Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Chapter 5 Fourier Series: Visualizing Joseph Fouriers Imaginative Discovery via FEA and Time-Frequency Decomposition
P. J. Masson, P. M. Silveira, C. Duque, and P. F. Ribeiro
5.1 Introduction
Joseph Fourier was without a doubt one of the greatest minds whose work changed the face of engineering. His contributions to physics and engineering are numerous; however, he is mostly remembered for his work on heat transfer that leads to the widely used transform named after him. Through a simple heat transfer experiment, Fourier noticed that the shape of temperature distribution in a ring was varying with time to become eventually a sinusoidal distribution. He then had the idea of representing the periodic temperature distribution by a sum of sinusoids giving birth to a novel signal analysis method nowadays used in all disciplines of engineering. Fourier analysis is one of the most utilized mathematical techniques across a wide range of disciplines that covers from physics and engineering to biology, economics, oceanography, and other areas. However, the geniality of Joseph Fourier in the process of his discovery is not well known and recognized. This chapter
attempts to reproduce some of the original experiments carried out that Joseph Fourier conducted via the use of finite element analysis (FEA). The authors expect that the results will bring more insight into the understanding of this revolutionary technique as
well as illustrate the fundamental need for an integration of physical intuition and mathematics for the progress of scientific developments. This chapter presents Fouriers heat transfer experiment through the use of finite element analysis. An iron ring is modeled and transient thermal analysis is performed to reproduce the data Fourier obtained experimentally.
Fouriers work was not limited to heat transfer and numerous discoveries have been attributed to his genius such as greenhouse effect gases and our planets energy balance. [1-5]
f (t ) =
1 a0 + {a h cos( h 0 t ) + bh sin( h 0 t )} 2 h =1
A summary of the idea that prompted the concept is depicted in Fig. 5.1a and Fig. 5.1b, where the behavior of the temperature distribution along the spatial
discontinuity versus time (5.1a) and as a function of the number of Fourier series coefficients (5.1b) are respectively illustrated.
Figure 5.1 (a) Temperature distribution around the discontinuity obtained by FEA for different times.
Figure 5.1 (b) Temperature distribution around the discontinuity as a function of the number of Fourier coefficients .
the ring; as time passes, the temperature profile shows less harmonics content to end up being a pure sinusoid.
Fig. 5.4 Time step after initial distribution variation seems to take a simple sinusoidal pattern
Fourier series was developed for steady-state signals which assume that all the sinusoidal components would be present all the time. But in reality Joseph Fouriers experiment was a time-dependent one and time-varying components could have been included.
In order to exemplify to analyze the experiment with time-frequency resolution, the behavior of the temperature distribution can be approximated by a quadratic waveform, whose initial discontinuity changes and smoothes along the time as the temperature reaches stabilization, as illustrated in Fig. 5.9.
0 . 8
Temperature
0 . 6 0 . 4 0 . 2
0 . 3
0 . 2
0
0 . 1
0 . 2 0 . 4 0 . 6
0 . 1
0 0 . 0 2 0 . 0 4 0 . 0 6 0 . 0 8 0 . 1
0 . 8 h o t 0 . 6 0 . 4 0 . 2 0
0 . 2
0 . 3 3 . 7 8 3 . 8 3 . 8 2 3 . 8 4 3 . 8 6 3 . 8 8 3 . 9 3 . 9 2 3 . 9 4 3 . 9 6 3 . 9 8 x 1 0
4
0 . 2 0 . 4 0 . 6
0 . 8
0 . 8
cd o l
0 . 6 0 . 4
1 0
0 . 2 0 0 . 2 0 . 4 0 . 6 0 . 8 1 2 0 0 1 4 0 0
7 x 1 0
t e i m
1 6 0 0
1 8 0 0
2 0 0 0
2 2 0 0
2 4 0 0
2 6 0 0
2 8 0 0
3 0 0 0
3 2 0 0
The time-varying components can be prompted and observed if Fourier had more advanced mathematical tools (time-frequency analysis). Figure 5.10, for
example, illustrates the solution of the time-dependent experiment using a methodology developed [6] in which the behavior time-varying harmonic components are observed as the temperature varies. This methodology based on Fouriers analysis can be accomplished by several approaches which uses a sliding window to overcome the steady-state requirement of the Fourier series.
