Approximate Analytical Solutions to Nonlinear Inverse Boundary Value Problems

Abstract

A nontraditional approach to the nonlinear inverse boundary value problem is illustrated using multiple examples of the Poisson equation. The solutions belong to a class of analytical solutions defined through Bézier functions. The solution represents a smooth function of high order over the domain. The same procedure can be applied to both the forward and the inverse problem. The solution is obtained as a local minimum of the residuals of the differential equations over many points in the domain. The Dirichlet and Neumann boundary conditions can be incorporated directly into the function definition. The primary disadvantage of the process is that it generates continuous solution even if continuity and smoothness are not expected for the solution. In this case they will generate an approximate analytical solution to either the forward or the inverse problem. On the other hand, the method does not need transformation or regularization, and is simple to apply. The solution is also good at damping the perturbations in measured data driving the inverse problem. In this paper we show that the method is quite robust for linear and nonlinear inverse boundary value problem. We compare the results with a solution to a nonlinear inverse boundary value problem obtained using a traditional approach. The application involves a mixture of symbolic and numeric computations and uses a standard unconstrained numerical optimizer.