Iranian Journal of Mathematical Chemistry, Vol. 3, No.2, September 2012, pp. 195220 IJMC
Fourth-order numerical solution of a fractional PDE
with the nonlinear source term in the electroanalytical
chemistry
M. ABBASZADE AND A. MOHEBBI
1
Department of Applied Mathematics, Faculty of Mathematical Science, University of
Kashan, Kashan, Iran
(Received May 13, 2012)
ABSTRACT
The aim of this paper is to study the high order difference scheme for the solution of a
fractional partial differential equation (PDE) in the electroanalytical chemistry. The space
fractional derivative is described in the Riemann-Liouville sense. In the proposed scheme we
discretize the space derivative with a fourth-order compact scheme and use the Grunwald-
Letnikov discretization of the Riemann-Liouville derivative to obtain a fully discrete implicit
scheme and analyze the solvability, stability and convergence of proposed scheme using the
Fourier method. The convergence order of method is O(τ + ). Numerical examples
demonstrate the theoretical results and high accuracy of proposed scheme.
Keywords: Electroanalytical chemistry, reaction-sub-diffusion, compact finite difference,
Fourier analysis, solvability, unconditional stability, convergence.
1. INTRODUCTION
In recent years there has been a growing interest in the field of fractional calculus [6, 16,
22, 26]. Fractional differential equations have attracted increasing attention because they
have applications in various fields of science and engineering [4]. Many phenomena in
fluid mechanics, viscoelasticity, chemistry, physics, finance and other sciences can be
described very successfully by models using mathematical tools from fractional calculus,
i.e., the theory of derivatives and integrals of fractional order. Some of the most
applications are given in the book of Oldham and Spanier [19] and the papers of Metzler
and Klafter [15], Bagley and Trovik [1]. Many considerable works on the theoretical
1 Corresponding author: Email : a_ [email protected]
196 M. ABBASZADE AND A. MOHEBBI
analysis [5, 25] have been carried on, but analytic solutions of most fractional differential
equations cannot be obtained explicitly. So many authors have resorted to numerical
solution strategies based on convergence and stability analysis[4, 10, 13, 24]. Liu has
carried on so many work on the finite difference method of fractional differential equations
[14, 11, 12]. There are several definitions of a fractional derivative of order 0 [22, 19].
The two most commonly used are the Riemann-Liouville and Caputo. The difference
between two definitions is in the order of evaluation [18]. We start with recalling the
essentials of the fractional calculus. The fractional calculus is a name for the theory of
integrals and derivatives of arbitrary order, which unifies and generalizes the notions of
integer-order differentiation and n-fold integration. We give some basic definitions and
properties of the fractional calculus theory.
Definition 1. For and x 0, a real function )(xf , is said to be in the space C if
there exists a real number p such that 1( ) ( ),pf x x f x where 1( ) (0, ),f x C and
for m it is said to be in the space mC if .mf C
Definition 2. The Riemann-Liouville fractional integral operator of order 0 for a
function f (x) C , ≥ -1 is defined as
1 0
0
1( ) ( ) ( ) , 0, 0, ( ) ( ).
( )
x
J f x x t f t dt x J f x f x
Also we have the following properties
• ( ) ( ),
• ( ) ( ),
( 1)• .
