.3). The frequency of the forcing term is 1044, the fourth natural frequency.
However, the solution does not exhibit resonance since the point source is placed at
a fixed point of the fourth standing wave.

7. Suppose u,v G C™(O). Then

— (u,Lmv).

The boundary terms vanish because the product that forms the integrand is zero
over the entire boundary. For example,

since v = 0 on FI and du/dn = 0 on F2.

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Appendix C. Solutions to odd-numbered exercises 571

Section 8.2
1. (a)

(b) The graphs of the error are given in Figure C.28.

Figure C.28. The error in approximating f ( x , y ) by the first 4 terms (top)

and the first 25 terms (bottom) of the double Fourier sine series. (See Exercise
8.2.1.)

3. The solution is given by

where the cmn are the coefficients from Exercise 1 and

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572 Appendix C. Solutions to odd-numbered exercises

5. (a) ThelBVPis

The domain $1 is the rectangle

(b) The solution is

where

(c) The steady-state temperature us (x) satisfies the BVP

The solution is

(d) The maximum difference between the temperature after 10 minutes and th
steady-state temperature is about 1 degree. The difference is graphed in Figur
C.29.
7. The minimum temperature in the plate reaches 4 degrees Celsius after 825 seconds
9. The leading edge of the wave is initially 2/5 units from the boundary, and th
wave travels at a speed of 261-\/2 units per second. Therefore, the wave reaches th
boundary after V^/1305 = 0.00108 seconds. Figure 8.6 shows the wave about t<
reach the boundary after 10~3 seconds.
11. The difficult task is to compute the Fourier coefficients of the initial displacemen
ill. If we write
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Appendix C. Solutions to odd-numbered exercises 573

Figure C.29. The difference between the temperature in the plate after 10
minutes and the steady-state temperature. (See Exercise 8.2.5.)

then we find that

We then have that

where a m n (t) satisfies

The result is

Thus the solution is

Four snapshots of u are shown in Figure C.30.

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574 Appendix C. Solutions to odd-numbered exercises

Figure C.30. Four snapshots of the solution to Exercise 8.2.11: t = 0

(top left), t = T/8 (top right), t = T/1 (bottom left), t = 5T/8 (bottom right). The
solution is periodic with period T.

13. The solution is

The graph of u is shown in Figure C.31.

15. (a) ThelBVPis

The domain O is the rectangle

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Appendix C. Solutions to odd-numbered exercises 575

Figure C.31. The solution to Exercise 8.2.13.

(b) The solution is

where

(c) The steady-state temperature us(x) satisfies the BVP

The solution is
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576 Appendix C. Solutions to odd-numbered exercises

(d) After 10 minutes, the temperature u is not very close to the steady-state tem-
perature; the difference u(x, y, 600) —us(x, y) is graphed in Figure C.32. (Note:
The temperature variation in this problem may be outside the range in which
the linear model is valid, so these results may be regarded with some skepti-
cism.)

Figure C.32. The difference between the temperature in the plate after 10
minutes and the steady-state temperature. (See Exercise 8.2.15.)

Section 8.3
1. The next three coefficients in the series for g are

3. The solution is

where
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Appendix C. Solutions to odd-numbered exercises 577

the cmo are the coefficients of /(r, 0) = 1 — r, and the som are the positive roots of
Jo. A direct calculation shows that

The solution (approximated by six terms of the series) is graphed in Figure C.33.

Figure C.33. The approximation to solution u, computed with six terms

of the (generalized) Fourier series (see Exercise 8.3.3).

5. The solution is

where

the Cmo are the coefficients of /(r, 0) = r, and the som are the positive roots of JQ.
A direct calculation shows that
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578 Appendix C. Solutions to odd-numbered exercises

The solution (approximated by six terms of the series) is graphed in Figure C.fr

Figure C.34. The approximation to solution u, computed with six terms

of the (generalized) Fourier series (see Exercise 8.3.5).

7. If we write

where the cmn and dmn are known, and

then
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Appendix C. Solutions to odd-numbered exercises 579

However, since 0(r, 9} — r(l — r) cos (#)/5 (a function of r times cos (6)), all of the
coefficients of <f) are zero except for

Therefore,

with a m i(£) given above. After 30 seconds, the temperature distribution can be
approximated accurately using a single eigenfunction (corresponding to the largest
eigenvalue, An), so we need only

The temperature distribution after 30 seconds is graphed in Figure C.35.

Figure C.35. The approximation to solution u at t = 30, computed with

one term of the (generalized) Fourier series (see Exercise 8.3.7).

