<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><!DOCTYPE article  PUBLIC "-//NLM//DTD Journal Publishing DTD v3.0 20080202//EN" "http://dtd.nlm.nih.gov/publishing/3.0/journalpublishing3.dtd"><article xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" dtd-version="3.0" xml:lang="en" article-type="research article"><front><journal-meta><journal-id journal-id-type="publisher-id">WJM</journal-id><journal-title-group><journal-title>World Journal of Mechanics</journal-title></journal-title-group><issn pub-type="epub">2160-049X</issn><publisher><publisher-name>Scientific Research Publishing</publisher-name></publisher></journal-meta><article-meta><article-id pub-id-type="doi">10.4236/wjm.2014.42006</article-id><article-id pub-id-type="publisher-id">WJM-42981</article-id><article-categories><subj-group subj-group-type="heading"><subject>Articles</subject></subj-group><subj-group subj-group-type="Discipline-v2"><subject>Engineering</subject><subject> Physics&amp;Mathematics</subject></subj-group></article-categories><title-group><article-title>
 
 
  A New Class of Vector Pad&#233; Approximants in the Asymptotic Numerical Method: Application in Nonlinear 2D Elasticity
 
</article-title></title-group><contrib-group><contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>bdellah</surname><given-names>Hamdaoui</given-names></name><xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1"><sup>1</sup></xref><xref ref-type="corresp" rid="cor1"><sup>*</sup></xref></contrib><contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Rachida</surname><given-names>Hihi</given-names></name><xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1"><sup>1</sup></xref><xref ref-type="corresp" rid="cor1"><sup>*</sup></xref></contrib><contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Bouazza</surname><given-names>Braikat</given-names></name><xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1"><sup>1</sup></xref><xref ref-type="corresp" rid="cor1"><sup>*</sup></xref></contrib><contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Noureddine</surname><given-names>Tounsi</given-names></name><xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1"><sup>1</sup></xref><xref ref-type="corresp" rid="cor1"><sup>*</sup></xref></contrib><contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Noureddine</surname><given-names>Damil</given-names></name><xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1"><sup>1</sup></xref><xref ref-type="corresp" rid="cor1"><sup>*</sup></xref></contrib></contrib-group><aff id="aff1"><addr-line>Laboratoire d’Ingénierie et Matériaux LIMAT, Faculté des Sciences Ben M’Sik, 
Université Hassan II Mohammedia - Casablanca, Casablanca, Maroc</addr-line></aff><author-notes><corresp id="cor1">* E-mail:<email>abdellah.hamdaoui@univh2m.ac.ma(BH)</email>;<email>hihi_rachida@hotmail.com(RH)</email>;<email>b.braikat@gmail.com(BB)</email>;<email>no_tounsi@live.fr(NT)</email>;<email>noureddine.damil@univh2m.ma(ND)</email>;</corresp></author-notes><pub-date pub-type="epub"><day>18</day><month>02</month><year>2014</year></pub-date><volume>04</volume><issue>02</issue><fpage>44</fpage><lpage>53</lpage><permissions><copyright-statement>&#169; Copyright  2014 by authors and Scientific Research Publishing Inc. </copyright-statement><copyright-year>2014</copyright-year><license><license-p>This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution International License (CC BY). http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/</license-p></license></permissions><abstract><p>
 
 
   The Asymptotic Numerical Method (ANM) is a family of algorithms for path following problems, where each step is based on the computation of truncated vector series [1]. The Vector Pad&#233; approximants were introduced in the ANM to improve the domain of validity of vector series and to reduce the number of steps needed to obtain the entire solution path [1,2]. In this paper and in the framework of the ANM, we define and build a new type of Vector Pad&#233; approximant from a truncated vector series by extending the definition of the Pad&#233; approximant of a scalar series without any orthonormalization procedure. By this way, we define a new class of Vector Pad&#233; approximants which can be used to extend the domain of validity in the ANM algorithms. There is a connection between this type of Vector Pad&#233; approximant and Vector Pad&#233; type approximant introduced in [3, 4]. We show also that the Vector Pad&#233; approximants introduced in the previous works [1,2], are special cases of this class. Applications in 2D nonlinear elasticity are presented. 
 
</p></abstract><kwd-group><kwd>Vector Pad&#233; Approximants; Asymptotic Numerical Method; Nonlinear Elasticity</kwd></kwd-group></article-meta></front><body><sec id="s1"><title>1. Introduction</title><p>Many engineering problems can be reduced to solving nonlinear problems depending on a control parameter λ. These problems are written in general form:</p><disp-formula id="scirp.42981-formula59205"><label>(1)</label><graphic position="anchor" xlink:href="htmlimages\2-4900255x\2ac2863c-cc2d-4326-94d4-01cbec665579.png"  xlink:type="simple"/></disp-formula><p>where <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\636784ea-4c7d-4cf7-aa0a-d7fc9b8edf80.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> is the unknown vector of<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\d41bf289-7d77-489e-9993-3440ee8849c4.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>, <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\04c15238-5e26-4d7c-a193-ec6b8d966d4e.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>is a vector function with values in <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\ab801e61-6b87-4a1b-9e94-49ce8b138de5.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> assumed to be sufficiently regular with respect to its arguments <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\ae935e58-d26d-4a12-90fa-2b6eaa5ef6fb.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> and<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\01a01da8-7e20-4dc9-a0b9-dcbff8edb1dd.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>.</p><p>The Asymptotic Numerical Method (ANM) [1,2] is a family of algorithms for path following problems. The principle is simply to expand the unknown <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\e801b2ee-4bc0-404f-83fd-efec624e67cf.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> of the nonlinear problem (1) in power series with respect to a path parameter “a”:</p><disp-formula id="scirp.42981-formula59206"><label>(2)</label><graphic position="anchor" xlink:href="htmlimages\2-4900255x\244f3101-e3bd-4cee-9f41-95cd77c06bb2.png"  xlink:type="simple"/></disp-formula><p>where<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\7d6dcaf2-9f40-4d02-9584-ad5eda8959b1.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>, <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\375a125e-d69c-4fde-827f-06eaf4898e97.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>,</p><p><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\b91e67c9-a682-4dd5-842f-8e21e5c0137e.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>is a known and regular solution corresponding to <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\8c9d5b98-4ea0-44b0-a4fd-ba7d019ebfbb.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> and <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\215a3d74-4515-4c8b-9aa7-aea88224e406.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> is the truncated order of the series. The interval of validity <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\67c71ffa-dbca-40d7-9970-8f241e57add8.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> is deduced from the computation of the truncated vector series (2). So, the step lengths are computed a posteriori by the following estimation of<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\50a9f85e-d9dc-4b44-813f-963602a215df.