Journal of Applied Mathematics and Physics, 2014, 2, 1-7
Published Online January 2014 (http://www.scirp.org/journal/jamp)
http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/jamp.2014.21001
OPEN ACCESS JAMP
Higher-Order Numeric Solutions for Nonlinear Systems
Based on the Modified Decomposition Method
Junsheng Duan
School of Sciences, Shanghai Institute of Technology, Shanghai, China
Email: dua njssdu@sina.com, duanjs@sit.edu.cn
Received July 2013
ABSTRACT
Higher-order numeric solutions for nonlinear differential equations based on the Rach-Adomian-Meyers mod-
ified decomposition method are designed in this work. The presented one-step numeric algorithm has a high effi-
ciency due to the new, efficient algorithms of the Adomian polynomials, and it enables us to easily generate a
higher-order numeric scheme such as a 10th-order scheme, while for the Runge-Kutta method, there is no gen-
eral procedure to generate higher-order numeric solutions. Finally, the method is demonstrated by using the
Duffing equation and the pendulum equation.
KEYWORDS
Adomian Polynomials; Modified Decomposition Method; Adomian-Rach Theorem; Nonlinear Differential
Equations; Numeric Solution
1. Introduction
The Adomian decomposition method (ADM) [1-4] is a practical technology for solving linear or nonlinear or-
dinary differential equations, partial differential equations, integral equations, etc. The ADM provides an effi-
cient analytic approximate solution of nonlinear equations, which model real-world applications in engineering
and the applied sciences. The Adomian decomposition series has been shown to be equivalent to a Banach-space
analog of the Taylor series expansion about the initial solution component function, instead of the classic Taylor
series expansion about a constant that is the initial point [5].
The ADM decomposes the pre-existent, unique, analytic solution into a series
0
,
n
n
uu
=
= (1)
and decomposes the nonlinearity
()Nuf u=
into the series of the Adomian polynomials
0
() ,
n
n
fu A
=
=
(2)
where the Adomian polynomials
,
n
A
depend on the solution component functions
01
,,,,
n
uu u
and are de-
fined by the formula [3]
00
1() ,0.
!
nk
nk
nk
d
Afu n
nd
λ
λ
λ
==
= ≥
(3)
For convenient reference, we list the first five Adomian polynomials
00
( ).A fu=
1 01
'() .A fuu=
J. S. DUAN
OPEN ACCESS JAMP
2
3
1
3030 120
'( )''( )'''( ).
3!
u
Afuuf uuufu=++
2 24
(4)
212 1
40 401300
'( )''( )()'''( )( ).
2!2! 4!
uuu u
Afu ufuuufufu
= ++++
Some algorithms for symbolic programming have since been devised to efficiently generate the Adomian po-
lynomials quickly to high orders, such as in [5-10]. Rach’s Rule for the Adomian polynomials reads
() 0
1
( ),1.
nkk
nn
k
AfuC n
=
= ≥
(4)
where the coefficients
k
n
C
are the sums of all possible products of
k
components from
12 1
,,, ,
nk
uu u
−+
whose subscripts sum to
n
, divided by the factorial of the number of repeated subscripts [6].
New, more efficient algorithms and subroutines in MATHEMATICA for fast generation of the one-variable
and multi-variable Adomian polynomials to high orders have been provided in [8-10]. Here we list Corollary 3
algorithm [10] for the one-variable Adomian polynomials.
Corollary 3 algorithm [10]:
For
1n
,
1
.
nn
Cu=
(5)
For
2kn≤≤
,
1
11
0
1( 1).
nk
kk
nj nj
j
Cj uC
n
+ −−
=
= +
(6)
Then the Adomian polynomials are given by the formula
() 0
1
() .
nkk
nn
k
Af uC
=
=
The recurrence procedure for
k
n
C
does not involve the differentiation operator, only requires the operations
of addition and multiplication, which is eminently convenient for computer algebra systems.
In 1992, Rach, Adomian and Meyers [11] proposed a modified decomposition method based on the nonlinear
transformation of series by the Adomian-Rach theorem [12,13]:
If
0
0
()( ),
n
n
n
uxa xx
=
= −
then
0
0
(())( ),
n
n
n
fuxA xx
=
= −
(7)
where
01
(,,,)
nn n
A Aaaa=
are the Adomian polynomials in terms of the solution coefficients.
