Multiscale Analytical Solutions and Homogenization of n-Dimensional Generalized Elliptic Equations

Abstract

In this dissertation, we present multiscale analytical solutions, in the weak sense, to the generalized Laplace's equation in Ω ⊂ Rⁿ, subject to periodic and nonperiodic boundary conditions. They are called multiscale solutions since they depend on a coefficient which takes a wide possible range of scales. We define forms of nonseparable coefficient functions in Lᵖ(Ω) such that the solutions are valid for the periodic and nonperiodic cases. In the periodic case, one such solution corresponds to the auxiliary cell problem in homogenization theory. Based on the proposed analytical solution, we were able to write explicitly the analytical form for the upscaled equation with an effective coefficient, for linear and nonlinear cases including the one with body forces. This was done by performing the two-scale asymptotic expansion for linear and nonlinear equations in divergence form with periodic coefficient. We proved that the proposed homogenized coefficient satisfies the Voigt-Reiss inequality. By performing numerical experiments and error analyses, we were able to compare the heterogeneous equation and its homogenized approximation in order to define criteria in terms of allowable heterogeneity in the domain to obtain a good approximation. The results presented, in this dissertation, have laid mathematical groundwork to better understand and apply multiscale processes under a deterministic point of view.