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>, which have been proposed in [<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="scirp.42981-ref1">1</xref>]:</p><disp-formula id="scirp.42981-formula59207"><label>(3)</label><graphic position="anchor" xlink:href="htmlimages\2-4900255x\0eccf19e-bb26-40c8-a830-ba3a988a6d4d.png"  xlink:type="simple"/></disp-formula><p>where <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\60b798d5-17c0-4b3a-8a5b-b006be9433d4.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> is a given tolerance parameter and <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\cf83545b-1185-4362-9621-2c6cb0cb02e5.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> indicates a standard norm. The step lengths depend on the definition of the path parameter “a” and we must add an auxiliary equation to define this parameter [<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="scirp.42981-ref1">1</xref>]. By using the evaluation of the series at<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\bf50a59b-cbcf-4267-91f8-53e03eec2aae.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>, we obtain a new starting point and define, in this way, the ANM continuation procedure. This continuation method has been proved to be an efficient method to compute the solution of nonlinear partial differential equations [1,2].</p><p>The Vector Pad&#233; approximants were introduced in the ANM to improve the domain of validity <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\2bf77025-04a5-4c4d-a679-389bf0c55dde.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> of vector series (polynomial) representation [<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="scirp.42981-ref2">2</xref>]. In order to extend the domain of validity of the representation (2) and to reduce the number of steps needed to obtain the entire solution path, in [<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="scirp.42981-ref2">2</xref>], a rational approximation, called Pad&#233; approximant [5-8], has been used. In [<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="scirp.42981-ref2">2</xref>], the representation (2) has been rewritten in an orthonormal basis built up from the basis <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\f9c602be-de66-410b-9c54-83486ff7d6cc.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> generated by the ANM and a strategy to use Vector Pad&#233; approximants has been applied. This has been used in various fields [1,9]. But this strategy had the disadvantage to generate a great number of poles inside the domain of validity. An alternative, presented in [<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="scirp.42981-ref1">1</xref>], is to use Vector Pad&#233; approximants with a common denominator, called simultaneous Pad&#233; approximants [7,8]. The orthonormalization can be done according to the procedure of Gram-Schmidt or modified Gram-Schmidt or iterative Gram-Schmidt [<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="scirp.42981-ref1">1</xref>], or as it will be presented in this paper for the first time by using the Householder method.</p><p>Many applications in structural mechanics (for instance nonlinear elasticity and contact), [1,2] have established that Vector Pad&#233; approximants with a common denominator can reduce the number of poles and permit to obtain more regular solutions. By using this rational representation in a continuation procedure, the number of steps to obtain the entire solution path has been reduced [<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="scirp.42981-ref10">10</xref>]. The Vector Pad&#233; approximants have also been considered to accelerate the convergence of high order iterative algorithms for linear or nonlinear [<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="scirp.42981-ref1">1</xref>] problems.</p><p>The aim of this paper is to discuss some techniques to define new Vector Pad&#233; approximants in the framework of the ANM and to show that their utilization can improve clearly the classical Vector Pad&#233; representation.</p><p>In the second part, we propose a new type of Vector Pad&#233; approximant which can be directly defined from the vector series (1) by extending the definition of the Pad&#233; approximant of a scalar series [5,8] and without any orthonormalization procedure. By this way, we show that a family of Vector Pad&#233; approximants is possible. There is a connection between this type of Vector Pad&#233; approximant and Vector Pad&#233; type introduced in [3,4]. We show also that the Vector Pad&#233; approximant introduced in the previous works [1,2] are special cases of this class.</p><p>All the approximants are applied on some examples from nonlinear two-dimensional elasticity which are presented and analyzed in the third part. Among this family of Vector Pad&#233; approximant, we show on numerical examples, that there are some approximants which increase the range of validity <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\3b87ae03-cc23-4c73-b793-e4467ce63988.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> and thus reduce the number of steps necessary for the calculation of solutions. To illustrate this, three numerical tests in two-dimensional nonlinear elasticity are considered: traction of an elastic plate, bending of an elastic plate and bending of an elastic arch. These structures are discretized by the conventional finite element method using a CST element [<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="scirp.42981-ref11">11</xref>].</p></sec><sec id="s2"><title>2. Definition and Construction of a New Type of Vector Pad&#233; Approximant</title><p>In this Section, we will give the definition and the construction of a new type of vector Pad&#233; approximants.</p><sec id="s2_1"><title>2.1. Definition</title><p>A Vector Pad&#233; approximant of a vector function <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\5c07028a-4e59-4111-92a9-bd467dcb38bb.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> from <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\165bb9c8-e94e-4670-967e-cc6143aac389.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> to <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\1cf50ff8-f962-4efa-aae6-4594ce3de9c2.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> is a “Vector fraction” whose Taylor expansion at a given order, coincides with the vector functions one. More precisely, the Vector Pad&#233; approximant <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\c909ce10-e63e-4de1-a9aa-6550cb86c2f1.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> is the ”vector rational fraction” of the form:</p><disp-formula id="scirp.42981-formula59208"><label>(4)</label><graphic position="anchor" xlink:href="htmlimages\2-4900255x\528b304a-7420-4184-95a8-d8848581ec62.png"  xlink:type="simple"/></disp-formula><p>where <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\a5029e70-1a81-4443-9e73-33ec6a8dabbc.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> matrices are of dimension <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\5a60903f-3576-42cb-853f-8d30d4c3fe3e.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> and <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\59a85432-4eca-43c9-b188-82e251b6d2b1.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> vectors are in<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\bfbd6c08-3079-46a7-9bab-bb486daeed67.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>. This ”vector rational fraction” <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\9ecdb531-5a3e-4914-a59b-fc3e77677d33.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>admits the same Taylor expansion than the vector function <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\d4996ec2-1732-4052-a61a-eba52a282079.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> up to order <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\bdca6c43-9bb9-451d-ae49-1a03839fad22.