( 1)
J J f x J f x
J J f x J J f x
J x x
Definition 3. If m be the smallest integer that exceeds , the Caputo Riemann-Liouville
fractional derivatives operator of order 1 is defined as, respectively,
,,)(
,1,)(
)()(
1
)(0
1
0
mdx
xfd
mmmdttxdx
xfdtx
mxfD
m
m
x
m
mm
t
C (1.1)
Numerical solution of a fractional PDE in the electroanalytical chemistry 197
.,)(
,1,)()()(
1
)( 0
1
0
mdx
xfd
mmmtdtftxmdx
d
xfD
m
m
xm
m
m
t (1.2)
Due mainly to the works of Oldham and his co-authors [7, 8, 9, 20, 21], electrochemistry is
one of those fields in which fractional-order integrals and derivatives have a strong position
and bring practical results. Although the idea of using a half-order fractional integral of
current, 0Dt-1/2
i(t), can be found also in the works of other authors, it was the paper by
Oldham [20] which definitely opened a new direction in the methods of electrochemistry
called semi-integral electroanalysis. One of the important subjects for study in
electrochemistry in the determination of the concentration of analyzed electroactive species
near the electrode surface. The method suggested by Oldham and Spanier [21] allows,
under certain conditions, replacement of a problem for the diffusion equation by a
relationship on the boundary (electrode surface). Based on this idea, Old ham [20]
suggested the utilization in experiment the characteristec described by the function
1
20( ) ( )tm t D i t
which is the fractional integral of the current , as the observed function, whose values
can be obtained by measurements. Then the subject of main interest, the surface
concentration Cs(t) of the electroactive species, can be evaluated as
),()( 2
1
00 tiDkCtC ts
(1.3)
where k is a certain constant described below, and C0 is the uniform concentration of the
electroactive species throughout the electrolytic medium at the initial equilibrium situation
characterized by a constant potential, at which no electrochemical reaction of the
considered species in possible. The relationship (1.3) was obtained by considering the
following problem for a classical diffusion equation [9]
AFn
ti
t
txCD
CxCCC
txx
txCD
t
txC
x
)(),(
,)0,(,)0,(
,0,0,),(),(
0
00
2
2
(1.4)
198 M. ABBASZADE AND A. MOHEBBI
Where D is diffusion coefficient. A is the electrode area, F is Faraday's constant and
is the number of electrons involved in the reaction, the constant in (1.3) is expressed as
.1
DAFn
k
Instead of the classical diffusion equation (1.4), it is possible to consider the fractional
order diffusion equation [23]
,),(),(
2
21
0
x
txCD
t
txCt (1.5)
where 0 1 . In this paper, we consider the generalized form of the Eq. (1.5) with the
nonlinear source term and on a bounded domain with the following form
,0,0
),,,),((),(),(),(
22
2
1
1
0
TtLx
txtxuftxux
txuD
t
txut
(1.6)
The boundary and initial conditions are
1 2(0, ) ( ), ( , ) ( ), 0 ,u t t u L t t t T (1.7)
( ,0) ( ), 0 .u x x x L (1.8)
where 1 20 1, 0, 0 and the source term 1( , , ) [0, ].f u x t C L The symbol
1
0 tD is the Riemann-Liouville fractional derivative operator and is defined as
1
0 1
0
1 ( , )( , ) ,
( ) ( )
t
t
u xD u x t d
t t
Where (.) is the gamma function. Also, let ( , , )f u x t satisfies the Lipschitz condition
with respect to :
uuuutxuftxuf ~,,~),,~(),,(
where is the Lipschitz constant. The aim of this paper is to propose a numerical scheme
of order 4( )h O for the solution of Eq. (1.6). We apply a fourth order difference scheme
for discretizing the spatial derivative and Grunwald-Letnikov discretization for the
Riemann-Liouville fractional derivative. We will discuss the stability of proposed method
is a by the Fourier method and show that the compact finite difference scheme converges
Numerical solution of a fractional PDE in the electroanalytical chemistry 199
with the spatial accuracy of fourth order using matrix analysis. The outline of this paper is
as follows. In Section 2, we introduce the derivation of new method for the solution of Eq.
(1.6). This scheme is based on approximating the time derivative of mentioned equation by
a scheme of order ( )O and spatial derivative with a fourth order compact finite difference
scheme. In this section we obtain the matrix form of the proposed method and show the
solvability of it. In Section 3 we prove the unconditional stability property of method. In
Section 4 we present the convergence of method and show that the convergence order is 4( )h O . In Section 5 we report the numerical experiments of solving Eq. (1.1) with the
method developed in this paper for several test problems. Finally concluding remarks are
drawn in Section 6.
