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Fourier Series

A Fourier series represents a periodic function as a sum of sinusoidal functions with different frequencies. The Fourier series approximates the function by starting with low frequency, long wavelength sinusoidal functions and progressively adding higher frequency, shorter wavelength terms. The coefficients of the Fourier series that determine the contribution of each sinusoidal term can be found by integrating the function over one period.

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290 views6 pages

Fourier Series

A Fourier series represents a periodic function as a sum of sinusoidal functions with different frequencies. The Fourier series approximates the function by starting with low frequency, long wavelength sinusoidal functions and progressively adding higher frequency, shorter wavelength terms. The coefficients of the Fourier series that determine the contribution of each sinusoidal term can be found by integrating the function over one period.

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rodwellhead
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Fourier Series
A Fourier series represents a periodic function 1 as a sum of sinusoidal functions. The sinusoidal functions begin at the large wavelengths (low frequencies) and continue progressively to the short wavelengths (high frequencies). The illustration below shows how the first few terms of the corresponding Fourier series approximate a square wave.

Since the sine and cosine functions have period Fourier series defined on the initial period

, then its natural to start by defining or . Fourier series can be .

determined for any period T simply by multiplying the axial coordinate by Determining the Fourier Series for functions that are periodic on Let for be a (periodic) function defined on the domain is a weighted sum of sine and cosine functions as follows:

. The Fourier series

where the

and

are constants, which can be determined by integration2:

1Periodic Functions 2Integration

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Hence in order to determine the coefficients of a Fourier series, we need to complete the above integrals. However, there are a number of shortcuts, which can save time. Firstly the first term of the Fourier series, , is the mean or average value of in Secondly noting that the sine function is odd and the cosine function is even 3 if is odd then the Fourier series consists only of sin terms ( and if is even then the Fourier series consists of only cosine terms.
Example 1 Find the Fourier series for the following periodic function with period defined in the domain and

-1

Solution Firstly we note that the function is odd; , for all n.

Even and Odd Functions

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We set out to find the values of

using the standard formula

, which involves an integration over the domain [- In cases when there are discontinuities in the function f(t), it is convenient to divide the domain of integration at the discontinuities. In this case the discontinuity is at t=0, hence we split the integral as follows:

We can now insert the actual function f(t) in each sub-domain

It is useful to form a table of values of an and bn for the first few values of n, as follows. n an bn 0 0 1 0 2 0 0 3 0 4 0 0 5 0

Hence we may write

The graph on the first page shows the sequence of partial sums of the example above: It is also shown more interactively on a spreadsheet4.

Google spreadsheet showing sequence of partial sums for example 1.

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There are a number of ways the initial definition and determination of Fourier series can be made more complicated and we will consider two of these. Firstly the domain of the periodic signal does not have to be , let us assume that it has a general length 2L and lies in the domain . Let for be a (periodic) function defined on the domain then has the following form: . The Fourier series

where

Secondly, when non-constant functions are used then we usually need to use product integration in order to evaluate it.
Example 1 Find the Fourier series for the following periodic saw tooth function with period and defined in the domain [-1,1] as follows:

-1

Solution Firstly we note that the function is even; , for all n.

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To determine

we note that the average value of the function using the standard formula

is ;

We set out to find the values of

which involves an integration over the domain [-1, 1]. In this case there is a discontinuity at t=0, hence we split the integral as follows:

Using integration by parts, we note that

Hence

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It is useful to form a table of values of an and bn for the first few values of n, as follows. n an bn 0 0 1 0 2 0 0 3 0 4 0 0 5 0 6 0 0

Hence

The approximation of the saw tooth function by a fourier series is demonstrated on a linked Google spreadsheet5.

Saw tooth function approximated by a Fourier series

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