9. A circular drum of radius A has area nA2, the same area as a square drum of side
length ^/TrA. The fundamental frequency of such a square drum is

Comparing to Example 8.9, we see that the circular drum sounds a lower frequency
than a square drum of equal area.
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580 Appendix C. Solutions to odd-numbered exercises

Section 8.4
1. The mesh for this problem is shown in Figure C.36, in which the free nodes are
labeled. The stiffness matrix is

while the load vector is

The resulting weights for the finite element approximation are given by

Figure C.36. The mesh for Exercise 8.4-1-

3. The mesh for this problem is shown in Figure C.37, in which the free nodes are
labeled. The stiffness matrix is 16 x 16 and neither it nor the load vector will be
reproduced here. The matrix is singular, as is expected for a Neumann problem.
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Appendix C. Solutions to odd-numbered exercises 581

The unique solution to KU = F with its last component equal to zero is

Figure C.37. The mesh for Exercise 8-4-3.

5. (a) A direct calculation shows that the inhomogeneous Dirichlet problem

has weak form

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582 Appendix C. Solutions to odd-numbered exercises

where G is any function satisfying the condition G(x) = p(x) for x € dQ, and

Substituting u — G + w, where w G V, into the weak form yields

In the Galerkin method, we replace V by a finite-dimensional subspace Vn and

solve

When using piecewise linear finite elements, we can satisfy the boundary con-
ditions approximately by taking G to be a continuous piecewise linear function
whose values at the boundary nodes agree with the given boundary function
g. For simplicity, we take G to be zero at the interior nodes. The resulting
load vector is then given by

Since G is zero on interior nodes, the quantity a(G, &) is nonzero only if (free)
node i belongs to a triangle adjacent to the boundary.
(b) The regular triangulation of the unit square having 18 triangles has only four
interior (free) nodes, and each one belongs to triangles adjacent to the bound-
ary. This means that every entry in the load vector is modified (which is not
the typical case). Since / = 0, the load vector f is defined by

The load vector is

while the solution to Ku = f is

7. (a) Consider the BVP

Multiplying the PDE by a test function v € V = C 2 (O) and applying Green's

first identity yields
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Appendix C. Solutions to odd-numbered exercises 583

We will apply Galerkin's method with Vm equal to the space of all continuous
piecewise linear function relative to a given triangulation T. We label the
standard basis of Vm as </>i, 02, - - - , <f>n, and the nodes as zi, Z 2 , . . . , z n . (Every
node in the mesh is now free.) Thus Vn — span{0i,^2, • - - , (j>n}-
We then define the Galerkin approximation wn by

Writing

and

we obtain the system Kw = F. The stiffness matrix K G R m X m js given by

and the load vector F e Rm by

The boundary integral in the expression for Fi is zero unless z» is a boundary

node.
(b) The compatibility condition for (C.5) is determined by the following calcula-
tion:

(c) Now consider (C.5) with

where O is the unit square. We will produce the finite element solution using
the regular grid with 18 triangles (16 nodes). The stiffness matrix K e R16x16
is singular, as should be expected, and there are infinitely many solutions. The
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584 Appendix C. Solutions to odd-numbered exercises

unique solution u with last component equal to zero is

Section 9.1
1. The complex Fourier series of / is

where CQ = 2/3 and

The errors in approximating / by a partial Fourier series are shown in Figure C.38.

3. The complex Fourier coefficients of / are

The magnitudes of the error in approximating / by a partial Fourier series are shown
in Figure C.39.
5. Let

where
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Appendix C. Solutions to odd-numbered exercises 585

Figure C.38. The error in approximating f ( x ) = 1 — x2 by its partial

complex Fourier series with N = 10 (top), N = 20 (middle), and N = 40 (bottom).
(See Exercise 9.1.1.)

(see (6.25)), and similarly let

The complex Fourier coefficient of / is given by

For n > 0, we have

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586 Appendix C. Solutions to odd-numbered exercises

Figure C.39. The magnitude of the error in approximating f(x] = elx by

its partial complex Fourier series with N = 10 (top), N = 20 (middle), and N = 40
(bottom). (See Exercise 9.1.3.)

Similarly, if n > 0, then

Finally,

7. We have
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Appendix C. Solutions to odd-numbered exercises 587

using the formula for the sum of a finite geometric series:

Moreover, since el6 is a 27r-periodic function of 9, we see that e27ry = 1 and hence
that

On the other hand, by Euler's formula,

Since this expression equals zero, we must have

The second equation is one of the results we set out to prove. The first equation
can be written, using the trigonometric identity sin2 (9) = I — cos2 (0), as

which simplifies to

or

which is the desired result. The result

then follows.
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588 Appendix C. Solutions to odd-numbered exercises

Section 9.2
1. The graph of {|Fn|} is shown in Figure C.40.

Figure C.40. The magnitude of the sequence {Fn} from Exercise 9.2.1.