2. DERIVATION OF METHOD
For positive integer numbers and , let h=L/M denotes the step size of spatial
variable, , and τ = T / N denotes the step size of time variable, . So we define
, 0,1,2,..., ,
, 0,1,2,..., .
j
k
x jh j M
t k k N
The exact and approximate solutions at the point ( , )j kx t are denoted by k
ju and k
jU
respectively. We first state the fourth-order compact scheme of second derivative in the
following lemma.
Lemma 1([4]). The fourth-order compact difference operator with maintaining three point
stencil to approximate the xxu is
2 2 44 6
2 42 2
1( ),
1 2401
12
k k
kxj
j jx
u uu h h
x xh
O (2.1)
in which 2
1 1( 2 ).x j j j ju u u u
Now using the relationship between the Grunwald-Letnikov formula and the Riemann-
Liouville fractional derivative, we can write
200 M. ABBASZADE AND A. MOHEBBI
[ / ]
1 (1 )
0 10
1( ) ( ) ( ),
tp
t k
k
D f t f t k
O (2.2)
Where (1 )
k
k are the coefficients of the generating function, that is,
( )
0
( , ) k
k
k
z z
We will discuss the case for ( , ) (1 )z z and thus p=1. In
this case the coefficients are ( ) ( )
0
( 1) ( 1)1 ( 1) ( 1)
!
k k
k
kand
k k
for
1k and can be evaluated recursively,
.1,1
1,1 )(
1
)()(
0
k
kkk
(2.3)
Now, we put
(1 )1
( 1) , 0,1, , .l
l l l kl
So 0 1 . If we consider Eq. (1.6)-(1.8) at the point ( , )j kx t , we can write
).,),,((),(),(
)(),(
22
2
11
0 kjkjkjkj
tkj
txtxuftxux
txuD
t
txu
(2.4)
Since ( , , )f u x t has the first order continuous derivative it follows that
.)(),),,((),),,((11
Otxtxuftxtxuf kjkjkjkj
Also, we can write
,)(),(),(),( 1
Otxutxu
t
txu kjkjkj
,)(),(),(
12
11 4
2
2
2
2
2 hOh
txu
x
txu kjxkj
x
,)(),(),(
2
1
2
0
1
2
2
1
0 Ox
txu
x
txuD
kjk
ll
kj
t
Numerical solution of a fractional PDE in the electroanalytical chemistry 201
1 1
0
0
( , ) ( , ) ( ),k
t j k l j k
l
D u x t u x t O
From Eq. (2.4) and above results, we can obtain
2 2 2
1 1
0
2 2 1
2
0
1 11 ( , ) 1 ( , ) ( , )
12 12
1 11 ( , ) 1
12 12
k
x j k x j k l x j k l
l
kk k
l x j k l x j j
l
u x t u x t u x t
u x t f R
(2.5)
where, 1 1 2 22, ,
h
and
2 2 4
1
0
1( ) 1 ( ) .
12
kk
j x l
l
R O O h
(2.6)
By omitting the small term k
jR , the implicit compact difference scheme for (1.6)-
(1.8) is given as follows:
2 2 12 1 22 1 1 2 1 1
2 2 2 1
1 2
2 2
0
0 1 2
1 11 1
12 12 12 12
1 11 1 ,
12 12
( ), 1,2, , 1,
( ), ( ), 1,2, , .
