The Dirichlet problem for the heat equation in a bounded domain is characteristic, for there are boundary points at which the boundary touches a characteristic hyperplane t = c, c being a constant. It was I.G. Petrovskii (1934) who first found necessary and sufficient conditions on the boundary which guarantee that the solution is continuous up to the characteristic point, provided that the Dirichlet data are continuous. This paper initiated standing interest in studying general boundary value problems for parabolic equations in bounded domains. We contribute to the study by constructing a formal solution of the Dirichlet problem for the heat equation in a neighbourhood of a characteristic boundary point and showing its asymptotic character.

We study a boundary value problem for an overdetermined elliptic system of nonlinear first order differential equations with linear boundary operators. Such a problem is solvable for a small set of data, and so we pass to its variational formulation which consists in minimising the discrepancy. The Euler-Lagrange equations for the variational problem are far-reaching analogues of the classical Laplace equation. Within the framework of Euler-Lagrange equations we specify an operator on the boundary whose zero set consists precisely of those boundary data for which the initial problem is solvable. The construction of such operator has much in common with that of the familiar Dirichlet to Neumann operator. In the case of linear problems we establish complete results.

In literature Trefftz method normally has geometric (exponential) convergence. Recently many scholars have found that spectral method in some cases can converge faster than exponential, which is called super-geometric convergence. Since Trefftz method can be regarded as a kind of spectral method, we expect it might possess super-geometric convergence too. In this thesis, we classify all types of super-geometric convergence and compare their speeds. We develop a method to decide the convergent type of given error data. Finally we can observe in many numerical experiments the super-geometric convergence of Trefftz method to solve Helmholtz boundary value problems.

In this thesis, we demonstrate the capability of power series, combined with numerical methods, to solve boundary value problems and Sturm-Liouville eigenvalue problems of ordinary differential equations. This kind of schemes is usually called the numerical-symbolic, numerical-analytic or semi-analytic method. In the first chapter, we develop an adaptive algorithm, which automatically decides the terms of power series to reach desired accuracy. The expansion point of power series can be chosen freely. It is also possible to combine several power series piecewisely. We test it on several models, including the second and higher order linear or nonlinear differential equations. For nonlinear problems, the same procedure works similarly to linear problems. The only differences are the nonlinear recurrence of the coefficients and a nonlinear equation, instead of linear, to be solved. In the second chapter, we use our semi-analytic method to solve singularly perturbed problems. These problems arise frequently in fluid mechanics and other branches of applied mathematics. Due to the existence of boundary or interior layers, its solution is very steep at certain point. So the terms of series need to be large in order to reach the desired accuracy. To improve its efficiency, we have a strategy to select only a few required basis from the whole polynomial family. Our method is shown to be a parameter diminishing method. A specific type of boundary value problem, called the Sturm-Liouville eigenvalue problem, is very important in science and engineering. They can also be solved by our semi-analytic method. This is our focus in the third chapter. Our adaptive method works very well to compute its eigenvalues and eigenfunctions with desired accuracy. The numerical results are very satisfactory.

In this thesis, we consider the following delay boundary value problem egin{eqnarray*}(BVP)left{begin{array}{l}y'(t)+q(t)f(t,y(sigma(t)))=0, tin(0,1)/{ au}, y(t)=xi(t), tin[- au_{0},0], y(1)=0,end{array} right. end{eqnarray*}, where the functions f and q satisfy certain conditions; $sigma(t)leq t$ is a nonlinear real valued continuous function. We use two different methods to establish some existence criteria for the solution of problem (BVP). We generalize the delay term to a nonlinear function and obtain more general and supplementary results for the known ones about linear delay term due to Agarwal and O¡¦Regan [1] and Jiang and Xu [5].

In finite elasticity, while developing representation for stress, it is customary to require the reference configuration to be stress free. This study relaxes this requirement and develops representations for stress from a stressed reference configuration. Using the fact that the value of Cauchy stress in the current configuration is independent of the choice of the reference configuration, even though the formula used to compute it depends on the choice of the reference configuration, the sought representation is obtained. It is then assumed that there exists a piecewise smooth mapping between a configuration with prestresses and a configuration that is stress free, and the representation obtained above is used to study the mechanical response of prestressed bodies. The prestress fields are obtained by directly integrating the balance of linear momentum along with the traction free boundary condition. Then, different classes of boundary value problems for the type of inhomogeneous and prestressed bodies of interest are formulated and studied. For the cases studied, it is found that even the global measures like axial-load required to engender a given stretch ratio for a prestressed body vary from the homogeneous stress free bodies, though not significantly. The local measures - stress and deformation - in a prestressed body differ considerably from their homogeneous stress free counterparts. The above gained knowledge is applied to understand the mechanics of circumflex arteries obtained from normotensive and hypertensive micro-mini pigs. It is found that the deformation of these arteries when subjected to inflation and axial extension is not of the form r = r(R), µ = £, z = Z. Comparison is also made between the response of an artery at various levels of smooth muscle activation and stretch ratio as well as normotensive and hypertensive specimens, using statistical methods.

Optimal control (motion planning) of the free interface in classical two-phase Stefan problems is considered. The evolution of the free interface is modeled by a level set function. The first-order optimality system is derived on a formal basis. It provides gradient information based on the adjoint temperature and adjoint level set function. Suitable discretization schemes for the forward and adjoint systems are described. Numerical examples verify the correctness and flexibility of the proposed scheme.

Darbe nagrinėjamas begalinio indekso homogeninis kraštinis Rymano uždavinys, kurio laipsninė eilė yra 0<ρ<1. Kiekvienoje iš klasių B ir B(ρ) ieškomas sprendinys - dalimis analizinė funkcija, kai jos ribinės reikšmės realiosios ašies taškuose tenkina kraštinę sąlygą. Darbe tiriamas šio uždavinio išsprendžiamumas ypatinguoju atveju pusplokštumei, ieškomos funkcijos, kurios analizinės viršutinėje ir apatinėje pusplokštumėse. Nagrinėjama koeficiento G(t) nulių ir polių, bei koeficiento modulio augimo įtaka uždavinio išsprendžiamumui. Taip pat tiriama priklausomybė tarp duotųjų dydžių, kuriems esant kraštinis Rymano uždavinys aprėžtų sprendinių neturi. Be to sudarytas bendrasis sprendinys, išskiriant atvejus, kai uždavinys neišsprendžiamas šiose klasėse. / This paper analyses homogeneous boundary-value problem of Riemann with the infinite index, when gradual order is 0<ρ<1. In every class - B and B(ρ) - the solution is partial analitic function, when its limit values meet the marginal condition in the points of real axis. The paper also discusses solvability of the problem in the special case for the half – plane. Moreover, functions are examinated, of which analytic upside and underside half-plane. The coefficient‘s zero and piles are analyzed as possible influential factors for the problem’s solvalibility. The paper examines dependence between given variables for which boundary-value problem of Riemann does not have limited solutions. Furthermore, general solution is presented, excluding cases when the problem is unsolvable in these classes.

The paper deals with the second-order linear non-homogeneity differential equation with singular coefficients at zero as the equation order degeneration point. With this ground the boundary value problem is defined, investigated and solved in the class of bounded functions. The solution existence and uniqueness theorem is proved.

This paper was presented in WCSMO-9, Shizuoka.