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35433 - Numerical Methods

Academic Year 2019/2020

                
                        Docente:
                        Fabiana Zama
                    
                        Credits:
                        6
                    
                        SSD:
                        MAT/08
                    
                        Language:
                        English
                    
                        Moduli:
                        
                            Fabiana Zama
                            (Modulo 1)
                        
                            Serena Morigi
                            (Modulo 2)
                        
                        Teaching Mode:
                        
                                    Traditional lectures (Modulo 1)
                                
                                    Traditional lectures (Modulo 2)
                                
                            Campus:
                            Ravenna
                        
                            Corso:
                            Second cycle degree programme (LM) in
                            Offshore Engineering (cod. 9249)

                                Also valid for
                                
                                    Second cycle degree programme (LM) in
                                    
                                        Offshore Engineering (cod. 9249)
                                    
                            Teaching resources on Virtuale

Learning outcomes

A successful learner from this course will be able to: a) deal with numerical analysis topics such as: accuracy, truncation and round-off errors, condition numbers, convergence, stability, curve-fitting, interpolation, numerical differentiation and integration, numerical linear algebra; b) deal with numerical methods for solving ordinary and partial differential equations, with finite difference and finite element methods for parabolic and elliptic partial differential equations, applications of computer programs to case studies derived from civil engineering practice.

Course contents

The course consists of 24 hours of frontal lectures and 24 hours of practical exercises.

The course includes a laboratory activity that is an integral part of it. As a computing tool, we will be using MATLAB which for our purposes may best be viewed as a convenient problem solving environment.

The whole course contents are shared between two modules, as follows:

Module 1, teacher Fabiana Zama

Basic concepts: accuracy, precision, truncation and round-off errors, condition numbers, operation counts, convergence and stability.
Matlab programming environment.
Solution to nonlinear equations.
Numerical Linear Algebra: direct methods for linear systems.

Module 2, teacher Serena Morigi

Linear least squares.
Curve fitting.
Numerical differentiation and integration.
Numerical solution of Differential Equations.

Readings/Bibliography

Uri M. Ascher, Chen Greif, A first Course in Numerical Methods, SIAM 2011

S. C. Chapra, R. P. Canale Numerical Methods for Engineers, Sixth Edition, Mc Graw Hill.

Teaching methods

The course involves theoretical lectures and practical Matlab exercises carried out during the laboratory classes.

Assessment methods

Assessment is based on a single practical exam in the laboratory for both the two modules. The test includes 40% theoretical questions and 60% programming exercises based on the templates explained during the lectures.

Teaching tools

Lectures, lecture slides, exercises, laboratory activities with Matlab and preparatory quizzes on the learning platform IoL.

Office hours

See the website of Fabiana Zama

See the website of Serena Morigi

SDGs

This teaching activity contributes to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals of the UN 2030 Agenda.