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Particular Integral UCmethod

The method of undetermined coefficients can be used to find the particular integral of a linear differential equation with constant coefficients. It involves determining the complementary function, obtaining the UC sets of the functions in the nonhomogeneous term, choosing a trial particular solution as a linear combination of a mutually disjoint UC set, and determining the coefficients by substitution into the original differential equation. Examples show finding the general solution to equations with exponential, trigonometric, and polynomial nonhomogeneous terms.

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Nikhilesh Prabhakar
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833 views2 pages

Particular Integral UCmethod

The method of undetermined coefficients can be used to find the particular integral of a linear differential equation with constant coefficients. It involves determining the complementary function, obtaining the UC sets of the functions in the nonhomogeneous term, choosing a trial particular solution as a linear combination of a mutually disjoint UC set, and determining the coefficients by substitution into the original differential equation. Examples show finding the general solution to equations with exponential, trigonometric, and polynomial nonhomogeneous terms.

Uploaded by

Nikhilesh Prabhakar
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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METHOD OF UNDETERMINED COEFFICIENTS

The method of undetermined coefficients can be used to find the particular integral of a linear differential
equation with constant coefficients. But this method is applicable only to a limited class of functions, called
UC functions.

UC function : A function is a UC function if it is either

(i) a function defined by one of the following four types

(a) a0 x n a1 x n1 ... an1 x an , where n is a positive integer or zero ;

(b) e ax , where a 0 is a constant ;


(c) sin(bx c) , where b 0 and c are constants ; and

(d) cos(bx c) , where b 0 and c are constants, or

(ii) a function defined as a finite product of two or more functions of these four types.

Example1 : The functions 3x 2 2 x 1 , x 2 sin x , xe2 x cos x , xe2 x sin 2 x cos 2 x are UC functions.

UC set : Consider a UC function f. The UC function f and its successive derivatives are either a constant
multiple of itself or a linear combination of linearly independent UC functions. The set of linearly
independent UC functions obtained from f is called the UC set of f .

Example2 : Let f ( x) x sin x . The successive derivatives of f are given by f ( x) x cos x 2 x sin x ,
2 ' 2

f '' ( x) x 2 sin x 4 x cos x 2sin x , f ''' ( x) x 2 cos x 2 x sin x 4 x sin x 6cos x and so on. The UC


set of f is S x 2 sin x, x 2 cos x, x sin x, x cos x,sin x, cos x .
Table of UC functions and their UC sets

S.No. UC function UC set


1 a0 x n a1 x n1 ... an1 x an {x n , x n 1 ,..., x,1}

2 ea x {e a x }
3 sin(ax b) or cos(ax b) {sin(ax b), cos(ax b)}
4 f g UC set of f UC set of g

5 x 2 sin x {x 2 , x,1} {sin x, cos x}

{x 2 sin x, x 2 cos x, x sin x, x cos x,sin x, cos x}


METHOD OF UNDETERMINED COEFFICIENTS

Problem : Find the particular solution of an nth order linear differential equation with constant coefficients

[a0 Dn a1Dn1 ... an1D an ] y X ( x) , [1]

where X ( x) A1 f1 ( x) A2 f 2 ( x) ... Ak f k ( x) is a linear combination of UC functions f1 , f 2 ,..., f k

Step1 : Obtain the complementary function yc ( x) of the given differential equation.

Step2 : To seek a particular (or trial) solution, y p ( x) , proceed as follows.

For each of the UC functions in X ( x) , form the UC sets, say, S1 , S2 ,..., Sk .

From these UC sets, obtain those UC sets that are mutually disjoint. [i.e., If Si S j then remove

the smaller set S i and retain the larger set S j .] Suppose there are m UC sets that are mutually

disjoint.
Check whether each of the m UC set contain UC members of the complementary function or not.
[If the UC set S includes the members of the complementary function, obtain the revised UC set

S ' , that doesnt contain any UC member of the complimentary function, by multiplying the set S
with the lowest positive integral power of x.].
Now we have m UC sets (including the revised UC set) that are mutually disjoint. The particular
integral y p ( x) is chosen to be the linear combination of the members of the m UC sets.

Step3: Determine the unknown coefficients by substituting y p ( x) in the differential equation.

Step4: General solution of the given differential equation is y( x) yc ( x) y p ( x) .

Problems for practice

Differential equation Solution by UC method

(a) y '' 2 y ' 3 y 2e 10sin x


x
1
y( x) c1e3 x c2e x e x 2sin x cos x
2
(b) y '' 3 y ' 2 y 2 x (1 2 x)e 4e
2 x 3x
7
y( x) c1e x c2e2 x x 2 3x 2e3 x x 2e x 3xe x
2

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