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> (<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\1d03104c-2e19-4e45-9c25-e31394ce017c.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>are integers).</p><p>The aim of this paper is to define Vector Pad&#233; approximant <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\aab68eb8-a45d-4742-b058-883ad2f0d3dd.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> following the same ideas as in the scalar case:</p><disp-formula id="scirp.42981-formula59209"><label>(5)</label><graphic position="anchor" xlink:href="htmlimages\2-4900255x\0f8b76ce-7d22-4212-b8d1-88563c09bd15.png"  xlink:type="simple"/></disp-formula><p>where <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\c6613729-15c2-41a0-9d42-278c678529ef.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> is a vector whose components are polynomials of degree <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\c3047a6c-440f-408b-af71-c6fc22ce8e38.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> and <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\c4037e4f-0078-487c-ba61-bd51151f2c6e.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> is a matrix whose elements are polynomials of degree<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\44702286-ba60-4dd1-aa10-48be23570f51.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>, <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\98c926dd-3e71-46b8-ae5b-82554db00285.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>, which are as</p><disp-formula id="scirp.42981-formula59210"><label>(6)</label><graphic position="anchor" xlink:href="htmlimages\2-4900255x\dffb84dd-a5f7-424b-a18a-f4b656eab37b.png"  xlink:type="simple"/></disp-formula><p>The vector ”polynomial”<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\f1727a64-0ceb-4064-8a4f-d74ae7a404c1.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>, and the matrix ”polynomial” <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\eae6b3ef-26eb-431c-8f1d-5af229b5385a.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>are derived from the vector function <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\6136b822-ab60-4703-bbea-0b50dc569494.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> from the condition:</p><disp-formula id="scirp.42981-formula59211"><label>(7)</label><graphic position="anchor" xlink:href="htmlimages\2-4900255x\8a76e95e-7357-4ee1-b891-13831e2d9660.png"  xlink:type="simple"/></disp-formula><p>In Appendix 1, we show that the <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\edf01fdd-1aee-42fd-ac55-667adc1fc8ad.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> matrices<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\56155587-1b40-4a7f-8a54-8a1ffa6ca29a.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>, <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\ab88b86f-f943-494d-b63a-29910c35e0c6.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>in (6) are solutions of the following linear system:</p><disp-formula id="scirp.42981-formula59212"><label>(8)</label><graphic position="anchor" xlink:href="htmlimages\2-4900255x\5f7badcd-8fb7-48a0-a049-5c36cc9e2492.png"  xlink:type="simple"/></disp-formula><p>and the <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\f9c4add3-0528-4e18-9738-bdb4a94f8ebb.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> vectors<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\db138a21-cf9a-4f68-8084-256d6483d8ca.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>, <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\e5582c0f-efb8-4bd8-b021-9910911a2a0e.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>, given in (6) are derived from the following relationships:</p><disp-formula id="scirp.42981-formula59213"><label>(9)</label><graphic position="anchor" xlink:href="htmlimages\2-4900255x\f99b0b8b-334b-474c-ba70-7f314ffb5b51.png"  xlink:type="simple"/></disp-formula><p>The system (8) can be written in the following matrix form (see Appendix 1)</p><disp-formula id="scirp.42981-formula59214"><label>(10)</label><graphic position="anchor" xlink:href="htmlimages\2-4900255x\2c5f7757-05c3-4b6f-a50f-ceb87a912897.png"  xlink:type="simple"/></disp-formula><p>It may be noted that if the terms of the series in Equations (6) are scalar, we find exactly the system defining the scalar Pad&#233; approximant in [<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="scirp.42981-ref8">8</xref>]. Note also that in the case where the matrix <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\670e06ac-5a75-4b98-b3c7-32c2053cf1bd.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> is of the form<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\e82f4ee1-0cd7-4954-8c86-fa8649c5f651.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>, where <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\685ab814-81dd-431d-a13a-662b50d3b951.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> is a polynomial of degree <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\09b1a755-5cd2-491e-994c-15bd329b3e4f.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> and <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\790e3b28-ecaf-4598-808d-676023feb010.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> is the unit matrix, we find the definition of Vector Pad&#233; type approximant <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\43a7aa04-737c-4cd9-bdc4-49dbe82e0e60.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> introduced in [3,4]. The new definition also allows finding Vector Pad&#233; approximants classically used in the ANM algorithm [<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="scirp.42981-ref1">1</xref>]. Recall that classically in the ANM algorithm, the Pad&#233; approximant associated with the vector series is constructed by replacing each scalar series components by a scalar Pad&#233; approximant, or by replacing the scalar polynomials, which appear after orthonormalization of the vector basis, by scalar Pad&#233; approximants with the same denominator [<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="scirp.42981-ref1">1</xref>]. These cases will be found in the following paragraph.</p></sec><sec id="s2_2"><title>2.2. Construction of Some Vector Pad&#233; Approximants</title><p>The construction of the new type of Vector Pad&#233; approximants requires the solution of the matrix system (10) verified by the matrices<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\525e7b64-d438-4105-b4db-c10f696428e7.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>. This system allows, in general, an infinite number of solutions. Indeed, a family of solutions of (10) can be obtained in the following general form:</p><p><img src="htmlimages\2-4900255x\2bb2059d-2f4b-4031-9746-2e0cb6229d42.png" /></p><p>where <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\87d34fe2-7373-4872-b77e-8fb64c391fb8.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> is any rectangular matrix having <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\3a192120-4ec3-4697-8609-bac0480645b5.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula></p><p>rows and <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\a953e0b1-e454-4ba6-9c68-8ae035625717.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> columns. We easily check that the product of the matrix <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\00b451a6-f0a2-4274-974c-06ee05f8a7af.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> by the formula of the matrix solution <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\d52bb8c8-6bda-42bd-9298-58fdfee26b4b.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> gives the matrix<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\e938e87b-2cd7-4a7c-98ce-7cedbf1d347e.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>. Note that in this family of solutions, the matrix <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\f276d497-361b-4ad7-9556-64d88ba5b4ea.