3. As shown in the text,

where {Fn}*5=_16 is the DFT of {/j}jl_16,

(note that /(—I) = /(!))• Therefore, we can estimate {f(xj}} by taking the inverse
DFT (using the inverse FFT) of {cn}. The results are shown in Figure C.41.
5. We have

If j — ra, then
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Appendix C. Solutions to odd-numbered exercises 589

Figure C.41. The function f(x) = x(l — x2) (the curve) and the esti-
mates of f(xj) (the circles) computed from the complex Fourier coefficients of f
(see Exercise 9.2.3).

while if j ^ m, then this sum is a finite geometric series:

Therefore,

and so we obtain

as desired.
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590 Appendix C. Solutions to odd-numbered exercises

7. Below we show the exact Fourier sine coefficients of /, the coefficients estimated by
the DST, and the relative error. Since both an and the estimated an are zero for n
even, we show only an for n odd.

9. We have

By the hint,

is either N/2 or 0, depending on whether ra = j or not. It then follows immediately

that

which is what we wanted to prove.

Section 9.3
1. The partial Fourier sine series, with 50 terms, is shown in Figure C.42. It appears
that the series converges to the function F satisfying

The period of this function is 2.

3. (a) The odd extension f0dd is continuous on [—I, t] only if /(O) = 0. Otherwise
fodd has a jump discontinuity at x = 0.
(b) The even extension feven is continuous on [—•£,•£] for every continuous /
[0, f\ -»- R.
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Appendix C. Solutions to odd-numbered exercises 591

Figure C.42. The partial Fourier sine series (50 terms) of f ( x ) = x.

5. The quarter-wave sine series of / : [0, i] —>• R is the full Fourier series of the function
/ : [—2i, 2i] -» R obtained by first reflecting the graph of / across the line x = t (to
obtain a function defined on [0, 21]) and then taking the odd extension of the result.
That is, /is defined by

Since this function is odd, its full Fourier series has only sine terms (all of the cosine
coefficients are zero), and because of the other symmetry, the even sine terms also
drop out.

Section 9.4
1. The Fourier series of / converges pointwise to the function F defined by

3. There are many such functions /, but they all have one or more discontinuities. An
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592 Appendix C. Solutions to odd-numbered exercises

5. If {/N} converges uniformly to / on [a, 6], then it obviously converges pointwise (after
all, the maximum difference, over x (E [a, 6], between /N(X) and f ( x ) converges to
zero, so each individual difference must converge to zero). To prove that uniform
convergence implies mean-square convergence, define

Then

By hypothesis, MN —> 0 as N —> oo, which gives the desired result.

7. Suppose / : [0,^] —>• R is continuous. Then feven, the even, periodic extension of /
to R, is defined by

Obviously, then, feven is continuous on every interval (2ki, (Ik + 1)1) and ((2k —
1)1,2k£.), that is, except possibly at the points Ikt and (2k — l)i, k — 0, ±1, ±2,
1H7_ 1

and

Since feven(2kf) = /(O) by definition, this shows that feven is continuous at x = 2n£.
A similar calculation shows that

9. Given / : [0, f\ -»• R, define /: [-21,21] -» R by

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Appendix C. Solutions to odd-numbered exercises 593

Then define F : R —>• R to be the periodic extension of / to R. Assuming /

is piecewise smooth, the quarter-wave sine series of / converges to F(x) if F is
continuous at x, and to

if F has a jump discontinuity at x. If / is continuous, then its quarter-wave sine

series converges to / except possibly at x = 0. If / is continuous and /(O) = 0, then
the quarter-wave sine series of / converges to / at every x € [0, i}.

Section 9.5
1. The function h(x) fails to satisfy h(—1) = h(l), so its Fourier coefficients decay
like 1/n and its Fourier series is the slowest to converge. The function / satisfies
/(—I) = /(I), but df/dx has a discontinuity at re = 0 (and the derivative of fper also
has discontinuities at x = ±1). Therefore, the Fourier coefficients of / decay like
1/n2. Finally, gper and its first derivative are continuous, but its second derivative
has a jump discontinuity at x = ±1, so its Fourier coefficients decay like 1/n3. The
Fourier series of g is the fastest to converge.

3. Figure C.43 shows the /, its partial Fourier series with 21, 41, 81, and 161 terms,
and the line y = 1.09. Zooming in near x = 0 shows that the overshoot is indeed
about 9%; see Figure C.44.

Figure C.43. The function f from Exercise 9.5.3, its partial Fourier series
with 21, 41, 81, and 161 terms, and the line y = 1.09.
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594 Appendix C. Solutions to odd-numbered exercises

Figure C.44. Zooming in on the overshoot in Figure C.43.

Section 9.6
1. (a) The infinite series

converges to a finite value.87 Therefore, {1/n} G f2 and so, by Theorem 9.36,

the sine series converges to a function in L 2 (0,1).
(b) Figure C.45 shows the sum of the first 100 terms of the sine series. The graph
suggests that the limit / is of the form f ( x ) = m(l — x). The Fourier sine
series of such an / are

Therefore, in order that cn = 1/n, we must have m = Tr/2. Therefore,

87
A standard result in the theory of infinite series is that

converges if A; is greater than 1. This can be proved, for example, by comparison with the improper
integral
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Appendix C. Solutions to odd-numbered exercises 595

Figure C.45. The partial sine series, with 100 terms, from Exercise 9.6.1.

