Electrostatic potential: A new approach for some mixed boundary value problems

Abstract

A new approach to the solution of problems of electrostatics, some of them with mixed boundary conditions, is presented. The proposed scheme can be used in cases were we have a formal solution in the form of a series in Legendre polynomials and the boundary or matching conditions are given not on the whole interval (0, π) of the polar variable, θ, but only over the interval (0, π/2) or (π/2, π). Truncation of the series after the Nth term and the projection on the subspace generated by the set of the first N even (or odd) Legendre polynomials allows us to determine the unknown coefficients of the approximate solution. The results show rapid convergence toward the exact values as we increase the number of terms, N, included in the approximate solutions. The procedure allows to solve approximately some problems whose exact solutions, we believe, are not yet known.