SYLLABUS

GENERAL COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course aims to teach the basic numerical methods in two important problems:  numerical linear algebra, and the resolution of PDEs.  We will cover, in the first case, LU and QR decomposition; eigenvalue search methods (QR algorithm); Singular Value Decomposition and applications to Least Square minimization; and iterative methods (Conjugate Gradient).  The student will be introduced to the LAPACK routines and their uses, and will also be expected to develop their own algorithms.  In the second part, we begin by a short review of ODE methods, and then explore three methods for the resolution of PDEs: finite differences, spectral methods and finite element methods. The student will be expected to implement one of these methods to solve a standard prolem in fluid dynamics.

TEXTBOOKS
The instructor will hand out notes extracted from various textbooks instead of using a single one. However, for reference, I am using the following textbooks:

EVALUATION

WEEK BY WEEK SYLLABUS

Week 1:     Basic Fortran;  data storage; numerical precision. Basic Linear Algebra; Gaussian Elimination.
                  Gaussian Pivot. ;
Week 2:     LU decomposition; Cholesky decomposition
                  Householder matrices; QR decomposition
Week 3:     Eigenvalue searches; QR algorithm
Week 4:     Iterative methods for linear systems. Conjugate gradient method;
                   Stability analysis for linear systems. Notions of parallel processing.
Week 5:    ODEs (1) Initial Value Problems
                 ODEs (2) Two point boundary value methods; shooting and Newton-Raphson method
Week 6:    Finite difference methods for PDEs (1). Poisson equation
                  Parabolic and hyperbolic problems
Week 7:     Further concepts in finite differences. Stability, multistep methods, ADI.
                  Semi implicit differencing.
Week 8:   Introduction to finite volume methods; upwind differencing
                 Spectral methods (1). General introduction
Week 9:    Spectral methods (2). Fourier basis.
                 Spectral methods (3). Chebishev basis.
Week 10:  Finite element methods (1). 1D tutorial
                 Finite element methods (2). 2D introduction.