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> is invertible because the row vectors of <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\f3468b82-c79a-4a50-9c6f-2d99a9b0ed94.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> are assumed linearly independent.</p><p>Note that in the scalar case, the matrix <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\68d498a9-7095-482d-8d9a-2dd4750f5c0c.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> in the system (10) is a square matrix. Therefore, the system (10) has a unique solution if the matrix <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\4b364ac5-dada-4d44-981d-0d43d6d25a60.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> is invertible.</p><p>According to the definition of the Vector Pad&#233; approximant (4), the construction of this new type of Vector Pad&#233; approximant usually requires high computational cost due to the fact that for each value of a, we need to calculate the inverse of the matrix <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\72c2c49f-8586-4561-8def-f2767199deda.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> defining the Vector Pad&#233; approximant in (4). However, there are situations in which we can explicitly calculate the inverse of the matrix <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\15fe19e3-3455-41bf-8207-b6bcc8186d40.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> for all values of a.</p><p>For example, if we look for matrices, <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\08efda91-9bc3-4427-bd57-a8e9f252aa53.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>, <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\128f207b-a61c-4a30-8520-26dbe78b7a6c.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>in diagonal form, <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\8572e281-0f37-43d9-887d-1512aba9ab90.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>, where <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\96df7d20-9ed0-4984-a87c-57842f9b616f.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> are real, then we find that the components of the Vector Pad&#233; approximant <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\4249ecb6-f73b-4dee-881d-b5f674c73b35.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> are given by the following formula (see Appendix 2 ):</p><disp-formula id="scirp.42981-formula59215"><label>(11)</label><graphic position="anchor" xlink:href="htmlimages\2-4900255x\73fca93a-b634-42f8-90f2-fdb8a2db0331.png"  xlink:type="simple"/></disp-formula><p>It corresponds to the Vector Pad&#233; approximant that would be built from the scalar Pad&#233; approximant corresponding to each component of the vector <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\e6f906c4-ed6d-4dcf-9b9a-26169e5f5189.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> as it was pointed in ANM framework [<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="scirp.42981-ref1">1</xref>].</p><p>Another choice of the form of the matrices<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\102af521-b369-4244-94ca-25776367e25f.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>, <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\9d8b5400-6ae7-4b62-a309-2b16f6d908ea.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>, based initially on the orthonormalisation of vectors<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\6fa923b1-277b-4588-99d1-1e132ee13e09.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>, <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\4fbf0235-94b2-4609-9ab6-081900cde38d.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>(see Appendix 2), leads to the following Vector Pad&#233; approximants:</p><disp-formula id="scirp.42981-formula59216"><label>(12)</label><graphic position="anchor" xlink:href="htmlimages\2-4900255x\6b2e78a8-485f-4d21-be5b-bc830c304ef6.png"  xlink:type="simple"/></disp-formula><p>where the polynomial <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\a96ab280-8cdf-4995-884a-d58ad9f72b73.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> in (12) depends on the coefficients<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\e9f2f797-87ae-47e1-8669-c3e9888be3d6.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>, which are calculated from the orthonormalization procedures of the vectors<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\8bde4e43-9a7d-479f-9236-789b12e14b7f.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>,<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\ac6b5db0-fbea-4a2c-bc7d-cc2545687bcb.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>:</p><p><img src="htmlimages\2-4900255x\7f75d9fe-f00a-4402-9451-f706399996cb.png" /></p><p>In Appendix 2, we show that the scalars <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\b73d7bea-b41b-4662-bc6a-2834c8c0b46b.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> are arbitrary and so we can use the new expression of the Vector Pad&#233; approximant (12) giving the coefficients <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\66bef9b2-3f0f-479a-bfde-4debfc433986.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> any values. Note that for<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\f1588823-da93-49d3-9c5a-4cd706734f40.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>, the Vector Pad&#233; approximant reduces to:</p><disp-formula id="scirp.42981-formula59217"><label>(13)</label><graphic position="anchor" xlink:href="htmlimages\2-4900255x\15eb86f7-43f8-4144-9014-36528074e732.png"  xlink:type="simple"/></disp-formula><p>We thus find the Vector Pad&#233; approximant (13) introduced in the work of the ANM algorithms [1,2] where the coefficients <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\3b178923-b401-4137-8c49-ddad72efbe32.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> are determined from a Gram-Schmidt orthonormalisation of the vectors <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\527473ae-065c-40ce-b9a0-20b66d091980.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> of the series (2).</p><p>Therefore, we constructed a new family of Vector Pad&#233; approximants given by Equation (12) or (13) without any condition on the coefficients<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\ac21ff51-ad5f-42d7-8894-fbac8ea148d3.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>. In the following numerical applications, we demonstrate that there are choices for these coefficients for which the range of validity is larger than in the cases conventionally used.</p></sec><sec id="s2_3"><title>2.3. Continuation Procedure</title><p>The representations (2) or (13) permit to compute only a part of the solution path of the nonlinear problem (1). To obtain the entire solution path, Cochelin [<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="scirp.42981-ref1">1</xref>] proposed a continuation procedure for the vector series representation (2) based on the criterion (3) which gives an evaluation of the domain of validity of the polynomial representation. Once the determination of the domain of validity is done, by the computation of the radius of validity <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\953e382b-2c78-4836-81ad-edea7094b619.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> for a fixed tolerance ε , the vector series representation (2) can be applied in a continuation procedure to obtain the entire solution path step by step.</p><p>To introduce the vector Pad&#233; representation in a continuation algorithm, Elhage et al. [<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="scirp.42981-ref10">10</xref>] proposed another criterion defined by:</p><p><img src="htmlimages\2-4900255x\60991d3f-5deb-4834-94c1-32c916e55c0c.png" /></p><p>which gives an evaluation of the radius of validity <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\ad52645f-4142-4725-9dba-7d69e2d044b7.