The Rach-Adomian-Meyers modified decomposition method [11] combines the power series solution and the
Ado mia n -Rach theorem [12,13], and has been efficiently applied to solve various nonlinear models [2,14-16].
In this work, higher-order numeric one-step methods are designed for solving nonlinear differential equations
based on the Rach-Adomian-Meyers modified decomposition method [11] and the previous research [17].
In the next section, we develop the numeric solution based on the modified decomposition method for nonli-
near second-order differential equations, and demonstrate its application.
2. Higher-Order Numeric Solutions Based on the Modified Decomposition Method
We consider the IVP for the second-order ODE
2
2()() ()()( )(),
d udu
ttuttf ugt
dt
dt
αβ γ
++ +=
(8)
000 1
(),'() ,utCutC= =
(9)
where
0
,t tT≤≤
(),(), (),()ttt gt
αβγ
are specified bounded, analytic functions, and
f
is an analytic nonli-
J. S. DUAN
OPEN ACCESS JAMP
3
near operator.
The modified decomposition method supposes an analytic solution
0
0
()().
m
m
m
uta t t
=
= −
(10)
Then the functions
(),(), (),()tttgt
αβγ
are decomposed into the Taylor expansions
0
0
()(),
m
m
m
t tt
αα
=
= −
(11)
0
0
()() ,
m
m
m
t tt
ββ
=
= −
(12)
0
0
()() ,
m
m
m
t tt
γγ
=
= −
(13)
0
0
()() ,
m
m
m
gtgt t
=
= −
(14)
and the analytic nonlinearity
()fu
is decomposed into the Taylor series
0
0
()( ),
m
m
m
fuA tt
=
= −
(15)
where the coefficients
01
(,,,)
nn n
A Aaaa=
are the Adomian polynomials in terms of the solution coefficients
k
a
due to the Adomian-Rach theorem [12,13].
Substituting Equation s (10)-(15) in Equations (8), regrouping terms, equating the coefficients of like powers
of 0
()
tt, and using the initial condition we obtain the recurrence scheme for the solution coefficients
001 1
,,aCa C= =
21
0
1[((1 ))],
( 1)(2)
m
mmlmllmllml
l
agm laaA
mm
α βγ
++− − −
=
=− +−+ +
++
(16)
where
0m
and the
01
(,,,)
nn n
A Aaaa=
are the Adomian polynomials in terms of the coefficients
k
a
for
the nonlinear function
()fu
.
In particular, if
()t
αα
=
,
()t
ββ
=
and
()t
γ
=
γ
are constants, then the recurrence formula becomes
001 1
,,aCa C= =
21
1[( 1)],0.
( 1)(2)
mmm mm
agmaaAm
mm
α βγ
++
=−+− −≥
++
(17)
Further if
()gt g=
is also a constant, then the recurrence formula becomes
001 1
,,aCa C= =
2 100
1[ ],
2
aga aA
αβγ
=−− −
21
1[( 1)],1.
( 1)(2)
mm mm
amaaAm
mm
α βγ
++
=+ ++≥
++
(18)
We denote the (n + 1)-term approximation of the solution as
1 0010
0
(,,,)() .
nm
nm
m
tt C Catt
φ
+
=
= −
(19)
We regard
001
,,tCC
as three parameters, and generate the numeric solutions by using the (n + 1)-term ap-
proximation
1n
φ
+
.
Partition the interval
0
[,]
N
tt
into
01 N
tt t<< <
. Here we consider an equal step-size partition with
1kk
ht t
= −
. The numeric solution generated by
1n
φ
+
is of order n. We denote the nth-order numeric solution
by
n
k
u
<>
, k = 0, 1, …, N. The one-step recurrence scheme is as follows:
000 1
,,
n
uCuC
<>
= =
J. S. DUAN
OPEN ACCESS JAMP
4
111 1
( 1)
112
(, ,,)
,
nn
kn kkkk
n
n km
kk m
m
utt uu
uuha h
φ
<> <>
+−− −
<> −
−−
=
=
=++
111 1
( 1)1
12
(, ,,)
,
k
n
knkk k
tt
nkm
km
m
d
utt uu
dt
uma h
φ
<>
+−− −
=
−−
=
=
=+

k = 1, 2, ···, N,
where
(0)
m
a
are the
m
a
in (16), and for k = 2, ···, N,
( 1)k
m
a
,
2,3, ,mn=
, are determined by a recursion
similar to (16) with
( 1)
01
kn
k
au
− <>
=
and
( 1)
11
kk
au
=
.
