Introduction to Elasticity/Fourier series solutions
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[edit] Using the Airy Stress Function : Fourier Series Solutions
Useful for more general boundary conditions.
Suppose

Substitute into the biharmonic equation. Then,

or, equivalently,

The hyperbolic form allows us to take advantage of symmetry about the x2 = 0 plane.
If
,

[edit] Example of Fourier Series Technique
The traction boundary conditions are

The problem is broken up into four subproblems which are superposed. The subproblems are chosen so that the even/odd properties of hyperbolic functions can be exploited.
The loads for the four subproblems are chosen to be
![\begin{align}
f_1(x_1) = f_1(-x_1) & =
\cfrac{1}{4}\left[p_1(x_1)+p_1(-x_1)+p_2(x_1)+p_2(-x_1)\right]\\
f_2(x_1) = -f_2(-x_1) & =
\cfrac{1}{4}\left[p_1(x_1)-p_1(-x_1)+p_2(x_1)-p_2(-x_1)\right]\\
f_3(x_1) = f_3(-x_1) & =
\cfrac{1}{4}\left[p_1(x_1)+p_1(-x_1)-p_2(x_1)-p_2(-x_1)\right]\\
f_4(x_1) = -f_4(-x_1) & =
\cfrac{1}{4}\left[p_1(x_1)-p_1(-x_1)-p_2(x_1)+p_2(-x_1)\right]
\end{align}](http://upload.wikimedia.org/math/a/5/b/a5b45b299a435f959fc9157b9212f3eb.png)
The new boundary conditions are

Let us look at the subproblem with loads
applied on the top and bottom of the beam. The problem is even in x1 and odd in x2. So we use,
![\begin{align}
\varphi & = \sum^{\infty}_{n=1} f_n(x_2) \cos(\lambda_n x_1) \\
& = \sum^{\infty}_{n=1} \left[A_n x_2\cosh(\lambda_n x_2)+
B_n\sinh(\lambda_n x_2)\right]\cos(\lambda_n x_1)
\end{align}](http://upload.wikimedia.org/math/6/9/9/6995047e5dd9f45407bbd50e940e4905.png)
At x1 = a,

Hence σ11 = 0 if λn = (2n − 1)π / 2a.
We can substitute
and express the stresses in terms of Fourier series.
Applying the boundary conditions of
we get
![\begin{align}
\sum^{\infty}_{n=1} \left[A_n \lambda_n \cosh(\lambda_n b)+
A_n \lambda_n^2 b \sinh(\lambda_n b)+
B_n \lambda_n^2 \cosh(\lambda_n b)\right]\sin(\lambda_n x_1) & = 0\\
\sum^{\infty}_{n=1} \left[A_n \lambda_n^2 b \cosh(\lambda_n b)+
B_n \lambda_n^2 \sinh(\lambda_n b)\right]\cos(\lambda_n x_1) & = f_3(x_1)
\end{align}](http://upload.wikimedia.org/math/5/a/2/5a2445c3d33e36f2c50b5783aa0dd178.png)
The first equation is satisfied if

Integrate the second equation from − a to a after multiplying by cos(λmx1).
All the odd functions are zero, except the case where n = m.
Therefore, all that remains is
![\left[A_m \lambda_m^2 b \cosh(\lambda_m b)+
B_m \lambda_m^2 \sinh(\lambda_m b)\right] a =
\int_{-a}^{a} f_3(x_1) \cos(\lambda_m x_1) dx_1 \qquad (2)](http://upload.wikimedia.org/math/9/d/4/9d49c3fd108c9399f1fabadc428ab26a.png)
We can calculate Am and Bm from equations (1) and (2), substitute them into the expressions for stress to get the solution.
We do the same thing for the other subproblems.
The Fourier series approach is particularly useful if we have discontinuous or point loads.