k k
x j x j
k kk l k l k
l x j l x j x j
l l
j j
k k
k M k
U U
U U f
U x j M
U t U t k N
(2.7)
Now we denote the solution vector of order at kt t by
1 1( ) ( , , )k k k T
k Mt U U U U . We can give the matrix-vector form of (2.7) by
202 M. ABBASZADE AND A. MOHEBBI
1
0
, 1,2,3, , ,k
k l k
l
l
A B k N
U U F (2.8)
in which
2 1 2 1 2 1
1 5 11 , 1 2 , 1 ,
12 6 12tri
A
2 21 1 2 1
5, 2 , ,
12 6 12l ltri
B
1 1 2 1 2 1 2
1 5 11 , 1 , 1 ,
12 6 12k tri
B
2 1
2 1 0 1 1 2 1 0
2 1
2
2 1
2
2 1
2 1 1 1 2 1
1 1 11 1 1
12 12 12
11
12
11
12
1 1 11 1 1
12 12 12
k k k
x
k
x
k
k
x M
k k k
M x M M
U f U
f
f
U f U
F ,
where 1 2 3 ( 1) ( 1)[ ] M Mtri a a a
denotes a ( 1) ( 1)M M tri-diagonal matrix. Each row of
this matrix contains the values 1 2,a a and 3a on its sub-diagonal, diagonal and super
diagonal, respectively. We can state the solvability of proposed scheme in the following
theorem.
Theorem 1. The compact difference scheme (2.7) has a unique solution.
Proof. For any possible values of 1 2, and the coefficient matrix is strictly diagonal
dominant so it is nonsingular. Consequently the difference scheme (2.7) has a unique
solution.
Numerical solution of a fractional PDE in the electroanalytical chemistry 203
3. STABILITY OF PROPOSED METHOD
In the section we will analyze the stability of the finite difference scheme (2.7) by using the
Fourier analysis. For x = ( x1, x2, …, x-1)T -1 , we define a discrete 2l -norm by
211
1
2 )(2
M
jj
k xhx
. Let kjU
~ be the approximate solution of (2.7) and define
,,...,1,0,...,,1,0,~
MjNkUU kj
kj
kj
with corresponding vector
1 2 1, , , .T
k k k k
M
We obtain the following round off error equation
,1,11
,~
12
11
12
11
1212
11)
1212
1(1
112
2
22
2
21
12211121
2212
NkMj
ff kj
kjx
lkj
k
lxl
k
l
lkjxl
kjx
kjx
(3.1)
with
0 0.k k
M
in which ),,~
(~
111
kj
kj
kj txUff We define the grid function
,2 2
( )
0 0 .2 2
k
j j j
k
h hx x x
x
h hx or L x L
We can expand the ( )k x in a Fourier series [5]
2 /( ) ( ) , 1,2, , ,k i lx L
k
l
x d l e k N
204 M. ABBASZADE AND A. MOHEBBI
where
2 /
0
1( ) ( ) .
Lk i lx L
kd l x e dxL
Also we introduce the following norm
.)(2
1
0
22
1
21
12
Lk
M
j
k
j
k dxxh
By applying the Parseval equality
,)()(2
0
2
l
k
Lk lddxx
we obtain
.)(22
2
l
k
k ld (3.2)
Now we can suppose that the solution of equation (3.1) has the following form
,k i jh
j kd e
where 2 l
L
. Substituting the above expression into (3.1) and putting h , we
obtain
k
l
kj
kjxklk ffdd
2
21
~
12
11
1
(3.3)
where
2 2 221 2
2 2 21 21 1 1 2
2 221 2
1 2 2cos 4 sin cos ,
3 2 2 3 2 3 3
1 2 2ˆ cos 4 sin cos ,
3 2 2 3 2 3 3
24 sin cos .
2 3 2 3
(3.4)
Numerical solution of a fractional PDE in the electroanalytical chemistry 205
Lemma 2([14]). The coefficients l satisfy
0 1
0 1
(1) 1, 1, 0, 1,2, ,
(2) 0, 1, .
l
n
l l
l l
l
n N
Lemma 3. The coefficient in (3.4) satisfies in 1
0 3
.
Proof. Since 1 and 2 are positive so from (3.4) we can write
2 2 2
1 2 21 3 cos 12 sin cos 2 2,2 2 2
which gives 1
0 3.
