Inverse Laplace transform of $\frac{a\sinh\left[\frac{p}{c}(L-x)\right]}{p\sinh\left[\frac{pL}{c}\right]}$ with respect to $p$ using binomial theorem

binomial theoremlaplace transform

I have the expression
$$\frac{a\sinh\left[\frac{p}{c}(L-x)\right]}{p\sinh\left[\frac{pL}{c}\right]}$$
and I want to find the inverse Laplace transform as an infinite series by using the binomial expansion. I tried rewriting the denominator as exponentials and expanding using the binomial theorem, but this gave me an infinite series of terms of the form $\exp\cdot\sinh$ which when inverse Laplace transformed gave me a delta function using the convolution theorem (which doesn't seem right – I don't think my answer should be an infinite sum of delta functions!).

How can I use the binomial theorem here?

Best Answer

Write

$$ \frac{a\sinh\left[\frac pc (L - x)\right]}{p\sinh\left[ \frac {pL}c\right]} = \frac ap \left\{ \exp\left[ \frac {pL}c\right] - \exp\left[ -\frac {2pL}c + \frac{px}{c}\right]\right\} \left\{ 1 - \exp \left[ -\frac{2pL}{c}\right]\right\}^{-1}. $$

Use the binomial theorem to expand the factor raised to the power of $-1$ (not worrying about whether the resulting series converges or not... we'll see later that we get a sensible answer):

$$ \begin{align} \frac{a\sinh\left[\frac pc (L - x)\right]}{p\sinh\left[ \frac {pL}c\right]} &= \frac ap \left\{ \exp\left[ \frac {pL}c\right] - \exp\left[ -\frac {2pL}c + \frac{px}{c}\right]\right\} \sum_{k=0}^\infty \exp \left[ -\frac{2pLk}{c}\right] \\ &= a\sum_{k=0}^\infty \left\{ \frac 1 p \exp\left[ -p \left( \frac xc + \frac{2Lk}{c}\right) \right] - \frac 1 p \exp\left[ -p \left( -\frac x c + \frac{2L(k+1)}{c}\right)\right]\right\}. \end{align} $$ It's not hard to check that, for $\lambda > 0$, $$ \mathcal L_{t \to p} (H(t - \lambda)) = \frac{e^{-\lambda p}}{p}, $$ where $H$ is the Heaviside function. So assuming that $0 < x < L$, $$ \frac{a\sinh\left[\frac pc (L - x)\right]}{p\sinh\left[ \frac {pL}c\right]} = \mathcal L_{t \to p} \left\{ a\sum_{k=0}^\infty \left[ H\left( t - \frac{x + 2Lk}{c} \right) - H\left( t - \frac{-x + 2L(k+1)}{c} \right)\right]\right\}. $$ So the inverse Laplace transform is $$ a\sum_{k=0}^\infty \left[ H\left( t - \frac{x + 2Lk}{c} \right) - H\left( t - \frac{-x + 2L(k+1)}{c} \right)\right]. $$ The $k$th term of this series is $1$ if $t \in \left(\frac{x + 2Lk}{c}, \frac{-x + 2L(k + 1)}{c} \right)$ and $0$ otherwise. You can think of each term as initially starting in the "off" position, turning "on" for a finite amount of time, then turning "off" again. This series also converges for all $x \in (0, L)$ and $t > 0$ since there are only finitely many terms that are "on" at any such $x$ and $t$.

Please let me know if you spot any mistakes.

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