3. The infinite series

is the harmonic series, a standard example of a divergent series. Therefore, {l/^/n} 0

t2, and so the series does not converge to an L 2 (0,1) function.
5. (a) The function f ( x ) = xk belongs to L 2 (0,1) if and only if the integral

is finite. Provided k ^ —1/2, we have

For A; = -1/2,
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596 Appendix C. Solutions to odd-numbered exercises

Thus we see that / e L 2 (0,1) if and only if k > -1/2.

(b) The first few Fourier sine coefficients of f ( x ) = a:"1/4, as computed by the
DST, are approximately

1.5816, 0.25353, 0.63033, 0.17859, 0.41060, 0.14157,....

(c) The graphs of /, the partial Fourier sine series, with 63 terms, and the differ-
ence between the two, are shown in Figure C.46.

Figure C.46. The function f ( x ) = x 1//4, together with its partial Fourier
sine series (first 63 terms) (top), and the difference between the two (bottom). See
Exercise 9.6.3.

7. Since vn —>• v, there exists a positive integer N such that

Then, if n, m > TV, we have

Therefore, {vn} is Cauchy.

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Appendix C. Solutions to odd-numbered exercises 597

Section 9.7
1. The proof is a direct calculation, using integration by parts (Green's identity): Sup-
pose u, v £ Cf)(fi). Then

3. If t is very large, then we can approximate -u(x, t] by the first term in its gener-
alized Fourier series. Using the same notation as before for the eigenvalues and
eigenfunctions of the negative Laplacian on fi, we have

The constant c\ is the first generalized Fourier coefficient of the initial temperature
5:

The approximation is valid provided AI is a simple eigenvalue; that is, there is only
one linearly independent eigenvector corresponding to AI. Then all of the other
terms in the generalized Fourier series decay to zero much more rapidly than does
the first term.

Section 10.1
1. We must check that the one-point rule gives the exact values for the integral

when /(x) = 1, /(x) = xi, or /(x) = x<z- With /(x) = 1, we have

and
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598 Appendix C. Solutions to odd-numbered exercises

With /(x) = #i, we have

On the other hand,

so the rule is exact in this case as well. By symmetry, the rule must hold for
/(x) = X2, which shows that the rule has degree of precision at least 1. To show
that the degree of precision is not greater than 1, we note that, for /(x) = xl,

while

3. We have

On the other hand, the mapping from TR to T is

The Jacobian is

and its determinant is 1. Therefore, with

we have

This last integral also equals 1/8.

5. (The reader should consult Exercise 8.4.5 (and its solution) for an explanation of
how an inhomogeneous Dirichlet condition is handled.) Let G be the piecewise linear
function whose nodal value is zero everywhere except at those boundary nodes lying
on the boundary which are not free. At the nonfree boundary nodes, the value of
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Appendix C. Solutions to odd-numbered exercises 599

G is the assigned Dirichlet data. To solve the inhomogeneous Dirichlet problem, we

merely need to modify the load vector by replacing

by

The quantity a(G, fa) is nonzero only if the free node r\fi belongs to a triangle that
also contains a (nonfree) boundary node. The point here is simply that this can
easily be determined from the information in the data structure. As we loop over
the triangles, we can determine, for each, whether it contains both a free node and
a nonfree node. If it does, we modify the load vector accordingly.

Section 10.2
1. Computing A = LU requires n — 1 steps, and step i uses

arithmetic operations (this is determined by simply counting the operations in the

pseudo-code on page 473). The total number of operations required is

This agrees with the O(2n3/3) operation count given in the text.
The computation of L -1 b requires n — 1 steps, with 2(n — i) arithmetic operations
nfir stfvn. Thfi tnta.l is

The final step of back substitution requires n steps, with 2(n — i) + 1 operations per
step, for a total of

The total for the two triangular solves is 2n2 — n, which also agrees with the count
given in the text.
3. With
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600 Appendix C. Solutions to odd-numbered exercises

we have

The fact that A is symmetric allows the simplification

which was used above. We thus see that

with

5. An inner product has three properties:

(a) (x, x) > 0 for all x, and (x, x) = 0 if and only if x = 0.
(b) (x, y) = (y, x) for all x, y.
(c) (ax + /3y, z) = a(x, z) + /?(y, z) for all x, y, z and all a, ft.
These properties hold for

The third property would be true for any matrix A, the second property obviously
requires that A be symmetric, and the first property requires that A be positive
definite.
7. (a) With x(0) = (4,2), the negative gradient is -V0 (x (0) ) = (-2, -1), and so we
must minimize

The minimizer is a = 5/14, and so

(b) At x(1) = (23/7,23/14), the negative gradient is (-3/14,3/7), so we must

minimize

The minimizer is a = 5/6, and so

The desired solution is (3, 2).