Proposition 1. Suppose that (1 )kd k N are defined by (3.3), then we have
.,..,.2,1,)31( 0 NkdLd kk
Proof. We will use mathematical induction to complete the proof. For 1k , from (3.3)
and using Lemma 3 we can write
.)31(ˆ
12
11ˆ
1
~
12
11ˆ
1
~
12
11ˆ
1
00
02
0
0020
00201
dLdL
edLed
UULed
ffedd
ijijx
jjij
x
jjij
x
Now suppose
.1,...,2,1,)31( 0 kndLd n
n
206 M. ABBASZADE AND A. MOHEBBI
From (3.3) and induction hypothesis, we can write
1122
0
10 ~
12
11
1ˆ)31( k
j
k
j
ij
x
k
llk
k
k ffeLd
d
k
jkj
ijx
k
l
lkk UULeL
d ~
12
11
1)(ˆ)31( 2
1
1
0
10
ijk
ijx
k
l
lk edLeL
d1
21
1
10
12
11
1)(ˆ)31(
LLd k ))1(1(ˆ)31( 10
,)31( 0dL k
which completes the proof.
Theorem 2. The compact difference scheme (2.7) is unconditionally stable for any
0 1 .
Proof. Applying Proposition 1 and Parseval's equality, we obtain
,~
)31(
~
1
1
2003
203
2
0
1
1
320
1
1
221
1
21
1
22
22
22
M
jl
LT
l
LTjhiM
j
Lkk
M
jk
M
j
jhik
M
j
kj
l
k
l
kk
UUeeedehdLh
dhedhhUU
which means that the scheme (2.7) is unconditionally stable.
4. CONVERGENCE OF PROPOSED METHOD
In this section we prove that difference scheme (2.5) converges with the spatial accuracy of
fourth order. We need some lemmas and theorems that will be expressed.
Numerical solution of a fractional PDE in the electroanalytical chemistry 207
Lemma 4([2]). Regarding to the definitions of l , we have
1
0
1( ).
( )
k
l
l
O
On the basis (2.6) and Lemma 4, we have
2 2 4
1
0
2 4 1
1
0
2 4 2 4
1
1( ) 1 ( )
12
( ) ( )
1( ) ( ) ( ) ( ),
( )
kk
j x l
l
k
l
l
R h
h
h h
O O
O O
O O O O
(4.1)
so from (4.1), we can obtain
2 4( ),
1,2, , , 1,2, , ,
k
jR O h
k N j M
therefore, there is a positive constant 1C , such that [3]
2 4
1( ).k
jR C h (4.2)
Similar to the stability analysis in Section 3, we define the grid functions [3]
when , 1,2, , 1,2 2
( )
0 when 0 ,2 2
k
j j j
k
h he x x x j M
e x
h hx or L x L
and
208 M. ABBASZADE AND A. MOHEBBI
when , 1,2, , 1,2 2
( )
0 when 0 ,2 2
k
j j j
k
h hR x x x j M
R x
h hx or L x L
Thus ( )ke x and ( )kR x have the following Fourier series expansions
2
( ) ( ) , 0,1, , ,i lx
k Lk
l
e x l e k N
2
( ) ( ) , 0,1, , ,i lx
k Lk
l
R x l e k N
where
2
0
1( ) ( ) , 0,1, , ,
L i lx
k Lk l e x e dx k N
L
2
0
1( ) ( ) , 0,1, , .
L i lx
k Lk l R x e dx k N
L
Now, we define the following notations [3]
( , ) ,
1,2, , , 1,2, , ,
k k k k
j j k j j je u x t U u U
k N j M
(4.3)
1 2 1 1 2 1, , , , , , , , 1,2, , ,k k k k k k k k
M Me e e e R R R R k N
and introduce the following norms
11
1 222 2
21 0
( ) , 0,1, , ,
LMk k
j
j
e h e e x dx k N
(4.4)
Numerical solution of a fractional PDE in the electroanalytical chemistry 209
11
1 222 2
21 0
( ) , 0,1, , .
