Abstract
In this paper, we consider a Cauchy problem of the time fractional diffusion equation (TFDE). Such problem is obtained from the classical diffusion equation by replacing the first-order time derivative by the Caputo fractional derivative of order α (0 < α ≤ 1). We show that the Cauchy problem of TFDE is severely ill-posed and further apply a new regularization method to solve it based on the solution given by the Fourier method. Convergence estimates in the interior and on the boundary of solution domain are obtained respectively under different a-priori bound assumptions for the exact solution and suitable choices of regularization parameters. Finally, numerical examples are given to show that the proposed numerical method is effective.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Benson, D.A., Wheatcraft, S.W., Meerschaert, M.M.: The fractional-order governing equation of lévy motion. Water Resour. Res. 36, 1413–1423 (2000)
Gorenflo, R., Mainardi, F.: Some recent advances in theory and simulation of fractional diffusion processes. J. Comput. Appl. Math. 229, 400–415 (2009)
Li, X.C., Xu, M.Y., Jiang, X.Y.: Homotopy perturbation method to time-fractional diffusion equation with a moving boundary condition. Appl. Math. Comput. 208, 434–439 (2009)
Lin, Y.M., Xu, C.J.: Finite difference/spectral approximations for the time-fractional diffusion equation. J. Comput. Phys. 225, 1533–1552 (2007)
Mainardi, F., Pagnini, G., Gorenflo, R.: Some aspects of fractional diffusion equations of single and distributed order. Appl. Math. Comput. 187, 295–305 (2007)
Mainardi, F., Pagnini, G., Saxena, R.K.: Fox h functions in fractional diffusion. J. Comput. Appl. Math. 178, 321–331 (2005)
Metzler, R., Klafter, J.: Boundary value problems for fractional diffusion equations. Phys. A 278, 107–125 (2000)
Metzler, R., Klafter, J.: The random walk’s guide to anomalous diffusion: a fractional dynamics approach. Phys. Rep. 339, 1–77 (2000)
Murio, D.A.: Stable numerical solution of a fractional-diffusion inverse heat conduction problem. Comput. Math. Appl. 53, 1492–1501 (2007)
Murio, D.A.: Implicit finite difference approximation for time fractional diffusion equations. Comput. Math. Appl. 56, 1138–1145 (2008)
Murio, D.A.: Time fractional IHCP with Caputo fractional derivatives. Comput. Math. Appl. 56, 2371–2381 (2008)
Murio, D.A.: Stable numerical evaluation of Grünwald–Letnikov fractional derivatives applied to a fractional ihcp. Inverse Probl. Sci. Eng. 17, 229–243 (2009)
Podlubny, I.: Fractional Differential Equations, vol. 198 of Mathematics in Science and Engineering. An Introduction to Fractional Derivatives, Fractional Differential Equations, to Methods of Their Solution and Some of Their Applications. Academic Press Inc., San Diego (1999)
Qian, Z., Fu, C.L.: Regularization strategies for a two-dimensional inverse heat conduction problem. Inverse Probl. 23, 1053–1068 (2007)
Scalas, E., Gorenflo, R., Mainardi, F.: Fractional calculus and continuous-time finance. Phys. A 284, 376–384 (2000)
Scherer, R., Kalla, S.L., Boyadjiev, L., Al-Saqabi, B.: Numerical treatment of fractional heat equations. Appl. Numer. Math. 58, 1212–1223 (2008)
Shen, S., Liu, F., Anh, V., Turner, I.: Detailed analysis of a conservative difference approximation for the time fractional diffusion equation. J. Appl. Math. Comput. 22, 1–19 (2006)
Sokolov, I.M., Klafter, J.: From diffusion to anomalous diffusion: a century after Einsteins Brownian motion. Chaos 15, 1–7 (2005)
Wyss, W.: The fractional diffusion equation. J. Math. Phys. 27, 2782–2785 (1986)
Zanette, D.H.: Macroscopic current in fractional anomalous diffusion. Phys. A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications 252, 159–164 (1998)
Zhang, P., Liu, F.: Implicit difference approximation for the time fractional diffusion equation. J. Appl. Math. Comput. 22, 87–99 (2006)
Zhang, Y., Meerschaert, M.M., Baeumer, B.: Particle tracking for time-fractional diffusion. Phys. Rev. E 78, 1–7 (2008)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Communicated by Yuesheng Xu and Hongqi Yang.
The work described in this paper was supported by the NSF of China (10971089), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (lzujbky-2010-k10) and the Funds for the Ph.D. academic newcomer award of Lanzhou University.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Zheng, G.H., Wei, T. A new regularization method for a Cauchy problem of the time fractional diffusion equation. Adv Comput Math 36, 377–398 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10444-011-9206-3
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10444-011-9206-3
Keywords
- Regularization method
- Cauchy problem
- Time fractional diffusion equation
- Caputo fractional derivative
- Fourier transform
- Convergence estimate
- Solute concentration