RIT Undergraduates Advance the Technique of Asymptotic Approximants Created by the Barlow-Weinstein Group

RIT's Barlow-Weinstein research group brings students together to advance the technique of Asymptotic Approximants created by RIT professors, Drs. Nathaniel Barlow and Steven Weinsten. As described by RIT student researchers, “advantages of asymptotic approximants…are their simple form, ability to yield highly accurate solutions, accuracy in solution derivatives and low computational load.”

Recently, four undergraduate students presented their research on the analytical solution to the classical Falkner-Skan equation that describes boundary layer flow over a wedge. Published in The Quarterly Journal of Mechanics and Applied Mathematics, the research advanced the method of asymptotic approximants by demonstrating that the method disclosed in previous work may be applied to the ability of the approximant to capture the full range of solutions (as wedge angle is varied), and the accuracy of auxiliary properties obtained using the approximant. In addition, the approximant is used to extract the radius of convergence of the Falkner–Skan series as a function of wedge angle. To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first time this dependence has been disclosed.

The RIT undergraduate students involved in the research were:

Alex Archibee ’19 (mechanical engineering BS)
Elizabeth Belden ’19 (chemical engineering BS)
Ethan Burroughs ’19 (computational mathematics BS)
Zachary Dickman ’17 (chemical engineering BS)

Read the full publication: Asymptotic Approximant for the Falkner–Skan Boundary Layer Equation

Learn more about the Barlow-Weinstein research group at RIT:

Barlow-Weinstein Group Publications
Barlow-Weinstein Group Team