Applied Partial Differential Equations:: A Visual Approach

This book presents topics of science and engineering which occur in nature or are part of daily life. It describes phenomena which are modelled by partial differential equations, relating to physical variables like mass, velocity and energy, etc. to their spatial and temporal variations. Typically, these equations are highly nonlinear; in many cases they are also vectorial systems, and they represent a challenge even for the most modern and sophisticated mathematical-analytical and mathematical-numerical techniques. The author has chosen topics representing his career-long interests, including the flow of fluids and gases, granular flows, biological processes like pattern formation on animal skins, kinetics of rarified gases and semiconductor devices. Each topic is presented in brief in its scientific or engineering context, followed by an introduction of applicable mathematical models in the form of partial differential equations with a discussion of their basic mathematical properties. Illustrated with photographs taken by the author.

Prof. Peter Markowich is the recipient of the Wittgenstein Award 2000, the highest ranking Austrian Science Prize.