Method of Dominant Balance
The method of dominant balance is used to determine the asymptotic behavior of solutions to an ODE without solving it. The process is iterative in that the result obtained by performing the method once can be used as input when the method is repeated, to obtain as many terms in the asymptotic expansion as desired.
The process is as follows:
1. Assume that the asymptotic behavior has the form
-
- .
2. Make a clever guess as to which terms in the ODE may be negligible in the limit we are interested in.
3. Drop those terms and solve the resulting ODE.
4. Check that the solution is consistent with step 2. If this is the case, then we have the controlling factor of the asymptotic behavior. Otherwise, we need to try dropping different terms in step 2.
5. Repeat the process using our result as the first term of the solution.
Read more about this topic: Asymptotic Analysis
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