Representation of linear PDEs with spatial integral terms as Partial Integral Equations

Abstract: In this paper, we present the Partial Integral Equation (PIE) representation of linear Partial Differential Equations (PDEs) in one spatial dimension, where the PDE has spatial integral terms appearing in the dynamics and the boundary conditions. The PIE representation is obtained by performing a change of variable where every PDE state is replaced by its highest, well-defined derivative using the Fundamental Theorem of Calculus to obtain a new equation (a PIE). We show that this conversion from PDE representation to PIE representation can be written in terms of explicit maps from the PDE parameters to PIE parameters. Lastly, we present numerical examples to demonstrate the application of the PIE representation by performing stability analysis of PDEs via convex optimization methods.