IOSR Journal of Mathematics (IOSR-JM)

e-ISSN: 2278-5728, p-ISSN: 2319-765X. Volume 11, Issue 1 Ver. II (Jan - Feb. 2015), PP 74-77
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Numerical Investigation of Higher Order Nonlinear Problem in

the Calculus Of Variations Using Adomian Decomposition
Method
S. Sekar1, M. Nalini2
1

(Department of Mathematics, Government Arts College (Autonomous), Salem 636 007, India)
(Department of Mathematics, J.K.K. Nataraja College of Arts and Science, Komarapalayam 638 183, India)

Abstract: In this paper, a numerical solution based on Adomian Decomposition Method (ADM) is used for
finding the solution of higher order nonlinear problem which arise from the problems of calculus of variations.
This approximation reduces the problem to an explicit system of algebraic equations. One numerical example is
also given to illustrate the accuracy and applicability of the presented method.
Keywords: Adomian decomposition method, Calculus of variations, Haar wavelet series, Higher order
nonlinear problem, Single-term Haar wavelet series method.

I.

Introduction

In a large number of problems arising in analysis, mechanics, geometry and so forth, it is necessary to
determine the maximum or minimum of a certain functional. Because of the important role of this subject in
science and engineering, considerable attention has been received by this kind of problems. Such problems are
called variational problems. Some popular methods for solving variational problems are direct methods. J.
Gregory and R. S. Wang [2] introduced discrete variable methods for the dependent variable nonlinear extremal
problems in the calculus of variations. M. Dehghan and M. Tatari [1] introduced the use of Adomian
decomposition method for solving problems in calculus of variations. Solution of problems in calculus of
variations via He's variational iteration method presented by M. Tatari and M. Dehghan [8]. A. Saadatmandi and
M. Dehghan [4] introduced the numerical solution of problems in calculus of variation using Chebyshev finite
difference method. Mohammad Maleki and Mahmoud Mashali-Firouzi [3] introduced a numerical solution of
problems in calculus of variation using direct method and nonclassical parameterization.
In this article we developed numerical methods for addressing higher order nonlinear problem in
calculus of variations by Adomian decomposition method which was studied by S. Sekar and team of his
researchers [6, 7]. In Section 2, the Adomian decomposition method for solving higher order nonlinear problem
in calculus of variations is introduced. In Section 3, the Leapfrog and STHWS [5] method for solving higher
order nonlinear problem in calculus of variations is solved. We refer [5-7] for the numerical treatment of higher
order nonlinear problem in calculus of variations.

II.

Adomian Decomposition Method

The most familiar and elementary method for approximating solutions of an initial value problem is
Eulers Method. Eulers Method approximates the derivative in the form of y f t , y , yt0 y0 , y R d by a
finite difference quotient yt yt h yt / h . We shall usually discretize the independent variable in equal
increments:
tn 1 tn h, n 0,1,...,t0 .
Henceforth we focus on the scalar case, N = 1. Rearranging the difference quotient gives us the
corresponding approximate values of the dependent variable:
yn 1 yn hf tn , yn , n 0,1,...,t0
To obtain the leapfrog method, we discretize t n as in tn 1 tn h, n 0,1,...,t0 , but we double the time interval,
h
h, and write the midpoint approximation yt h yt hy t in the form
2
yt h yt 2h yt / h

DOI: 10.9790/5728-11127477

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Numerical Investigation of Higher Order Nonlinear Problem in the Calculus of Variations

and then discretize it as follows:
yn 1 yn 1 2hf tn , yn , n 0,1,...,t0
The leapfrog method is a linear m = 2-step method, with a0 0, a1 1, b1 1, b0 2 and b1 0 . It
uses slopes evaluated at odd values of n to advance the values at points at even values of n, and vice versa,
reminiscent of the childrens game of the same name. For the same reason, there are multiple solutions of the
leapfrog method with the same initial value y y0 . This situation suggests a potential instability present in
multistep methods, which must be addressed when we analyze themtwo values, y0 and y1 , are required to
initialize solutions of yn 1 yn 1 2hf tn , yn , n 0,1,...,t0 uniquely, but the analytical problem

y f t , y , yt0 y0 , y R d only provides one. Also for this reason, one-step methods are used to initialize
multistep methods.

III.

