Skip to main content

Weighted Residual

MWR for the first- and third-order differential equations

Submitted by Ajit R. Jadhav on

Hi all,

In engineering sciences, we usually end up using either the second- or the fourth-order differential equations, and the MWR (the method of weighted residuals) works pretty well for them.

The question is: how about the first- and the third-order differential equations? Why don't we see any applications of MWR for these odd-ordered differential equations? What gives?

The Fundamental Physical Bases of the WR Approach (and, Consequently, of FEM) in General

Submitted by Ajit R. Jadhav on

It has been quite some time (more than 1.5 years) that I had touched upon the topic of the physical bases of FEM in general, and of the general weighted residual (WR) approach in particular, at iMechanica (see here).

The position I then took was that there is no known physical basis at all for the WR approach---despite its loving portrayals in mathematical terms, or its popularity.