CVEN 308 — Applied Numerical Methods for Engineers — Final Exam

2020-12-14-MON, 11 AM to 5 PM

For this exam you may use course material from CVEN 308 (Blackboard site, textbook,
class notes, homeworks, your course work, etc.) but NOT any other information from the
internet or from any other source. The key restriction is that you are required to take the
exam ENTIRELY BY YOURSELF. You may NOT communicate with any other person by
any means (such as conversation, phone, text message, email, Skype, Webex, Zoom, chat,
etc.) whatsoever. You must work COMPLETELY ALONE.

Please sign the following affirmation electronically or by scanning a hand-signed hard copy
back to PDF:

I certify that I strictly conform with UDC Academic Integrity policies in completing
this examination. I have worked entirely alone. I have used only the approved
materials listed above. I have not given any aid to or received any aid from anyone
else on this final exam. I understand that violations of the above provisions will
result in an automatic zero on this exam and being reported to the Dean of Students
Office for an Academic Disciplinary Policy Hearing (which may result in further
sanctions).

Name: Signature:

For this exam you should prepare an Excel Workbook named

CVEN 308 Final Exam Lastname Firstname.xlsx

If you use VBA functions (which is possible but not necessary), then be sure to name your
Excel file with the .xlsm extension. At the end of the exam, please send your Excel file as
an email attachment to Dr. Nitsche (Ludwig.Nitsche@udc.edu) along with the signed exam
sheet PDF. Your email subject line should read:

CVEN 308 Final Exam Lastname Firstname

You must e-sign and return this exam sheet PDF along with your Excel file. Any Excel
file unaccompanied by the corresponding signed test sheet will not be graded
and will therefore receive a score of zero.

Important: Put your work on the two problems in two different worksheets (named “Prob-
lem 1” and “Problem 2,” respectively) within your Excel workbook. Indicate your final
answers with clear descriptions and yellow highlights of the cells that contain them. If you
intend to use VBA, then be sure to insert a new module in the Visual Basic editor before
you start writing your VBA code. Otherwise Excel will not recognize it.

1
Problem 1. Shooting method for ODEs: Excel. [50 points].

Consider the following second-order, nonlinear ODE

d2 f
= α + β sin[γf (t)], 0<x<2 (1)
dt2
with constants
α = 1, β = 3, γ = 7. (2)
The boundary conditions are
f (0) = 4, (3)
f (2) = 3. (4)

Part (a). Convert the ODE (1) into a pair of coupled, first-order ODEs:
df
= g(t), (5)
dt
dg
= α + β sin[γf (t)]. (6)
dt
Using Excel to implement the midpoint method with step size ∆t = 0.1, solve these two
ODEs simultaneously starting from initial conditions
f (0) = 4, (7)
g(0) = −3. (8)
What is the endpoint value f (2)? Manually type this value (without copying from a cell)
into another cell and annotate a nearby cell to indicate this as your answer for Part (a).

Part (b). Use Goal Seek or Solver to zero in on that value of g(0) that yields f (2) = 3,
in accordance with boundary condition (4) on the right end of the interval. Indicate the
suitable value g(0) and plot up your solution f (t).

Please note: For reduced credit in grading, you may use Euler’s method instead of the mid-
point method.

Problem 2. ODEs and finite differences: Excel. [45 points].

Consider the inhomogeneous, linear, second-order, constant-coefficient ODE

d2 f
+ 6f (x) = 3 (0 < x < 3) (9)
dx2
with boundary conditions
f (0) = 2, f (3) = 1. (10)
Solve the boundary value problem (9), (10) using finite-differences (i.e., simultaneous linear
equations from Lessons 25 and 26) implemented in Excel. Use 6 intervals (i.e., step size
h = 0.5). Plot up your numerical solution.

Problem 3. Feedback surveys, as discussed during Lesson 27 [5 points].