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> of the rational representation for a fixed tolerance<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\2b4ce185-dbd4-42c4-8369-ac3ec9e8a6b2.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>, by using a dichotomy process. We shall use the same criterion to introduce the proposed Vector Pad&#233; representations (13) in a continuation process.</p></sec></sec><sec id="s3"><title>3. Numerical Applications</title><p>The numerical robustness of the approximate solutions obtained by the vector series representation (2) and by the new family of Vector Pad&#233; representation (12) is discussed on the basis of tests emanating from plane stress two-dimensional nonlinear elasticity analysis. The studied structure is discretized using a classical CST finite element [<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="scirp.42981-ref11">11</xref>] and is subjected to a loading proportional to a control parameter<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\057b0a67-3fc5-463a-ae1f-7c540acc72e9.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>. We seek the solution of this problem by representing the control parameter <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\d2bc3852-e7d7-477d-91df-aab62ff63bf7.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> as a function of displacement. The quality of ANM steps is evaluated from load-deflection curves and residual deflection curves and the main criterion is the step lengths.</p><p>More precisely, we plot the load-displacement curves with three ANM steps. Three calculations are carried out:</p><p>• the first calculation will be made using ANM continuation with a series representation (2)• the second calculation will be made using ANM continuation with classical Vector Pad&#233; representation (12), the coefficients <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\0b855f87-f697-407f-b887-54543625cf74.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> are derived from an orthonormalization procedure, here by the method of Householder• the third calculation will be made using ANM continuation with the proposed Vector Pad&#233; representation (12) but this time the coefficients <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\fc6aaeb9-1f25-4a27-accb-82f8fc9074af.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> are arbitrary.</p><p>The performance of the three calculations are compared in terms of the step lengths of the three ANM continuations, the quality of the solutions is given by the residual curves.</p><sec id="s3_1"><title>3.1. Bending of a Plate</title><p>The first numerical example concerns the bending of a plate; see <xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig1">Figure 1</xref>, the plate has a length of 100 mm and a width of 10 mm. The plate is clamped on the left side and subjected to a bending force proportional to a control parameter <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\ce84877f-5e7c-470f-8a8d-6e24c46661ed.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> on the other end. Material characteristics are: Young’s modulus E = 10,000 MPa, Poisson’s ratio<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\514bc393-d40d-4fd7-a215-145c486b2829.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>. The plate was discretized using 41 nodes along the length and six nodes along the width; a total of 400 elements and 492 degrees of freedom is used.</p><p>In <xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig1">Figure 1</xref>, we represent the response curves obtained by the ANM continuation giving the loading parameter <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\a0750214-d528-47aa-a57a-9abf73820449.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> as a function of the displacement <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\78e23262-04b5-4f95-a8bd-0ef9e5eb74af.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> at the node 246. We plotted the load-displacement curves using three ANM steps for the three calculations and for three choices of the truncation order: 10, 15 and 20. In <xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig2">Figure 2</xref>, for the three calculations, we represent the residual curve giving the logarithm of the norm of the residual <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\fe642dd9-e9bf-4cb7-84a5-b9e98829b163.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> as a function of displacement at node 246.</p><p>The first calculation, ANM continuation with series representation (2), at orders 10, 15 and 20, shows that the step length increases with the truncation order. Three steps at order 20, allow obtaining the curve until a displacement equal to 62 mm with accuracy of the order of 10<sup>−5</sup>. This result is classical in the works of ANM algorithm [<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="scirp.42981-ref1">1</xref>], the increase of the order increases the step length.</p><p>The second calculation, ANM continuation with classical Pad&#233; representation, at orders 10, 15 and 20, shows</p><p>that the step lengths are greater than the first calculation using series representation. Three steps with ANM Pad&#233; representation at order 10 allows obtaining the curve until a displacement equal to 73 mm with a good quality as can be seen on the residual curve of <xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig2">Figure 2</xref>.</p><p>For this second calculation, the results obtained by using the Householder orthonormalisation method are compared with those obtained by using Gram-Schmidt orthonormalization in <xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig3">Figure 3</xref>. In all our numerical experiments, the Householder orthonormalization method seems more effective than Gram-Schmidt orthonormalizations procedure. We will use in the following, the method of Householder.</p><p>The third calculation, ANM continuation with the proposed Vector Pad&#233; representation (12) the coefficients being arbitrary, is performed by using the orders 10, 15 and 20. We carried out the calculations by slightly modifying the values of the coefficients<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\b9f64372-1177-4172-9738-e31a8cdc6d1c.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>, calculated by the method of Householder for each order. All the values of the coefficients were increased by a value equal to 0.1.</p><p>This first test was very successful. Indeed, it shows that an arbitrary choice of the coefficients <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\0e7fbb62-64c2-440b-9a14-ed3a6b478c5f.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> can give good results as can be seen in the response curve in <xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig1">Figure 1</xref> and the residual curve in <xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig2">Figure 2</xref>. Three steps with the proposed ANM Pad&#233; representation at order 10 allows obtaining the curve until a displacement equal to 78 mm with a good quality as can be seen on the residual curve of <xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig2">Figure 2</xref>.</p></sec><sec id="s3_2"><title>3.2. Bending of an Elastic Arch</title><p>For the second numerical experiment, we chose the example of the bending of an elastic arch, see <xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig4">Figure 4</xref>, of radius R = 2540 mm, width of 15 mm and an angle of 0:1 rad. The arch is clamped at both ends and is subjected to a bending force proportional to a control parameter <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\2075b157-8589-46f1-9291-6ba3a663c9bb.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> at its middle. Material characteristics are: Young’s modulus E = 10,000 MPa, Poisson’s ratio<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\e074394c-a29a-4789-b608-da2624ba4753.