Department of Mechanical Engineering

ME 5204 Finite Element Analysis

HW 1
Due: 26 August 2019

1. Consider the differential equation (the domain is 0 to 1),

−u,xx +u = f

with the boundary conditions u(0) = 0, u(1) = 1.

a) Give the weak formulation of this problem.
b) Further obtain the Galerkin formulation.
c) Obtain a solution using the simplest possible polynomial basis function
(For f = 0, f = K = Constant, and f = 2e−x ).
d)Comment on the error if possible.

2. Before embarking on a quest for the solution for a partial differential equation, the following
questions are in order: a) Does a solution exist ? , b) If so, is the solution unique ?, c) Does
the solution depend continuously on the data (i.e small changes in the data should cause small
changes in the solution)?. Only if the anwer to all three questions is in the affirmative, is the
problem well-posed. This usually requires tools of functional analysis. However in some cases,
it is easy to prove that the question is not well-posed as it does not meet one of the three
conditions in an obvious manner.
Consider the differential equation,
−u,xx = f on Ω
∂u
with the B.C, ∂x
= g on the boundary Γ. Is this problem well-posed ?