Considering that during the first cycles of the temperature, the behavior is like a square waveform, it is difficult to recompose the original signal using only sinusoidal components, even using a high order of components (N). In fact, since the square wave satisfies the Dirichlet conditions, the limit of f(t) at the discontinuities, as N , is the average value of the discontinuity. According to [7], when a signal has a discontinuity of unity height, the partial sum of the components results in a maximum value of 1.09, i.e., there will be an overshoot of 9% of the height of the discontinuity, independently of how large N is. This behavior has been known as the Gibbs phenomenon, since it was the famous mathematical physicist Josiah Gibbs, who investigated it and presented his explanation in 1899. With his experience, Joseph Fourier had already inferred two important behaviors of the harmonic components: (i) a fast decay of the higher frequency components along the time, as we can see in Fig. 5.10 and, (ii) a fast decay of the higher order components at the discontinuities of the signal. For this second behavior, although intuitive, it is possible to observe it easily by using another methodology of decomposition, instead of the Fourier technique. In this
case, for
example,
the
application
of
Wavelet
Transform provides
different
components, each one localized inside a different bandwidth. The higher frequency components, which are present at the discontinuities of the signal, can be extracted and analyzed. Considering the signal shown in Fig. 5.9, one can perform its decomposition using a wavelet based filter bank with six decomposition levels, whose results are shown in Figure 5.11. In this case the Meyer wavelet has been used; taking into account that it is a very suitable wavelet to extract signals with smoothed features. The Joseph Fouriers observations are clearly depicted in this figure. First, the higher the frequency component, the faster the decay along the time, which can be seen by comparing the output signals (d1 to a6). Second, considering the zoomed details of the Fig. 5.11, one can observe the existence of high frequency components in each discontinuity of the signal. These characteristics can be observed at the different detailed levels shown in Figure 5.11 where the decomposition of temperature variation using a wavelet based filter bank method has been used. Figure 5.11 also shows that the temperature discontinuity can be adequately represented by only six components using a wavelet based filter bank decomposition, whereas the traditional harmonic decomposition would require many times that number of components to achieve similar resolution since they are all of steady-state nature. Direct physical interpretation of temperature variation from the higher detail coefficients levels would, however, be meaningless.
1 0
Fig. 5.11 Decomposition of temperature variation using a wavelet based filter bank method
5.6 Conclusions
Joseph Fourier's many contributions to modern engineering science are so critically important and so pervasive that he is rightly regarded as the father of modern engineering. Great discoveries such as Fouriers transform can be found through basic physics experiments coupled with mathematics. Fouriers physical intuition lead to one of the most used analysis methods that changed the face of engineering. Finite Element Analysis allowed for a simple reproduction of Fouriers experiment of heat propagation / temperature variation through a metallic ring. Simulated data gave a clear view of how Fourier first thought of representing temperature distribution in a ring as a
combination of sinusoidal functions and how this experiment gave information about how harmonics content is modified in time. processing methods, based on time-frequency The use of new signal decomposition, further
illustrates Joseph Fouriers physical intuition to visualize the time varying components long before the mathematical foundation was developed.
5.7 References
[1] Joseph Fourier Politician & Scientist, David A. Keston, Today in Science
http://www.todayinsci.com/F/Fourier_JBJ/FourierPoliticianScientistBio.htm
[2] Grattam-Guiness, Ivor: Joseph Fourier (1768-1830): a survey of his life and work, The MIT Press, 1972. [3] Herivel, John: Joseph Fourier : The Man and the Physicist, Clarendon Press, 1975. [4] Fourier, J.-B.-J. Mmoires de l'Acadmie Royale des Sciences de l'Institut de France VII. 570-604 (1827) (greenhouse effect essay) [5] The Project Gutenberg EBook of Biographies of Distinguished Scientific Men by Franois Arago [6] Duque, C., P.M. Silveira, T. Baldwin, P. F. Ribeiro, "Novel Method for Tracking Time-Varying Power Harmonic Distortions without Frequency
Spillover," submitted to the PES GM2008, Pittsburgh, 20 - 24 July, 2008. [7] Oppenheim, A. V., Willsky A. S., Signals and Systems, Prentice-Hall, 1983.