Solve the heat equation – by splitting up the second order derivative

heat equationpartial differential equations

I tried to solve the heat equation here, but I am not sure this works out.

We have

\begin{equation}
\frac{\partial^2u}{\partial x^2}=4\frac{\partial u}{\partial y}~, \qquad 0<x<\pi\,,~t>0
\end{equation}

I.C. are

\begin{cases}
\dfrac{\partial u}{\partial x}(0,y) = 0 \\
\dfrac{\partial u}{\partial x}(\pi,y) = 0 \\
u(x,0)= \cos5x
\end{cases}

So we know that

\begin{align}
&fu_x=f_xg \\
&u_{xx}=f_{xx}g \\
&u_y=g_yf
\end{align}

So the equation by separation of variables is:

\begin{equation}
f_{xx}g-4g_yf=0
\end{equation}

But since we can write

\begin{equation}
f_{xx}g=\frac{\partial}{\partial x}\bigg(\frac{\partial}{\partial x}f\bigg)g
\end{equation}

and I.C.s can be written as:

\begin{cases}
\dfrac{\partial }{\partial x}f(0)g(y) = 0 \\
\dfrac{\partial }{\partial x}f(0)g(y) = 0 \\
f(x)g(0)= \cos5x
\end{cases}

Then we can substitute $\frac{\partial}{\partial x}f(0)g(y)=0$ right into the equation:

\begin{equation}
\frac{\partial}{\partial x}\bigg(\frac{\partial}{\partial x}f(0)g\bigg)-4g_yf=0
\end{equation}

and that will zero out the first term, and we are left with

\begin{equation}
g_yf=0
\end{equation}

Knowing that $f(x)= \cos5x$, we have at $u(x,0)$:

\begin{equation}
g_y \cos 5x=0
\end{equation}

which unfortunately, has only the trivial solution. Is there any way to use this simplification to solve this system? If not, what is the better way?

Thanks

Best Answer

Hint:

We can guess that $u(x,y) = X(x)Y(y)$ Then we get

$$u_{xx} = 4u_y = X^{''}(x)*Y(y) = 4Y^{'}(y)X(x)$$

From there, we isolate the functions to get

$$\frac{X^{''}(x)}{X(x)}=4\frac{Y^{'}(y)}{Y(y)}$$

However, a function of x can only equal a function of y if both functions are constant. Let's call this function $-\lambda$

Then

$$\frac{X^{''}(x)}{X(x)}=-\lambda$$

$$4\frac{Y^{'}(y)}{Y(y)}=-\lambda$$

See if you can solve from here!

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