The Poisson and the Biharmonic Equations in the Interior of a Convex Polygon

Abstract

A new method for analyzing linear elliptic partial differential equations in the interior of a convex polygon was developed in the late 1990s. This method does not rely on the classical approach of separation of variables and on the use of classical integral transforms and therefore is well suited for the investigation of the biharmonic equation. Here, we present a novel integral representation of the solution of the biharmonic equation in the interior of a convex polygon. This representation contains certain free parameters and therefore is more general than the one presented in [1]. For a given boundary value problem, by choosing these free parameters appropriately, one can obtain the simplest possible representation for the solution. This representation still involves certain unknown boundary values, thus for this formula to become effective it is necessary to characterize the unknown boundary values in terms of the given boundary conditions. This requires the investigation of certain relations refereed to as the global relations. A general approach for analyzing these relations is illustrated by solving several problems formulated in the interior of a semistrip. In addition, for completeness, similar results are presented for the Poisson equation by employing an integral representation for the Laplace equation which is more general than the one derived in the late 1990s.