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>. The arch</p><p>was discretized using 41 nodes along the radius and five nodes along the width; a total of 320 elements and 410 degrees of freedom is used.</p><p>We represent in <xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig4">Figure 4</xref>, the response curve obtained by ANM algorithms giving the loading parameter <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\bced4b2e-5875-41cf-a601-e5f09ebe5a10.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> as a function of displacement u at node 105. Residual curves are given in <xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig5">Figure 5</xref>.</p><p>The results obtained by respectively the first calculation, ANM continuation by using series representation (2) at orders 10, 15 and 20, the second calculation, ANM continuation by using classical vector Pad&#233; approximation at orders 10, 15 and 20, the coefficients <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\91f0d74c-72b5-4170-94b9-682e22fb9435.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> are derived from the Householder orthonormalisation method, and the third calculation, ANM continuation using the proposed Vector Pad&#233; representation (12) at orders 10, 15 and 20, the values of the coefficients <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\1e4a27ac-467b-495b-851b-7d48555669e6.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> were increased by a value equal to 0.1 are reported on Figures 4 and 5.</p><p>Three steps with the proposed ANM Pad&#233; representation at order 20 allows obtaining the curve until a displacement equal to −72 mm with a good quality as can be seen on the residual curve of <xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig5">Figure 5</xref>. While three steps with the classical ANM Pad&#233; representation at order 20 allows obtaining the curve until a displacement equal to −10 mm and the three steps with the ANM with the series representation at order 20 allows obtaining the curve until a displacement equal to −8 mm, see <xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig5">Figure 5</xref>.</p><p>This second numerical test confirms that an arbitrary choice of the coefficients <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\3cc2090f-b1a8-4602-b23a-810b32ddd4d7.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> can give very good results as we can see from the response curve in <xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig4">Figure 4</xref> and the residual curve of <xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig5">Figure 5</xref>.</p></sec><sec id="s3_3"><title>3.3. Traction of an Elastic Plate</title><p>For the third numerical experiment, we consider the traction of an elastic plate; see <xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig6">Figure 6</xref>, the plate has a length of 100 mm and a width of 25 mm. The plate is clamped on the left side and subjected to a tensile force, on the other end, proportional to a control parameter<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\ae6cf08c-7a7e-4d56-9797-a82d5c368182.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>. Material characteristics are: Young’s modulus E = 10,000 MPa, Poisson’s ratio<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\fa726655-afbc-4078-af81-78e9139c068f.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>. The plate was discretized using 41 nodes along the length and six nodes along the width; a total of 400 elements and 492 degrees of freedom is used.</p><p>We represent in <xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig6">Figure 6</xref>, the response curves obtained using three methods of ANM continuation at orders 10, 15 and 20 used in the previous cases. The residual curves are given in <xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig7">Figure 7</xref>. This test confirms the results obtained in the first two numerical tests. In particular, this example also shows that an arbitrary choice of the coefficients <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\d39f2423-a332-42b7-bbe8-45063871e5bb.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> can give very good results as can be seen on the response curve, <xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig6">Figure 6</xref>, and the residual curve, <xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig7">Figure 7</xref>.</p></sec></sec><sec id="s4"><title>4. Conclusion</title><p>In this work, we introduced a new way to build directly a new type of Vector Pad&#233; approximants from a truncated vector series in the framework of the asymptotic numerical method. We have shown that the vector Pad&#233; approximants introduced in references [1,2], are a special case of this class. The proposed Vector Pad&#233; approximants can be determined without any orthonormalisation procedure which saves the time computation for problems with a large number of degrees of freedom. In</p><p>fact, the orthonormalization procedure is time consuming because of the very large number of scalar products to be evaluated. It remains to explore different choices of this new class of Vector Pad&#233; approximants.</p></sec><sec id="s5"><title>REFERENCES</title></sec><sec id="s6"><title>Appendix 1: Equations Satisfied by the Matrices <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\e2896e41-11c7-480e-927f-34325120b796.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> and Vectors <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\cc13a4e3-2b7d-48ea-85ac-07b12755c9c6.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula></title><p>To determine the equations satisfied by the matrices<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\e00fd9bc-4e48-44bf-be94-23d1bcc485e0.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>, <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\9c30ddd9-fe88-49c1-b7ca-51ec8bb2b1a2.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>, and vectors <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\1295bc85-fdb1-4a67-8935-c3c209b6a3cd.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\4f86f2c1-b87a-4cb2-80d0-4ffc681a5962.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> we start from the truncated series of order <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\82a2881d-fc51-40c4-b4ae-22e980aca935.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> of the vector function <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\4470c96a-823d-4f48-bebe-abab7ef42ef0.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula></p><disp-formula id="scirp.42981-formula59218"><label>(14)</label><graphic position="anchor" xlink:href="htmlimages\2-4900255x\da5b48fa-67d0-40a4-9700-d5a2b7cea6c7.png"  xlink:type="simple"/></disp-formula><p>Injecting (6) and (14) into (7) yields:</p><disp-formula id="scirp.42981-formula59219"><label>(15)</label><graphic position="anchor" xlink:href="htmlimages\2-4900255x\1de08878-da9c-44b4-8828-9ceed038b678.png"  xlink:type="simple"/></disp-formula><p>which can be written as:</p><disp-formula id="scirp.42981-formula59220"><label>(16)</label><graphic position="anchor" xlink:href="htmlimages\2-4900255x\7eb4a020-5736-463f-bfbe-8ade4607d81e.png"  xlink:type="simple"/></disp-formula><p>where</p><disp-formula id="scirp.42981-formula59221"><label>(17)</label><graphic position="anchor" xlink:href="htmlimages\2-4900255x\132c30a5-6dc1-4b85-94ab-309a7590096e.png"  xlink:type="simple"/></disp-formula><disp-formula id="scirp.42981-formula59222"><label>(18)</label><graphic position="anchor" xlink:href="htmlimages\2-4900255x\3f53de96-404b-4f18-a7b1-f11196b803f6.png"  xlink:type="simple"/></disp-formula><p>By identifying the terms corresponding to coefficients <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\d10a8087-4395-4762-b90a-b2b60170f4f8.