Nonlinear boundary value problems in science and engineering (Q5906241)

This is the first monograph which is mainly concerned with nonlinear partial or ordinary differential equations supplemented by boundary conditions and, perhaps additionally, initial conditions. Families of exact classical solutions are constructed by use of transformations or groups of transformations. This is a very important domain in mathematics and its applications, particularly in view of the rapidly increasing body of knowledge on extraneous or chaotic difference solutions. On the basis of an extensive international literature survey and their own impressive work, the authors have compiled a very comprehensive collection of transformation methods and far-reaching real world applications. Every one of the presented transformation methods is introduced in a concise and detailed manner, referring to literature for proofs. The applications cover areas such as soil mechanics, shallow water or two phase flows, visco-elastic wave propagation, atmospheric frontogenesis, the Stefan-Boltzmann problem, the dynamics of Mooney- Rivlin materials, neo-Hookean materials, the Navier-Stokes equations, etc. The employed methods of analysis belong predominantly to the classes of Bäcklund and Lie transformations. This includes the following important constructive methods: assignment of a linear to a nonlinear problem, algebraic and nonlinear superposition principles, conversion of boundary value problems with ordinary differential equations into initial value problems, exact shooting and eigenvalue problems with ordinary differential equations, inversion of dependent and independent variables, etc. Due to the advent of Computer Algebra Packages, Lie invariance groups and infinitesimal transformations have recently gathered new importance. In fact, the search for symmetry reductions can now be automated. These reductions may be employed to assign rigorously (systems of) ordinary differential equations to (systems of) partial differential equations. This is one of the most promising domains of applied analysis, particularly in view of sciences and engineering.