Example 1. Consider the IVP for the Duffing equation
23
2
d2sinsin 2,
d
uuut t
t−+ =−
(0)1, '(0)0.uu= =
The IVP has the exact solution
*
( )cos.ut t=
The Adomian polynomials for the nonlinearity
3
()ft u=
are
3
00
,Aa=
2
1 01
3,A aa=
22
20102
3 3,A aa aa= +
32
3101203
6 3,A aaaaaa=++
22 2
4120201304
3 3 63,Aaa aaaaa aa=++ +
.
The 8th-order numeric solutions on the interval [0,45] are plotted in Figure 1 with the step-size h = 0.5. The
numeric solution is suitable for a larger domain as the order increases.
Example 2. Consider the IVP for the pendulum equation
2
2
25sin0, (0)0,'(0)9.
du uu u
dt +===
The exact solution can be expressed in terms of a Jacobi elliptic function as
*9 81
()2arcsin(sn(5 ,)).
10 100
ut t=
The Adomian polynomials in terms of the decomposition coefficients
k
a
for the sinusoidal nonlinearity
sinu
are
Figure 1. The exact solution (solid line) and the 8th-order numeric solution on [0,45] with h = 0.5 (dots).
J. S. DUAN
OPEN ACCESS JAMP
5
00
sin ,Aa=
11 0
cos ,Aa a=
2
1
22 00
cossin ,
2
a
Aa aa= −
3
1
30 12030
cossincos ,
6
a
Aaaaaaa=−− −
.
Using the initial conditions, the coefficients of solution series are calculated to be
0123
45
0,9,0,75 /2,
0,795 / 4,.
aaaa
aa
==== −
= =
The 5-term, 10-term and 20-term approximations
5
( ,0,0,9),t
φ
10
( ,0,0,9),t
φ
20 (,0,0,9)t
φ
are plotted in
Figure 2. It is shown that the decomposition solution has a radius of convergence of more than 0.2.
The 5-term approximation
5 001
(, ,,)tt C C
φ
under the general initial conditions are calculated to be
23
5001 01000100
42
0 001
11
(,,,)()()sin()()cos()
26
1()sin()(cos()).
24
ttCCCCttttCCttC
ttCC C
φ γγ
γγ
=+ −−−−−
+− +
The 4th-order and 5th-order numeric solutions on the interval [0,6] with h = 0.1 are plotted in Figures 3 and 4,
respectively. The 9th-order numeric solutions on the interval [0,10] with
0.2h=
are plotted in F igure 5. We
observe that the higher-order numeric solutions permit a larger step-size, and enlarge the effective region.
Figure 2. The exact solution
( )
*
ut
(solid line), the 5-term approximation
,,,
5
(t009)
φ
(dot line), the 10-term appro-
ximation
,,,
10
(t009)
φ
(dash line) and the 20-term approximation
,,,
20
(t009)
φ
(dot-dash line).
Figure 3. The exact solution (solid line) and the 4th-order numeric solution on [0,6] with h = 0.1 (dots).
J. S. DUAN
OPEN ACCESS JAMP
6
Figure 4. The exact solution (solid line) and the 5th-order numeric solution on [0,6] with h = 0.1 (dots).
Figure 5. The exact solution (solid line) and the 9th-order numeric solution on [0,10] with h = 0.2 (dots).
3. Conclusions
We have developed higher-order numeric solutions for nonlinear differential equations based on the Rach-
Ado mia n -Meyers modified decomposition method. Due to the new, efficient algorithms of the Adomian poly-
nomials, the one-step numeric algorithm has a high efficiency, and permits us to easily generate a higher-order
numeric scheme such as a 10th-order scheme, while for the Runge-Kutta method, there is no general procedure
to generate higher-order numeric solutions. We demonstrated the presented numeric method by two nonlinear
physical models.
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the NNSF of China (11201308) and the Innovation Program of Shanghai Municipal
Education Commission (14ZZ161).
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