In mathematics, the Dirichlet (or first-type) boundary condition is a type of boundary condition, named after Johann Peter Gustav Lejeune Dirichlet (1805-1859)[1]. When imposed on an ordinary or a partial differential equation, it specifies the values a solution needs to take on the boundary of the domain. The question of finding solutions to such equations is known as the Dirichlet problem.
In the case of an ordinary differential equation such as:
on the interval [0,1] the Dirichlet boundary conditions take the form:
where α₁ and α₂ are given numbers.
For a partial differential equation on a domain Ω⊂ℝⁿ such as:
where ∇² denotes the Laplacian, the Dirichlet boundary condition takes the form:
where f is a known function defined on the boundary ∂Ω.
Dirichlet boundary conditions are perhaps the easiest to understand but there are many other conditions possible. For example, there is the Cauchy boundary condition or the mixed boundary condition which is a combination of the Dirichlet and Neumann conditions.
See also
References
- ^ Cheng, A. and D. T. Cheng (2005). Heritage and early history of the boundary element method, Engineering Analysis with Boundary Elements, 29, 268–302.
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