WIDENER UNIVERSITY School of Engineering

Third Edition
Tradition & Excellence Since 1821 Mechanical Engineering

TOPIC

ENGR 680

04 Advanced Computational
Methods

Weak Forms

© Tulong Zhu, All rights reserved.

The Strong Form
The q(x)
Problem
R P x
L

Govern. Eq. • EAu( x)  q( x)  0 0<x<L

BC’s • At x = 0: either u(0)  u0 or EAu(0)   R

• At x = L: either u( L)  ul or EAu( L)  P

 At any boundary point, we can specify either u or u’, not

both.

• The above form (the governing equation and the boundary

conditions) is called the strong form, since a solution satisfying
this form must be the exact solution and the residue vanishes
everywhere in the domain.

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The Weak Form: Preliminary
The q(x)
Problem
R P x
L
Govern. Eq. • EAu( x)  q( x)  0 0<x<L

BC’s • At x = 0: either u(0)  u0 or EAu(0)   R

• At x = L: either u( L)  ul or EAu( L)  P
Weighted • If we use an approximate solution, or a trial function u in the
Residual M. governing equation, the residue will not vanish:
R  EAu( x)  q( x)
• If we use a test function v(x) such that
L L
0 vRdx  0 v( EAu  q)dx  0
 This is called a weak form, since a solution satisfying the
above equation makes the residue go to zero in an average
sense but does not necessarily satisfy the governing equation
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for all x in the domain.
The Weak Form: Development
L L
Original • 0 vRdx  0 v( EAu   q )dx  0
Weak Form
 In the Galerkin formulation, the test function v is the same as
the shape function in the trial function u.
L L L
Integrate by • 0 ( EAu  q)vdx  EA0 uvdx  0 qvdx
Parts
L L L
 EAuv 0  EA0 uvdx  0 qvdx
L L
 EAu( L)v( L)  EAu(0)v(0)  EA0 u vdx  0 qvdx  0
Developed L L
• Pv( L)  Rv(0)  EA0 u vdx  0 qvdx  0
Weak Form
 The 1st two terms in the weak form give us a way to
incorporated force or derivative BC into the weak form.
 When a force is specified, that boundary condition can be
naturally incorporated into the weak form, hence the name
natural boundary condition (NBC).
 The displacement BC can not be incorporated into the weak
form. This kind of BC must be enforced in another way.
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The Weak Form: Natural BC and Essential BC
Developed L L
• Pv( L)  Rv(0)  EA0 uvdx  0 qvdx  0
Weak Form
 The force or derivative BC can be naturally incorporated into
the weak form.  Natural boundary condition (NBC).
 The displacement BC can not be incorporated into this weak
form directly. This kind of BC must be enforced in another
way.
 Chose a trial function that satisfies the boundary
condition explicitly.
 Specify the boundary condition when the final system
equation is solved, such as in FEM.
 Since the displacement BC cannot be enforced in the
above weak form, and must be enforced explicitly to get
a solution, such a boundary condition is called the
essential boundary condition.

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The Weak Form with the Essential BC
Problem • Sometimes, it is difficult to explicitly enforce the essential
boundary condition, especially for 2D or 3D problems.

 In FEM, the essential boundary condition can be easily

enforced at the boundary nodes by collocation. However, the
boundary condition can not be easily enforced at other
boundary points where there are no nodes.

• If necessary, the weak form can be further expanded to

incorporate the essential boundary condition in the weak form.

 Lagrange Multiplier Method.

 Penalty Method.

 …

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Lagrange Multiplier Approach
DE & BC’s • Let’s consider the following problem:
EAu( x)  q( x)  0 q(x)

• u(0) = u0, EAu’(L) = P P x

L
Background • This approach works with the Ritz Method, which trying to
minimize the total potential energy.
• If we need to enforce the essential boundary condition in the weak
form, the problem becomes minimizing the total potential energy
subject to the displacement constraint:
L 1 
  0  EA  u    qu dx  Pu ( L)
2
Min
2 
S.T. u(0) = u0

• By introducing a Lagrange multiplier, l, the above optimum

problem becomes:

Min   0L  EA  u  2  qu dx  Pu ( L)  l[u (0)  u0 ]

1
 2 
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Lagrange Multiplier Approach: Development
Min 
•   0L  EA  u  2  qu dx  Pu ( L)  l[u (0)  u0 ]
1
 2 
n
• u ( x)   aii ( x) i(x), must be once differentiable)
i 1
• To minimize , we have
 L u u  u ( L) u (0)
 0 uEA q dx  P  l 0
ai  ai ai  ai ai

 u (0)  u0  0
l

•  L uEAi  qi dx  Pi ( L)  li (0)  0 i = 1,2, …, n

0
u(0)  u0  0

 This is a system of n + 1 linear equations with n + 1 unknowns:

a1, a2, …, an, and l.
 This approach is more accurate, but increase the scale of the
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problem.
Penalty Method
Weak Form • Let’s assume that the essential BC is specified at x = 0, i.e., u(0)
= u0 , and the natural BC is specified at x = L. For a trial function
u, we use the following weak form
L
0 Rvdx   [u (0)  u0 ]v(0)  0

 A solution satisfying the above equation makes the internal

residue as well as the boundary residue go to zero in an
average sense but does not necessarily satisfy the governing
equation for all x in the domain and the boundary condition.
Integrate by •  L ( EAu   q )vdx   [u (0)  u0 ]v(0)
Parts 0
L L
 EA0 u vdx  0 qvdx   [u (0)  u0 ]v(0)
L L L
 EAu v 0  EA0 u vdx  0 qvdx   [u (0)  u0 ]v (0)
L L
 EAu ( L)v( L)  EAu (0)v(0)  EA0 u vdx  0 qvdx
  [u (0)  u0 ]v(0)  0
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Penalty Method: Final Weak Form
Integrate P
by Parts • EAu( L)v( L)  EAu(0)v(0)  EA0L u vdx  0L qvdx   [u (0)  u0 ]v(0)  0

• EA0L uvdx  EAu(0)v(0)   u (0)v(0)  Pv( L)  0L qvdx   u0v(0)

 Both the natural and essential boundary conditions are enforced in a

weak sense.
 The large penalty parameter, , may cause numerical problem for
some numerical methods when large numbers appear in the off
diagonal elements of the stiffness matrix. This may not be a concern
for most currently used FEM, since  only appears in the diagonal
elements.

 For Galerkin method, we just chose the shape functions, i, in the
trial function u as the test function v.
L L
EA0 uidx  EAu(0)i (0)   u (0)i (0)  Pi ( L)  0 qi dx   u0i (0)

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