Fundamental frequency of a circular membrane with a strip of small length

A circular membrane with an arbitrarily placed internal strip of small length is concerned in this article. A two-term asymptotic expansion for the fundamental frequency of the membrane, as the length of the strip approaching to zero, is specified. Comparing it with the one [8] derived for the membrane with an internal circular core, it is found that the position of the internal constraint has more effect than the shape of the internal constraint on the fundamental frequency. The asymptotic approximation is also compared with the numerical data computed by the dual boundary element method [2] for a circular membrane of radius 1 with a radially placed internal strip of length 2c. These two sets of data are in good agreement. The relative error is less than 3 % as c is less than or equal to 0.1, for all positions of the strip. Moreover, the relative error is less than 1 % as c is less than or equal to 0.01.     

Fundamental frequency of a doubly connected membrane: a modified perturbation method

The fundamental frequency of a membrane is the square root ofthe lowest eigenvalue of the negative Laplace operator withDirichlet boundary conditions. A doubly connected membrane withthe inner region of vanishing maximal dimension 2c is consideredin this paper. A modified perturbation method is developed toprovide an asymptotic expansion (c 0) for the fundamental frequencyof the membrane. The first three order terms of the asymptoticexpansion for the fundamental frequency of a doubly connectedmembrane with the circular inner region are derived explicitly.The results are compared with the exact solutions and the approximationsdetermined by other investigators. The error of the perturbationcalculations compared with the exact values is less than 1%as c is less than or equal to 0·25 and is less than 4%as c is less than or equal to 0·35.     

Vibration of an infinite membrane supported by an array of posts

The vibration of an infinite membrane supported by a squareor triangular array of circular posts is studied by eigenfunctionexpansion and collocation. The fundamental frequencies are foundto be highly sensitive to both small and large relative postradii b. The singular nature of the frequency as b 0 is expressedin an asymptotic formula.     

On the hydrodynamic interaction of two circular cylinders oscillating in a viscous fluid

The present paper deals with the plane flow fields induced by two parallel circular cylinders with radiia andb oscillating in a direction which is i) parallel or ii) perpendicular to the plane containing their axes. The effect of the cylinders' hydrodynamic interaction on steady streaming has been studied analytically at high frequency by the method of matched asymptotic expansions.It is found that ifa=b the steady streaming is directed symmetrically to the cylinders while whenab (in the case i)) the secondary steady flow is directed towards the larger cylinder and one of the outer steady vortices disappears.It is shown in case i) that the drag force acting on each cylinder is smaller than the same force experienced on a single cylinder with the same radius which is placed in an unbounded oscillating flow. When the cylinder radii are equal, the drag is greater on the forward cylinder than on the rear one.In contrast, in case ii), wherea=b, it is shown that the drag on each of the two cylinders is greater than the drag acting on a single cylinder with the same radius placed in an unbounded oscillating stream and also each of the cylinders experiences a repulsive force in a direction perpendicular to the oscillating flow.     

A Systematic “Saddle Point Near a Pole” Asymptotic Method with Application to the Gauss Hypergeometric Function

In recent works [ 1 ] and [ 2 ], we have proposed more systematic versions of the Laplace’s and saddle point methods for asymptotic expansions of integrals. Those variants of the standard methods avoid the classical change of variables and give closed algebraic formulas for the coefficients of the expansions. In this work we apply the ideas introduced in [ 1 ] and [ 2 ] to the uniform method “saddle point near a pole.” We obtain a computationally more systematic version of that uniform asymptotic method for integrals having a saddle point near a pole that, in many interesting examples, gives a closed algebraic formula for the coefficients. The asymptotic sequence is given, in general, in terms of exponential integrals of fractional order (or incomplete gamma functions). In particular, when the order of the saddle point is two, the basic approximant is given in terms of the error function (as in the standard method). As an application, we obtain new asymptotic expansions of the Gauss Hypergeometric function ₂F₁(a, b, c; z) for large b and c with c > b + 1 .     

Hyperbolic lengths and conformal embeddings of Riemann surfaces

Leth be a homeomorphic bijection between hyperbolic Riemann surfacesR andR’. If there is a conformal mapping ofR intoR’ homotopic toh, then for any hyperbolic geodesicc onR the length of the hyperbolic geodesic freely homotopic to the imageh(c) is less than or equal to the hyperbolic length ofc. We show that the converse is not necessarily true.     

On the Order of Convergence of a Determinantal Family of Root-Finding Methods

Recently, we have shown that for each natural number m greater than one, and each natural number k less than or equal to m, there exists a root-finding iteration function, defined as the ratio of two determinants that depend on the first m - k derivatives of the given function. For each k the corresponding matrices are upper Hessenberg matrices. Additionally, for k = 1 these matrices are Toeplitz matrices. The goal of this paper is to analyze the order of convergence of this fundamental family. Newton's method, Halley's method, and their multi-point versions are members of this family. In this paper we also derive these special cases. We prove that for fixed m, as k increases, the order of convergence decreases from m to the positive root of the characteristic polynomial of generalized Fibonacci numbers of order m. For fixed k, the order of convergence increases in m. The asymptotic error constant is also derived in terms of special determinants.     

The Eigenvalues of the Angular Spheroidal Wave Equation

Approximate relations are obtained between the eigenvalues λ and the ellipticity parameter c² of the angular spheroidal wave equation. Although based on WKBJ methods and the assumption that λ is large, the relations are useful throughout the complex c²-plane. They are exact at c² = 0, and reproduce the standard asymptotic formulas for λ when c² is large. At intermediate values of c², they provide approximations for the square-root branch points of the multivalued function λ(c²) in the complex c²-plane at which adjacent eigenvalues of the same class become equal in pairs. These branch points lie on an infinite sequence of distorted circular rings. Their exact locations have been computed for the first four rings for angular wavenumbers m = 0,…,4.     

Asymptotic Approximations for Prolate Spheroidal Wave Functions

Uniformly valid (with respect to the independent variable) asymptotic approximations to the radial, prolate spheroidal wave functions are constructed from Bessel-function and Coulomb-wave-function models for large values of the wave number c. The prolate angular functions also are considered, but more briefly. The emphasis is on qualitative accuracy (such as might be useful to the physicist), rather than on efficient algorithms for very accurate numerical computation, and the error factor for most of the approximations is 1 + O (1/c) as c↑∞.     

Asymptotics for steady‐state voltage potentials in a bidimensional highly contrasted medium with thin layer

We study the behaviour of steady‐state voltage potentials in two kinds of bidimensional media composed of material of complex permittivity equal to 1 (respectively, α) surrounded by a thin membrane of thickness h and of complex permittivity α (respectively, 1). We provide in both cases a rigorous derivation of the asymptotic expansion of steady‐state voltage potentials at any order as h tends to zero, when Neumann boundary condition is imposed on the exterior boundary of the thin layer. Our complex parameter α is bounded but may be very small compared to 1, hence our results describe the asymptotics of steady‐state voltage potentials in all heterogeneous and highly heterogeneous media with thin layer. The asymptotic terms of the potential in the membrane are given explicitly in local coordinates in terms of the boundary data and of the curvature of the domain, while these of the inner potential are the solutions to the so‐called dielectric formulation with appropriate boundary conditions. The error estimates are given explicitly in terms of h and α with appropriate Sobolev norm of the boundary data. We show that the two situations described above lead to completely different asymptotic behaviours of the potentials. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.