Biharmonic equation 2026-10-06
The biharmonic equation is , where the biharmonic operator is the square of the Laplacian. In planar Stokes flow, taking the curl of the momentum equation and using a Cartesian streamfunction produces this equation. Its decaying spatial Fourier series modes have form .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2018 iii Paper 332 3 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
For an axisymmetric thin elastic plate, define . Uniform excess pressure and bending stiffness give . The roof is attached to undeformed rock at the front, giving clamped boundary conditions , and regularity excludes singular displacement or curvature at . A regular particular solution is ; adding a constant and a multiple of and enforcing the two edge conditions gives the axisymmetric clamped-plate deflectionIntegrating the magma intrusion volume,therefore yieldsHere the axisymmetric phrase requires the radial plate biharmonic operator; a Cartesian one-dimensional beam equation would not give the same pressure coefficient. Hydrostatic contributions are excluded as instructed.
For the early front, let be the leading propagation speed. The fluid and fracture radii differ only within a local region of length . In lubrication theory, the elastic pressure gradient near the front is of order , and the volume flux through the gap is of order . In a frame following the fluid front that flux is of order . The viscous peeling of an elastic plate law is thereforeMatch the peeling region to the interior curvature: . The stated vapour-gap relation , with interpreted as the relevant pressure magnitude, then givesSubstitution gives the vapour-tip peeling of a magma intrusion speedWith constant supplied volume flux and negligible initial intrusion volume, . Integrating gives , orOrder-one coefficients require the full local peeling profile. This early regime is a front-controlled asymptotic regime, not an assertion that a continuum peeling zone remains thin at arbitrarily small .
When fracture toughness instead imposes fixed , equating it to the outer edge curvature gives the toughness-controlled magma intrusion lawIts pressure can be written in either useful formThe pressure decreases as the intrusion grows on this advancing branch.
If is the reservoir volume before any magma was transferred to the initially negligible intrusion, volume conservation and negligible conduit storage give . With the supplied pressure-volume law and conduit conductance, the reservoir-fed magma intrusion obeysIn this law is an effective reservoir pressure-volume stiffness, with dimensions of pressure per volume. If the stated initial reservoir volume refers instead to the start of the late regime, when the intrusion already has volume , replace by the total throughout. An independent value of would then be needed.
For an advancing solution, inflow ceases when the reservoir and intrusion pressures equalize. Its final volume is the larger positive root in ofEquivalently, solves . The larger root is essential: rises from zero to a maximum at and then decreases. A nonempty interval of positive inflow exists only ifThere are then two positive equilibria . At equilibrium the derivative of the volume ordinary differential equation is , so is unstable and has asymptotic stability. An initial advancing intrusion with approaches . The equality case has a double equilibrium and no positive-inflow interval; above the threshold there is no advancing equilibrium branch of this model.
The late formula is singular at and cannot nucleate the intrusion: the earlier propagation regime must supply its finite seed. Nor does this fixed-edge-curvature propagation law prescribe how an irreversible fracture closes under negative inflow. The final-size answer is conditional on reaching the advancing late branch. In particular the reservoir is generally not emptied, and controls the approach rate rather than the equilibrium size.
Let and use the clamped energy space , whose traces satisfy on . Two applications of integration by parts giveIf equality holds, then . The maximum principle for harmonic functions and the zero Dirichlet boundary condition imply . The biharmonic operator is therefore positive definite. The same identity and conclusion hold for the simply supported conditions ; either standard interpretation of the paper's phrase “zero boundary conditions” gives the result.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2022 iii Paper 355 1 b Solution 2026-09-28
In the dark, energy minimization gives . Translation and rotation are zero-energy freedoms; one representative is . After illumination, choose the equivalent light-adapted equilibriumThen has homogeneous free-end conditions , and its initial valueis orthogonal to the two rigid zero modes and .
Let solve the free--free biharmonic eigenvalue equationand chooseThese are orthogonal eigenfunctions of the biharmonic operator with at both ends. The shape iswhereThe omitted zero modes would only translate or rotate the whole filament.
Past exam of the theoretical physics I course of the University of Cambridge 2018 3 c Solution 2026-10-18
Put , where the diffusion coefficient is constant. ThenOne temporal and two spatial integrations by parts givewith compactly supported variations. HenceHere is the biharmonic operator. The cross terms cancel because is constant and spatial and temporal derivatives commute. Equivalently, and in part (b), producing .
This squared diffusion-residual action does not have only the first-order diffusion equation as its stationary equation. The zero-residual paths have and are certainly solutions, but the variational equation is the higher-order one above. For a spatial Fourier mode with nonzero wavevector , it givesBoundary data or an additional physical selection principle are needed to retain only the decaying diffusion branch. The spatially uniform mode instead has in the stationary equation.