Matched Asymptotic Expansions

Abstract

The ideas underlying an asymptotic approximation appeared in the early 1800s, when there was considerable interest in developing formulas to evaluate special functions. An example is the expansion of Bessel’s function, given in (1.12), that was derived by Poisson in 1823. It was not until later in the century that the concept of an asymptotic solution of a differential equation took form, and the most significant efforts in this direction were connected with celestial mechanics. The subject of this chapter, what is traditionally known as matched asymptotic expansions, appeared somewhat later. Its early history is strongly associated with fluid mechanics, and specifically, aerodynamics. The initial development of the subject is credited to Prandtl (1905), who was concerned with the flow of a fluid past a solid body (such as an airplane wing). The partial differential equations for viscous fluid flow are quite complicated, but he argued that under certain conditions the effects of viscosity are concentrated in a narrow layer near the surface of the body. This happens, for example, with air flow across an airplane wing; a picture of this situation is shown in Fig. 2.1. This observation allowed Prandtl to go through an order of magnitude argument and omit terms he felt to be negligible in the equations. The result was a problem that he was able to solve. This was a brilliant piece of work, but it relied strongly on his physical intuition. For this reason, there were numerous questions about his reduction that went unresolved for decades.