LMk k
j
j
R h R R x dx k N
(4.5)
Using the Parseval equality
L
l
xk Nkldxe
k
0
22,,,1,0,)()(
and
2 2
0
( ) ( ) , 0,1, , ,
L
k
k
l
R x dx l k N
we also have
2 2
2( ) , 0,1, , ,k
k
l
e l k N
(4.6)
2 2
2( ) , 0,1, , .k
k
l
R l k N
(4.7)
From (2.6), we obtain that
2 2 1 2
1
0
2 2 1
2
0
1 11 1
12 12
1 11 1
12 12
1,2, , , 1,2, , ,
kk k k l
x j x j l x j
l
kk l k k
l x j x j j
l
u u u
u f R
k N j M
(4.8)
where ( , )k
j j ku u x t and 1 1
1( , , )k k
j j j kf f u x t
. Subtracting (2.7) from (4.8), leads to
210 M. ABBASZADE AND A. MOHEBBI
2 2 1 2
1
0
2 2 1
2
0
0
0
1 11 1
12 12
1 11 1
12 12
0, 0, 1,2, , , , 1,2, , .
kk k k l
x j x j l x j
l
kk l k k
l x j x j j
l
k k
M j
e e e
e f R
e e e k N j M
(4.9)
Now we assume that k
je and k
jR are
( )
( )
,
,
k i jh
j k
k i jh
j k
e e
R e
where 2l
L
. Substituting the above relations into (4.9) results
2
2
1 1ˆ 1 ,
12
1,2, , .
kij k k
k l k l x j j k
l
e f f
k N
(4.10)
Notice that 0 0e and we have
0 0( ) 0.l
In addition, from the left hand equality of (4.5) and (4.2), we obtain [3]
2 4 2 4
1 12.kR MhC h C L h (4.11)
Also from convergence of the series in the right hand side of (4.7), there is a positive
constant 2C such that [3]
.,,2,1,)()( 1212 NknLCLCnkk (4.12)
Proposition 2. If ( 1,2, , )k k N be the solutions of equation (4.10), then there is a
positive constant 2C such that
2 11 3 , 1,2, , .k
k C k L k N
Numerical solution of a fractional PDE in the electroanalytical chemistry 211
Proof. We use the mathematical induction for proof. Firstly, from (4.10) and (4.12) we
have
.)31(331
1212121211
LCLCLCLC
Now, suppose that
1,,2,1,)31( 12 knLnC nn
From Lemma 2 and noticing that ˆ 0 we have,
.)31(
)31(ˆ
)31()1(
)31(ˆ)31()1(
)31(ˆ)31()1(
3ˆ)31()1(
12
11
1
ˆ)31()1(
12
1211
2
12112
1211
1
12
1211
1
0
12
122
1
2
0
12
k
kk
kk
kk
l
lk
k
l
lkk
k
jkjx
ij
k
l
lkk
k
LCk
CLL
LkC
CLLLkC
CLLLkC
LCLLkC
LCffe
LkC
Theorem 3. Suppose ( , )u x t is the exact solution of the Eq. (1.6), then the compact finite
difference scheme (2.7) is 2L -convergent with convergence order 4( )h O .
Proof. By considering Proposition 2 and noticing (4.6), (4.7) and (4.11), we can obtain
.)()31( 4321
2
12
2hekCLCRLkCe kLkk
212 M. ABBASZADE AND A. MOHEBBI
Since k T , we have
4
2
ke h C
in which
3
1 2 ,TC C T Le LC
and this completes the proof.
5. NUMERICAL RESULTS
In this section we present the numerical results of the new method on several test problems.
We tested the accuracy and stability of the method described in this paper by performing
the mentioned scheme for different values of h and . We performed our computations
using Matlab 7 software on a Pentium IV, 2800 MHz CPU machine with 2 Gbyte of
memory. We calculated the computational orders of the method presented in this article in
time variable with [17, 24]
1 2
(2 , )C -order log ,
( , )
L h
L h
and in space variables with [4]
2 2
(16 ,2 )C -order log .
