Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Oxford / 2023 / Prelims / Mathematics V / 5 / b / ii / Solution

Write $T=T_s+T_u$. The transient satisfies the heat equation and homogeneous mixed boundary conditionsThe left condition is a Neumann boundary condition and the right one a Dirichlet boundary condition. Separation of variables, $T_u=X(x)G(t)$, givesThe condition $X^{\prime }(0)=0$ removes the sine term. The condition $X(2\ell )=0$ then selectsThere is no nonzero mode with $\mu =0$, because a linear $X$ satisfying both conditions is zero. There is no growing mode either: integration by parts gives ${\int }_0^{2\ell }(X^{\prime }{)}^{2}dx={\mu }^2{\int }_0^{2\ell }{X}^{2}dx$, so every nonzero mode has ${\mu }^2>0$.

These Sturm-Liouville eigenfunctions have orthogonality and squared normExpand the initial transient in this half-integer Fourier cosine series. Its coefficients areThe integration formula follows by integration by parts; the cosine at the endpoint is zero. Thus the half-integer cosine expansion of a linear profile givesAt $t=0$ the Fourier series reproduces $-T_s$ everywhere, including the endpoints; its $n^{-2}$ coefficient decay gives uniform convergence. For every $t>0$ the exponential factors allow termwise differentiation and verify the heat equation and both boundary conditions. The sudden switch-on of nonzero heat flux is incompatible with the spatial derivative of the constant initial temperature at the corner $(0,0)$. Accordingly, the positive-time boundary derivative must not be inferred by differentiating the initial Fourier series term by term at that corner.