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> (16) we get the first <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\c4c31e67-b9f3-424b-99d4-13d18d1a82f6.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> equations verified by the terms Bk  :</p><disp-formula id="scirp.42981-formula59223"><label>(19)</label><graphic position="anchor" xlink:href="htmlimages\2-4900255x\d412f21e-a5fd-4849-b204-517d2e7f2068.png"  xlink:type="simple"/></disp-formula><p>and that the last L equations are</p><disp-formula id="scirp.42981-formula59224"><label>(20)</label><graphic position="anchor" xlink:href="htmlimages\2-4900255x\b0885ef8-a92e-445b-98ee-e4944bdaf9e4.png"  xlink:type="simple"/></disp-formula><p>As<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\5f53579b-e619-441d-9f8a-2974f36f9d91.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>, the matrices<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\9fc20e25-d053-4eff-a9f6-d5893121bddf.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>, <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\a0d160d1-928e-4691-a27c-b6b4a93273c1.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>should verify, as in the scalar case, the following system of equations:</p><p><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\6f78820d-4337-4cd2-b4fb-809ab74ce9b3.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>  21)</p><p>which are written in matrix form</p><disp-formula id="scirp.42981-formula59225"><label>(22)</label><graphic position="anchor" xlink:href="htmlimages\2-4900255x\d9b7a371-d5ea-409f-8245-e2eb464e6a07.png"  xlink:type="simple"/></disp-formula><p>where:</p><disp-formula id="scirp.42981-formula59226"><label>(23)</label><graphic position="anchor" xlink:href="htmlimages\2-4900255x\2ad82430-ccfd-43d0-b8b6-258a0d6013f5.png"  xlink:type="simple"/></disp-formula><disp-formula id="scirp.42981-formula59227"><label>(24)</label><graphic position="anchor" xlink:href="htmlimages\2-4900255x\ae261127-831e-4d1e-b83d-f37a63b37690.png"  xlink:type="simple"/></disp-formula></sec><sec id="s7"><title>Appendix 2: Construction of Some Vector Pad&#233; Approximant</title>A2.1: A First Vector Pad&#233; Approximant Used in the ANM Algorithm<p>We will look in this part to particular solutions<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\812f6e97-da2e-430f-bbdd-4a88c5c44010.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>, <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\75c1618a-00b6-42ff-815d-e885143faa3b.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>, of the system (10) or (22) in the form of diagonal matrices:</p><disp-formula id="scirp.42981-formula59228"><label>(25)</label><graphic position="anchor" xlink:href="htmlimages\2-4900255x\2769f870-d475-485c-aec7-198132b2e62b.png"  xlink:type="simple"/></disp-formula><p>where <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\f5e48e18-65b3-4b39-bd56-20918fda7d51.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> are the diagonal components of <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\25ef561e-3cd0-4b2c-8302-794950d24fa2.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> matrices.</p><p>If, for any j, <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\4efae3e6-4990-4618-a0dc-28d984a61f80.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>, we denote by <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\0f73fc9c-264e-423a-a448-f77c98b3569c.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> the components of the vector<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\773a9e9b-9d8d-4a4f-bcfa-82faf749d956.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>, then the components of the vector <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\c044dfb5-cd9f-4f74-952d-ecae6b8f0e23.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> are</p><p><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\16996560-3b38-442c-a8ed-b3bb5daf3474.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>. Therefore if we replace in the system (8) or (16), each vector<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\06ac4bb2-fb6e-41aa-8d0b-4af017b479c6.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>,<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\5600f25a-a5c4-4533-adb2-c9b5b6c65e6c.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> , <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\e9c0a73e-ac86-4a15-9cda-a3f89024548e.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>, by its components, we deduce, for each i, <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\dc2dcd8a-078c-4998-add7-d20e2c172e08.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>, that <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\7a760ff4-6e41-401e-8ab1-24f8c45a1f6e.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> satisfy a system of the same form.</p><p>If the system has a solution, then by (9), the<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\a7af5e77-eba5-4c70-ac70-0a13f8caa7e0.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>, component of the vector<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\be8913db-c7b4-45c2-a363-1ae4b0e64051.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>, is given by:</p><disp-formula id="scirp.42981-formula59229"><label>(26)</label><graphic position="anchor" xlink:href="htmlimages\2-4900255x\448af4e7-6178-4539-95f6-550c1d7c236d.png"  xlink:type="simple"/></disp-formula><p>As the matrix <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\36c627f2-906f-4441-b570-3df158f80b2c.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> is diagonal and its diagonal elements are given by<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\0912313c-7609-4475-adab-ebd027dc4054.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>, <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\9ff43300-96c3-4401-898c-9c9b989f9fca.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>, we conclude from (4) that the component of the Vector Pad&#233; approximant <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\12edc867-4f6f-428b-8447-356feb36c4af.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> is given by the formula (11).</p>A2.2: A Second Vector Pad&#233; Approximant Used in the ANM<p>With the aim of building a Vector Pad&#233; approximant such that all its components are rational fractions with the same denominator, we denote by <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\0954d2b3-7c17-436c-9e69-dd8f74ff2c4a.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> a vector of <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\1a0de177-4ae2-4518-af13-1c8218b2d4be.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> of the form:</p><disp-formula id="scirp.42981-formula59230"><label>(27)</label><graphic position="anchor" xlink:href="htmlimages\2-4900255x\f05958e0-c406-4053-87f2-ae2626c703c8.png"  xlink:type="simple"/></disp-formula><p>where<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\5e341e6a-3d18-486e-baef-a720c36f4d9b.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>, <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\9f2800a3-bf1a-4878-b24e-01d5666453ad.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>are arbitrary scalars given in <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\efa1e26b-0a4c-40ed-8033-22349c54e9fd.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> and <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\946a74f6-075c-4449-a7a5-4dc20c4b6d11.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> are vectors built from an orthonormalization procedure of the vectors <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\d167e28c-5aa6-4ed4-a01c-f89166d7a8df.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> such as</p><disp-formula id="scirp.42981-formula59231"><label>(28)</label><graphic position="anchor" xlink:href="htmlimages\2-4900255x\6be07f04-ccf4-449e-a870-2ff419e5d734.png"  xlink:type="simple"/></disp-formula><p>Using this vector <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\fceaf11a-6a99-4278-8156-942235239f04.