(c) With x(0) = 0, the CG algorithm produces
x(1) = (2.67456, 2.34024),
with x^ = (3, 2), the exact solution.
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Appendix C. Solutions to odd-numbered exercises 601

9. If y = x - x (0) , then x = y + x (0) and so

We can therefore replace b by b — Ax^ 0) , apply the CG algorithm to estimate y,

and add x^ to get the estimate of x.

Section 10.3
1. Let the vector-valued function F be defined by F(x) = (/(x),0). Then

so, by the divergence theorem,

If 0 G C'o0(fi), then the boundary integral vanishes, and we obtain

The derivation for d/dx-2 is exactly analogous.

3. A direct computation shows that

while

Thus the L2 error is independent of m, n, while the Hl error becomes arbitrarily

large as m, n —> oo.

Section 10.4
1. (a) Let u, v € Rn contain the nodal values of piecewise linear functions Uh,Vh,
respectively, so that

It follows that
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602 Appendix C. Solutions to odd-numbered exercises

(b) As shown in the text, if u and v are generalized eigenvectors for the problem
Ku = AMu, then LTu and LTv are orthogonal in the Euclidean norm. But
then

Thus UH and VH are orthogonal in the L2 norm.

3. (a) Using the same method as in Example 10.5, we find that the smallest eigen-
value on the pentagon is approximately 18.9. (The estimates obtained on five
successively finer meshes were 21.2794, 19.5574, 19.0818, 18.9601, 18.9294. The
coarsest mesh is shown in Figure C.47.)
(b) It would be reasonable to hypothesize that

where Ai = 18.2 is the smallest eigenvalue on the disk of area 1. (The value of
Ai was found near the end of Section 8.3.)
(c) Repeating the calculation again for a regular decagon of area 1, we find that
the smallest eigevalue is approximately 18.3. (The values obtained on four
successively finer meshes were 19.0328, 18.5055, 18.3268, 18.2755.)

Figure C.47. The coarsest mesh from Exercise 10-4-3.

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[13] James W. Demmel. Applied Numerical Linear Algebra. Society for Industrial
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[15] Gerald B. Folland. Fourier Analysis and Its Applications. Brooks/Cole, Pacific
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[16] George E. Forsythe, Michael A. Malcolm, and Cleve B. Moler. Computer Meth-
ods for Mathematical Computations. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, 1977.
[17] Philip Gillett. Calculus and Analytic Geometry. D. C. Heath, Lexington, 1984.
[18] Jack L. Goldberg and Merle Potter. Differential Equations: A Systems Ap-
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[19] Gene H. Golub and Charles F. Van Loan. Matrix Computations. Johns Hopkins
University Press, Baltimore, 3rd edition, 1996.
[20] Michael Greenberg. Advanced Engineering Mathematics. Prentice-Hall, Upper
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[21] M. E. Gurtin. An Introduction to Continuum Mechanics. Academic Press,
New York, 1981.
[22] Richard Haberman. Elementary Applied Partial Differential Equations: With
Fourier Series and Boundary Value Problems. Prentice-Hall, Upper Saddle
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[23] William W. Hager. Applied Numerical Linear Algebra. Prentice-Hall, Engle-
wood Cliffs, 1988.
[24] J. Ray Hanna and John H. Rowland. Fourier Series, Transforms, and Bound-
ary Value Problems. John Wiley & Sons, New York, 2nd edition, 1990.
[25] M. T. Heideman, D. H. Johnson, and C. S. Burrus. Gauss and the history of
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1985.
[26] Morris Hirsch and Stephen Smale. Differential Equations, Dynamical Systems,
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[27] Claes Johnson. Numerical Solution of Partial Differential Equations by the
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[29] Wilfred Kaplan. Advanced Calculus. Addison-Wesley, Reading, 4th edition,
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[30] David Kincaid and Ward Cheney. Numerical Analysis. Brooks/Cole, Pacific
Grove, 2nd edition, 1996.
[31] Patrick M. Knupp and Stanly Steinberg. The Fundamentals of Grid Genera-
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[32] Young W. Kwon and Hyochoong Bang. The Finite Element Method Using
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[33] J. D. Lambert. Numerical Methods for Ordinary Differential Systems. John
Wiley & Sons, Chichester, 1991.
[34] David C. Lay. Linear Algebra and Its Applications. Addison Wesley Longman,
Reading, 2nd (updated) edition, 2000.
[35] David R. Lide, editor. CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics. CRC Press,
Boca Raton, 1998.
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Industrial and Applied Mathematics, Philadelphia, 1997.
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[51] J. S. Walker. Fast Fourier Transform. CRC Press, Boca Raton, 2nd edition,
1996.
[52] H. F. Weinberger. A First Course in Partial Differential Equations with Com-
plex Variables and Transform Methods. Blaisdell, New York, 1965.
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bridge, 2nd edition, 1959.
 www.unifreebooks.com