( , )
L h
L h
5.1 Test problem 1.
We consider the fractional linear PDE
21
0 2
( , ) ( , )( , ) (1 ) ,x
t
u x t u x tD u x t e t
t x
(5.1)
with boundary and initial conditions
Numerical solution of a fractional PDE in the electroanalytical chemistry 213
1 1
0
0
, , 1,2, , ,
0, 1,2, , .
k k L
M
j
u t u e t k N
u j M
(5.2)
Then, the exact solution of (5.1), (5.2) is
1( , ) .xu x t e t
We solve this problem with the method presented in this article with several values of ,
and for at final time . The L error, 1C -order, 2C -order and CPU
time (s) of applied method are shown in Tables 1,2.
Table 1. Errors and computational orders obtained for test problem 1 with
CPU time(s)
1/10 _ _ 00.1570
1/20 1.0617 1.0179 00.2029
1/40 1.0522 1.0111 00.3599
1/80 1.0445 1.0070 01.0000
1/160 1.0382 1.0044 03.5620
1/320 1.0328 1.0029 12.9840
1/640 1.0281 1.0011 49.2340
Tables 1,2 show that the computational orders are close to theoretical orders, i.e the order of
method is ( )O in time variable and 4( )hO in space variables. Figure 1 shows the plots of
error and approximate solution of this test problem with 1/ 50, 1/100h and 0.55 .
214 M. ABBASZADE AND A. MOHEBBI
Figure 1. Error (Right Panel) and Approximate Solution (Left Panel) Obtained for Test
Problem 1 with 1/ 50, 1/100h and 0.55 .
Numerical solution of a fractional PDE in the electroanalytical chemistry 215
Table 2. Errors and computational orders obtained for test problem 1.
_ _
4.1652 4.0044
4.1167 3.9903
_ _
4.1402 3.9925
4.1227 4.0000
5.2 Test problem 2.
We consider the fractional PDE with the nonlinear source term
21
0 2
13 2 6 2
( , ) ( , )( , )
2( , ) cos( ) 2 ( 1) cos ( ) ,
(2 )
t
u x t u x tD u x t
t x
tu x t x t t x
with boundary and initial conditions
2 2
0
0
, cos( ), 1,2, , ,
0, 1,2, , .
k k
M
j
u t u t L k N
u j M
where, the exact solution is
2( , ) cos( ).u x t t x
216 M. ABBASZADE AND A. MOHEBBI
We solve this problem with the method presented in this article with several values of
,h and for 1L at final time 1T . The L error, 1C -order, 2C -order and CPU
time (s) of applied method are shown in Tables 3, 4.
Table 3. Errors and computational orders obtained for test problem 2 with .
CPU time(s)
1/10 _ _ 00.1250
1/20 0.9758 0.9682 00.1879
1/40 0.9880 0.9844 00.4070
1/80 0.9942 0.9923 00.8279
1/160 0.9974 0.9965 02.9059
1/320 0.9993 0.9988 10.5940
1/640 1.0008 1.0003 41.3440
Tables 3, 4 show that the computational orders are close to theoretical orders, i.e the order
of method is ( )O in time variable and 4( )hO in space variables. Figure 1 shows the plots
of error and approximate solution of this test problem with 1/ 32, 1/100h and
0.45
Numerical solution of a fractional PDE in the electroanalytical chemistry 217
Figure 2. Error (Right Panel) and Approximate Solution (Left Panel) Obtained for Test
Problem 2 with h = 1/32, = 1/100 and γ = 0.45.
218 M. ABBASZADE AND A. MOHEBBI
Table 4. Errors and computational orders obtained for test problem 2.
_ _
3.9094 3.8537
3.9942 3.9913
_ _
3.9540 3.9284
3.9716 3.9702
6. CONCLUSION
In this article, we constructed a compact difference scheme for the solution of a fractional
nonlinear PDE in the electroanalytical chemistry. This compact difference scheme has the
advantage of high accuracy and unconditional stability which we proved it using the
Fourier analysis. Also we show that the proposed compact finite difference scheme
converges with the spatial accuracy of fourth-order. Numerical results confirmed the
theoretical results of proposed method.
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