Matematiska institutionen Introduction to PDEs

UPPSALA UNIVERSITET VT 2020

HOMEWORK 2 (due March 4)

Most exercises are adapted from Pinchover and Rubinstein ’Introduction to partial
differential equations’.

(1) A pressure wave generated as a result of an explosion satisfies the equation

Ptt − 16Pxx = 0

in the domain {(x, t) | − ∞ < x < ∞, t > 0}, where P (x, t) is the pressure at the
point x and time t. The initial conditions at the explosion time t = 0 are
(
10 |x| ≤ 1
P (x, 0) =
0 |x| > 1
(
1 |x| ≤ 1
Pt (x, 0) =
0 |x| > 1
A building is located at the point x0 = 10. The engineer who designed the building
determined that it will sustain a pressure up to P = 6. Use d’Alembert’s formula
to determine whether the building will collapse.

(2) Consider the Neumann problem for the heat equation:

ut − kuxx = 0 0 < x < L, t > 0,

ux (0, t) = ux (L, t) = 0 t ≥ 0,
u(x, 0) = f (x) 0 ≤ x ≤ L.

a) Find a formal solution of the problem.

b) Find lim u(x, t) for 0 < x < L and explain the physical meaning of your result.
t→∞

c) Use the formula from a) to solve the above problem in the case when L = π,
k = 12 and f (x) = 1 + sin3 x.
Hint: note that sin3 x = 14 (3 sin θ − sin 3θ).

(3) Using the energy method, prove the uniqueness for the problem

utt − c2 uxx + hu = F (x, t) − ∞ < x < ∞, t > 0,

lim u(x, t) = lim ux (x, t) = lim ut (x, t) = 0 t ≥ 0,

x→±∞ x→±∞ x→±∞
 Z ∞
(u2t + c2 u2x + hu2 ) dx < ∞ t ≥ 0,
−∞

u(x, 0) = f (x) −∞ < x < ∞,

ut (x, 0) = g(x) −∞ < x < ∞,

where c 6= 0 and h > 0 are constants.

Hint: use the following notion of energy
1 ∞ 2
Z
E(t) = (wt + c2 wx2 + hw2 ) dx.
2 −∞

4) Consider the following Sturm-Liouville problem:

u00 + λu = 0 0 < x < 1,

u(0) − u0 (0) = 0,
u(1) + u0 (1) = 0.

a) Show that the eigenvalues of the problem are given by λ = µ2 where µ > 0
satisfies
2µ
tan µ = 2 .
µ −1
b) Obtain an asymptotic estimate for large eigenvalues.

5) Solve the nonhomogeneous wave equation problem

utt − uxx = cos 2t cos 3x − 2t 0 < x < π, t > 0,

ux (0, t) = 0 t ≥ 0,
ux (π, t) = 2πt t ≥ 0,
u(x, 0) = cos2 x 0 ≤ x ≤ π,
ut (x, 0) = 1 + x2 0 ≤ x ≤ π.