Index

aluminum, 15, 26, 163, 217, 276 boundary conditions, 134

angle between two vectors, 55 Dirichlet, 13, 34, 144, 168, 169,
area integral, 329 197, 211, 280, 292, 332, 335,
automatic step control, 111 339
essential, 266, 313, 388
back substitution, 474 for a vibrating string, 30
backward Euler method, 118, 263, 310 for the diffusion equation, 20
banded matrix, 386, 475 for the hanging bar, 24
bar for the heat equation, 13
aluminum, 217, 276 homogeneous, 14, 168
chromium, 278 inhomogeneous, 14,164,169,197,
circular, 245 222, 243, 273, 298, 391
copper, 228, 243, 244, 264, 265, inhomogeneous Dirichlet, 321
278 mixed, 13,150,161, 283, 301, 313,
elastic, 21, 173 333, 348, 388
heat equation and, 333 natural, 266, 313, 388
heat flow in, 9 Neumann, 13, 27, 34, 152, 231,
heterogeneous, 276 273, 275, 282, 332, 335, 349,
iron, 214, 217, 222, 228, 230, 236, 388
244, 264, 281, 323 periodic, 153, 246
steel, 302 Robin, 143
basis, 50 time dependent, 223
orthogonal, 55, 57 boundary value problem, 14, 144
orthonormal, 57, 65 on a rectangular domain, 345
Bessel function BVP, 14
of order n, 366
properties, 366 C[a,_b], 33, 58
Bessel's equation C 2 (ft), 336
of order n, 364 Ck[a,b], 33
Bessel's inequality, 428 Co00 (ft), 489
best approximation, 61, 147,156,181, C£(n), 336, 377
182, 343 C&(fi), 338
in the energy norm, 491 carbon monoxide, 220
bilinear form, 180, 270 Cauchy sequence, 451
symmetric, 181 Celsius, 19
body force, 23 chain rule, 360

607
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608 Index

change of variables delta function, 126, 205, 318

in a multiple integral, 471 sifting property, 126
characteristic polynomial delta sequence, 126
of a second-order ODE, 82 dense matrix, 186
of a square matrix, 69 density, 10, 330
characteristic root descent direction, 479
of a second-order ODE, 82 determinant, 69
Cholesky factorization, 474, 496 DFT, 404
chromium, 278 differential equation, 1
co-domain, 32 autonomous, 109
coefficients constant coefficient, 4, 82, 91
discontinuous, 264 converting to a first-order system,
compatibility condition, 240, 243, 250, 79
276, 350 first-order linear, 87
for a singular linear system, 45 homogeneous, 3, 202
complete inhomogeneous, 3, 96
normed vector space, 452 linear, 2, 91
complete orthogonal sequence, 449 linear system, 260
completeness nonconstant coefficient, 4
of ^,490 nonlinear, 3
of L 2 , 453 order, 2
complex numbers, 394 ordinary, 1, 79, 82, 213, 260
concentration partial, 1
time evolution of, 221 right-hand side, 4
concentration gradient, 17 scalar, 5
conditioning system, 5, 91, 108
of a matrix, 481, 486 differential operator
conjugate directions, 485 symmetric, 137
conjugate gradients differentiating an integral, 11
algorithm, 485 diffusion, 16
convergence, 486 diffusion coefficient, 18
conservation of energy, 173 diffusion equation, 18
continuously differentiable function, 33 inhomogeneous, 220
convergence dimension, 50
mean-square, 149, 419 Dirac delta function, 126, 205, 318
pointwise, 419 Dirichlet condition, 13
uniform, 420 Dirichlet kernel, 423
convolution, 424 discrete cosine transform, 414
periodic, 425 discrete Fourier transform, 404
copper, 228, 243, 244, 265, 278 discrete sine transform, 410
and the FFT, 411
d'Alembert's solution to the wave equa- disk
tion, 288 Fourier series on a, 359, 372
data structure displacement function, 21
for describing a triangulation, 467 divergence
DCT, 414 operator, 329
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Index 609