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> (27), we look for the matrices<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\665f316f-49eb-4da3-8440-37ccebdad35f.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>, <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\02050176-b35b-40a5-a3eb-dfdee0c0afc6.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>in the form <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\217f355c-6b91-4a83-b491-3b5196c021c9.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> where the vectors<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\22679e07-7fb8-44fe-b42b-cd3e10d99dbb.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>, are determined in order to satisfy the system (8). By replacing, in the system (8), the matrix <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\28f02ca5-43fc-40b3-a17f-09a0852929af.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> by <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\85b47fc4-6eda-487f-b76c-9934843a9708.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> and letting <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\484e8388-94a6-4730-be1a-22691afeb8ee.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> we obtain by using (28), the following equations:</p><disp-formula id="scirp.42981-formula59232"><label>(29)</label><graphic position="anchor" xlink:href="htmlimages\2-4900255x\6824a1b3-750d-4cd3-99f0-e135d724f28d.png"  xlink:type="simple"/></disp-formula><p>These Equation (29) show that the vectors<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\fcaf76f4-0354-4123-840f-49a06dbb59e5.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>,<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\1ff0b483-1352-4de6-8efe-5122a7534989.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> are given by:</p><disp-formula id="scirp.42981-formula59233"><label>(30)</label><graphic position="anchor" xlink:href="htmlimages\2-4900255x\16f52737-c055-425a-b249-d72404964247.png"  xlink:type="simple"/></disp-formula><p>Using Equation (9), we deduce that</p><disp-formula id="scirp.42981-formula59234"><label>(31)</label><graphic position="anchor" xlink:href="htmlimages\2-4900255x\85d2b375-6734-4a8d-9d86-0dd8d4d9a5d5.png"  xlink:type="simple"/></disp-formula><p>It is obvious that if the matrix</p><disp-formula id="scirp.42981-formula59235"><label>(32)</label><graphic position="anchor" xlink:href="htmlimages\2-4900255x\66016963-b369-49fc-908a-384b9fa9e13c.png"  xlink:type="simple"/></disp-formula><p>is invertible, then its inverse is of the form</p><p><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\9ed9b5ec-ea54-4884-930a-b1f8785bcc1a.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>where <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\79808f9c-2219-4b4d-8cc2-5a66925af3c0.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> is a real number. If this is the case, x  satisfies</p><disp-formula id="scirp.42981-formula59236"><label>(33)</label><graphic position="anchor" xlink:href="htmlimages\2-4900255x\03d13776-9f7b-40ce-8770-1b935dc7d420.png"  xlink:type="simple"/></disp-formula><p>Which is equivalent to</p><disp-formula id="scirp.42981-formula59237"><label>(34)</label><graphic position="anchor" xlink:href="htmlimages\2-4900255x\3582fdfa-c1d6-45d1-8714-1533eb17e456.png"  xlink:type="simple"/></disp-formula><p>As a result,</p><disp-formula id="scirp.42981-formula59238"><label>(35)</label><graphic position="anchor" xlink:href="htmlimages\2-4900255x\3577ca92-48dc-4db5-a5d4-822e77652bc0.png"  xlink:type="simple"/></disp-formula><p>By choosing <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\591bff1d-833a-41a8-861e-21927b966d85.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> and posing</p><disp-formula id="scirp.42981-formula59239"><label>(36)</label><graphic position="anchor" xlink:href="htmlimages\2-4900255x\faecc939-4c40-4c6e-bcda-e50d78f0f811.png"  xlink:type="simple"/></disp-formula><p>equality (4) is written</p><p><img src="htmlimages\2-4900255x\c7a974e7-fdbd-406a-a687-a6d313758c5f.png" /></p><p>(37)</p><p>To express the Vector Pad&#233; approximant <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\9e4031ec-15d2-4cc8-8c9f-f41198deb34b.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> as a function of the vectors <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\493d8287-34e6-4f61-8847-11197073831a.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>, we see that if we set</p><p><img src="htmlimages\2-4900255x\ad510636-f583-4abe-82f5-560c255ccc50.png" /></p><p>and <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\f27f44bd-912d-46a0-bf9a-065883169f98.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> (38)</p><p>then, taking into account the equality (29), we obtain</p><disp-formula id="scirp.42981-formula59240"><label>(39)</label><graphic position="anchor" xlink:href="htmlimages\2-4900255x\266b42d7-534b-4976-b513-b9c39ee97e50.png"  xlink:type="simple"/></disp-formula><p>Hence<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\d53e3eda-2a32-4d68-9da2-8be40fb2b7dc.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>. As Equation (29) is equivalent to</p><disp-formula id="scirp.42981-formula59241"><label>(40)</label><graphic position="anchor" xlink:href="htmlimages\2-4900255x\6e07bf71-7ae8-4783-ae8a-47eea2ae2d5a.png"  xlink:type="simple"/></disp-formula><p>it is concluded that:</p><disp-formula id="scirp.42981-formula59242"><label>(41)</label><graphic position="anchor" xlink:href="htmlimages\2-4900255x\acf3dff7-9d6c-4b7f-9648-8d3cdf8fc7fc.png"  xlink:type="simple"/></disp-formula><p>Using this Equation (41) in the expression of the Vector Pad&#233; approximant <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\d536fc33-ec9d-44b7-bbed-acaca36e1edf.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> (37), we find the Equation (12) which generalizes the formula of Vector Pad&#233; approximant.</p>A2.3: Generalization of (12)<p>We show in this section that in the definition of the Vector Pad&#233; approximant (37), the scalar <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\bfc678e1-f599-4cb4-87c2-29ef33dc53ea.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> can be chosen arbitrarily in<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\5414c8b9-f562-4280-94f6-6149e15d3015.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>. More precisely, for <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\7da2ceda-7878-47ee-a036-253046470176.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> arbitrary but fixed, there are real numbers <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\480b9199-6c76-43fc-a25f-aa62a0fd51b3.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> such that the vector <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\9eacbe18-a806-4678-a307-9bcc9338374e.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula> defined in (27) satisfies the equalities (36). Indeed, for<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\3f534ff9-af0b-4cf7-9c47-8b580c0761c9.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>, we have</p><p><img src="htmlimages\2-4900255x\792fa085-3d15-4b69-8ed5-70fb67795f47.png" /></p><p>Therefore, it suffices to take<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\9b9bbbc4-e4f7-4684-85b7-215bc7d5bfe0.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>, so that equality (36) is satisfied. In general, for any<inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="tmlimages\2-4900255x\48bbfe7b-c716-4672-8200-e3137bcfb803.png" xlink:type="simple"/></inline-formula>, we have:</p><p><img src="htmlimages\2-4900255x\a28536ed-13e2-420e-8f61-7914d0b70c55.png" /></p><p>Hence, if one chooses</p><p><img src="htmlimages\2-4900255x\073674d9-4c38-496b-8781-0e75745eba69.png" /></p><p>then we have the equality (12) for all m . 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