theorem, 330 extension

domain even, 418
of a function, 31 odd, 417
domain of dependence, 289 periodic, 425
domain of influence, 290
dot product, 45, 55, 71 fast Fourier transform, 393, 407
DST, 410 FFT, 393, 407
Fick's law, 17
eigenfunction, 68, 145, 494 fill-in, 477
complex-valued, 394 finite element method, 77, 167, 173
of a differential operator, 139 for eigenvalue problems, 495
eigenpairs for the heat equation, 256
on a disk, 369 for the wave equation, 306
under Dirichlet conditions, 145 Fourier coefficients, 149
under mixed boundary conditions, complex, 397
151, 153 rate of decay, 436
under Neumann conditions, 233 sine, 149
under periodic boundary condi- Fourier series, 77, 149, 155
tions, 247 method of, 166
eigenspace, 70 complex, 397, 401
eigenvalue, 68, 116, 494 double sine series, 343
of a differential operator, 139 for the wave equation, 291
of a symmetric matrix, 139 full, 249, 252, 398
eigenvalue problem in three dimensions, 355
general, 455 on a rectangular domain, 339
generalized, 495 pointwise convergence, 429
eigenvector, 68 sine, 149, 211
of a symmetric matrix, 139 Fourier's law, 331
elastic Fourier's law of heat conduction, 12
bar, 21 Fredholm alternative, 45, 241
elliptic regularity, 492 free nodes, 379
energy inner product, 182, 379 function, 31, 35
energy norm, 182 function space, 33
Euclidean n-space fundamental frequency, 497
complex, 395 of a circular drum, 375
Euler's formula, 83, 394 of a vibrating string, 294
Euler's method, 117, 261, 310 fundamental theorem of calculus, 11,
backward, 118, 263, 310 23, 101, 327, 330, 338
improved, 104
even extension, 418 Galerkin method, 173, 180, 193, 258,
even function, 415 269, 275, 307, 378
and the full Fourier series, 417 Gaussian elimination, 43, 77, 196
existence, 238 for a banded matrix, 476
of solutions to a linear system, 38 operation count, 53, 474, 486
explicit method, 118 pseudo-code, 474
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610 Index

general solution inner product, 56, 59, 181

of the wave equation, 286 complex, 395
generalized eigenvalue problem, 495 complex L 2 , 396
generalized function, 126, 205 energy, 182
Gibbs's phenomenon, 148, 344, 435, inner product space, 56
443 integral
gold, 250 area, 329
Gram-Schmidt procedure, 74,183, 457 iterated, 329
gravitational constant, 27 line, 329
gravity, 27 surface, 329
Green's first identity, 337, 339, 377 volume, 328
Green's function, 77, 123 integrating an ODE, 102
causal, 124 integrating factor, 87
for a BVP, 203 integration by parts, 138, 178, 307,
for a PDE, 127 336, 489
for the heat equation, 279 interpolant
grid, 101, 188 piecewise linear, 492
irregular, 111 inverse
guitar, 296, 318 of a differential operator, 207
inverse discrete Fourier transform, 404
Hl,m iron, 19, 214, 217, 222, 228, 230, 236,
#<J,490 244, 260, 264, 281, 323, 459
heat capacity, 10, 19 iterated integral, 329
heat equation, 9, 12, 245, 275 iterative method
and finite elements, 257 for solving a linear system, 478
in a bar, 333
in three dimensions, 332
Jacobian matrix, 471
in two dimensions, 334
jump discontinuity, 427
inhomogeneous, 13
weak form, 257
heat flow, 9 Kelvin, 19
steady-state, 14 kinetic energy, 174
heat flux, 11, 12, 330
homogeneous L 2 , 445
versus heterogeneous, 13 L2 inner product, 59, 60
Hooke's law, 22 Laplace's equation, 336, 352
Hookean, 22 Laplacian, 332
in polar coordinates, 362
IBVP, 14 lead, 255
implicit method, 118 Lebesgue
initial condition, 14, 80, 246, 258 integral, 446
for the wave equation, 24 measure, 446
initial value problem line integral, 329
for the wave equation, 285 line search, 480
initial-boundary value problem, 14, 274 linear combination, 50
for the wave equation, 291 linear interpolant, 309
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Index 611

linear operator, 31, 132 multiplicity

definition, 35 of eigenvalues, 69
linear operator equation, 31, 36
linear system natural frequency
algebraic, 31, 131 of a string, 293, 318
linearly independent, 52 Neumann condition, 13
load vector, 183 Newton, 26
computation of, 467 Newton's law of cooling
for a two-dimensional problem, 378 and boundary conditions, 20
Lotka-Volterra predator-prey model, and the heat equation, 20
108 Newton's second law of motion, 23, 29
LU factorization, 474 nodal values, 190
nodes, 188
Maple, 147 nondimensionalization, 217
mapping, 31 norm, 59
mass matrix, 258, 265, 275, 308, 495 energy, 182
Mathematica, 147 normal derivative, 332
MATLAB, 147 normal equations, 62
matrix, 31 normal modes
banded, 386, 475 of a vibrating string, 293
dense, 186 null space, 134
Gram, 62 of a matrix, 42
identity, 46 trivial, 42
inverse, 46
invertible, 46 odd extension, 417
mass, 308, 495 odd function, 415
nonsingular, 46, 53 and the full Fourier series, 417
singular, 270 ODE, 1
sparse, 173, 186, 189, 386, 473 operator, 31, 35
stiffness, 308, 495 derivative, 36
symmetric, 71, 72, 139, 272 differential, 36, 132
tridiagonal, 188, 192, 272 linear, 132
mean value theorem, 431 matrix, 35, 131
mean-square, 60 nonlinear, 35, 49
mean-square convergence, 149, 419 wave, 285
of Fourier series, 448 order
measurable of a differential equation, 2
function, 446 of a numerical method, 103
set, 446 orthogonal basis, 183
mesh, 188 orthogonality
method of lines of functions, 60
for the heat equation, 260 of vectors, 56
middle C, 295, 305
modulus partial derivative
of elasticity, 22 weak, 490
Young's, 22 partial pivoting, 473
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612 Index

Pascal, 26 over an arbitrary triangle, 471

PDE, 1 three-point rule for a triangle, 470
periodic convolution, 425 quarter-wave cosine series, 153
periodic extension, 425 quarter-wave sine functions, 162
periodic function, 415 quarter-wave sine series, 151
piano, 298
piece wise continuous, 427 range
piecewise linear of a function, 31
approximation, 492 of a linear operator, 38
basis function, 190, 257, 269 resonance, 295, 305, 318, 319
function, 188, 189 Riemann integral, 446
interpolant, 259 Riesz representation theorem, 490
piecewise polynomials, 173 RK4, 107
piecewise smooth, 427 Runge-Kutta method, 106
plate Runge-Kutta-Fehlberg method, 111
iron, 459
pointwise convergence, 419 scalar, 32, 395
of a complex Fourier series, 429 semidiscretization in space, 260
of a Fourier cosine series, 433 separation of variables, 225, 340, 348
of a Fourier sine series, 433 in polar coordinates, 362
of a full Fourier series, 432 shifting the data, 164, 197, 222, 299,
Poisson's equation, 335 321
on a disk, 373 sifting property, 205
polar coordinates, 360 silver, 255
potential energy, 173 Simpson's rule, 106
elastic, 173, 174 sink
external, 175 heat, 12
gravitational, 175 snapshot
minimal, 177 temperature, 215
power series solution Sobolev space, 490
of Bessel's equation, 364 source
preconditioned conjugate gradients, 486 heat, 12
pressure, 25 span, 52
prime factorization sparse matrix, 186, 386, 473
and the FFT, 407 sparsity pattern, 386, 477
principle of virtual work, 177 specific heat, 10, 330
product rule, 337 and temperature, 19
programming finite elements, 386 spectral method, 156
projection theorem, 182, 397 for a BVP, 144
Pythagorean theorem, 55, 428 for a system of ODEs, 96
for solving a linear system, 167
quadrature, 102 speed
choosing a rule, 470 of a wave, 288
general formula, 469 square wave, 433
one-point Gauss rule, 469 stability, 118
one-point rule on a triangle, 470 of a time-stepping scheme, 310
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Index 613

stability region, 116 transient behavior, 117, 118

stainless steel, 26 transpose
standing wave, 294 and the dot product, 71
steady-state of a matrix, 45
and Neumann conditions, 237 trapezoidal rule, 402
temperature, 225 triangulation, 379, 382
steel, 302 data structure for, 467
steepest descent description of, 462
algorithm, 481 tridiagonal matrix, 188, 192
direction, 481 trigonometric interpolation, 406
stiff differential equation, 117, 260
stiff system of ODEs, 117 uniform convergence, 420
stiffness of a complex Fourier series, 439
of a bar, 22 of a Fourier cosine series, 441
stiffness matrix, 183, 191, 258, 265, of a Fourier sine series, 441
275, 308, 495 of a full Fourier series, 441
algorithm for computing, 466 of continuous functions, 443
computation of, 465 of cosine series, 441
for a two-dimensional problem, 378 uniqueness, 238
null space, 271 of solutions to a linear system, 42
singular, 270, 275 unit impulse, 126
strain, 22 unit normal vector, 328
string unit point source, 126
elastic, 27, 131, 160
sagging, 30 variation of parameters, 98
strong form variational form
of a BVP, 177, 267 of a BVP, 173
subspace, 34 vector, 31, 32
of R n , 39 function as, 132
superposition, 287 vector field, 329
principle of, 47, 85 vector space, 132
support complex, 395
of a function, 192, 382 definition, 32
surface integral, 329 vibrating string, 292
symmetry virtual work, 177
and eigenvalues, 72 volume integral, 328
of a differential operator, 137
of a matrix, 71 wave
of the Laplacian, 337 left-moving, 288
right-moving, 288
temperature gradient, 12 wave equation, 23, 173
test function, 178, 267, 306 acoustic, 334
thermal conductivity, 12, 19, 330 d'Alembert's solution, 288
time step, 101 general solution, 286
time-stepping, 101 homogeneous, 293
trace theorem, 490 in an infinite domain, 285
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614 Index

in three dimensions, 334

in two dimensions, 334
inhomogeneous, 296
on a disk, 374
on a square, 346
with a point source, 318
wave operator, 285
wave speed, 288, 296
weak derivative, 490
weak form
ofaBVP, 173, 177,266, 267
of a BVP in two or three dimen-
sions, 378
of the wave equation, 307

Young's modulus, 22
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stochastic processes, queueing exploration, and petroleum analysis.
theory, and signal processing. engineering. a Other
Q 10. Statistics including data analysis Q 20. Atmospheric and oceanographic
and time series analysis. sciences.

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