Higher Order Nonlinear Problem

In this section one nonlinear problem of the calculus of variations (examples taken from the real world
applications) are considered. Example 3.1 is a higher-order nonlinear problem taken from Gregory and Wang
[6].
Example 3.1
Consider the functional (Gregory and Wang [1])
1

1
1
1
1

J x e t x13 t x 22 t x34 t e 2t x14 t 48e 6t x3 t e t x3 t x1 t tx3 t x2 t sin t dt

2
4
2
3

subject to the following boundary conditions

1
e

x0 0, x1 sin1
1
e 2

(1)

(2)

The problem is to find the minimum of equation (1) subject to equation (2), the exact solution to this problem is
et
x1 t

xt x2 t , x1 sin t
e 2t
x3 t

Table 1: Error Calculations at x1 t

Example 3.1
t
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
1

Exact Solution

STHWS Solution

1.10517092
1.22140276
1.34985881
1.4918247
1.64872127
1.8221188
2.01375271
2.22554093
2.45960311
2.71828183

1.105180318
1.221412458
1.349868808
1.491834998
1.648731871
1.8221297
2.013763907
2.225552428
2.459614911
2.718293928

STHWS
Error
9E-06
1E-05
1E-05
1E-05
1E-05
1E-05
1E-05
1E-05
1E-05
1E-05

ADM Solution

ADM Error

1.105171012
1.221402855
1.349858908
1.491824801
1.648721377
1.822118909
2.013752819
2.225541043
2.459603229
2.718281949

9E-08
1E-07
1E-07
1E-07
1E-07
1E-07
1E-07
1E-07
1E-07
1E-07

STHWS
Error
5E-06
5E-06
5E-06
6E-06
6E-06
7E-06
7E-06
7E-06
8E-06
8E-06

ADM Solution

ADM Error

0.099833462
0.19866938
0.29552026
0.389418399
0.4794256
0.564642538
0.644217756
0.717356164
0.783326987
0.841471066

5E-08
5E-08
5E-08
6E-08
6E-08
7E-08
7E-08
7E-08
8E-08
8E-08

Table 2: Error Calculations at x2 t

Example 3.1
t
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
1

Exact Solution
0.09983342
0.19866933
0.29552021
0.38941834
0.47942554
0.56464247
0.64421769
0.71735609
0.78332691
0.84147098

DOI: 10.9790/5728-11127477

STHWS
Solution
0.099837917
0.198674231
0.295525507
0.389424042
0.479431639
0.564648973
0.644224587
0.717363391
0.78333461
0.841479085

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Numerical Investigation of Higher Order Nonlinear Problem in the Calculus of Variations

Table 3: Error Calculations at x3 t
Example 3.1
t
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
1

Exact Solution
1.22140276
1.4918247
1.8221188
2.22554093
2.71828183
3.32011692
4.05519997
4.95303242
6.04964746
7.3890561

STHWS
Solution
1.221410858
1.491833298
1.8221279
2.225550528
2.718291928
3.320127523
4.055211067
4.953044024
6.049659564
7.389068699

STHWS
Error
8E-06
9E-06
9E-06
1E-05
1E-05
1E-05
1E-05
1E-05
1E-05
1E-05

ADM Solution

ADM Error

1.221402839
1.491824784
1.822118891
2.225541024
2.718281929
3.320117029
4.055200078
4.95303254
6.049647585
7.389056225

8E-08
9E-08
9E-08
1E-07
1E-07
1E-07
1E-07
1E-07
1E-07
1E-07

Fig. 1 Error graph for higher-order nonlinear problem for the various value of x1 t .

Fig. 2 Error graph for higher-order nonlinear problem for the various value of x2 t .

Fig. 3 Error graph for higher-order nonlinear problem for the various value of x3 t .
DOI: 10.9790/5728-11127477

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Numerical Investigation of Higher Order Nonlinear Problem in the Calculus of Variations

Eq. (6) has been solved numerically using the STHWS method and ADM method and the obtained
results (with step size time = 0.1) along with the exact solutions (from Eq. (8)) are presented in Table 1 - 3 and
graphical representation is shown for the higher-order nonlinear problem in Figure 1 - 3, using threedimensional effects. This result reveals the superiority of the ADM with less complexity in implementation and
at the same time the error reduction is less than the STHWS method.

IV.

Conclusion

The aim of this present work is to develop an efficient and accurate method for solving higher order
nonlinear problems of the calculus of variations. The problem has been reduced to solving a system of higher
order nonlinear algebraic equations. Illustrative examples are included to demonstrate the validity and
applicability of the technique. Compare to STHWS method, ADM method gives less error from the Table 1 to
Table 3. Also it is clear that from the Fig. 1 to Fig. 3 the ADM method introduced in Section 2 performs better
than STHWS method.

Acknowledgements
The authors gratefully acknowledge the Dr. A. Murugesan, Assistant Professor, Department of
Mathematics, Government Arts College (Autonomous), Cherry Road, Salem - 636 007, for encouragement and
support. The authors also thank Dr. S. Mehar Banu, Assistant Professor, Department of Mathematics,
Government Arts College for Women (Autonomous), Salem - 636 008, Tamil Nadu, India, for her kind help and
suggestions.

References
[1].
[2].
[3].
[4].
[5].
[6].
[7].
[8].

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variations, SIAM Jour. of Numeric. Ana. 2, 1990, 470487.
Mohammad Maleki and Mahmoud Mashali-Firouzi, A numerical solution of problems in calculus of variation using direct method
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A. Saadatmandi and M. Dehghan, The numerical solution of problems in calculus of variation using Chebyshev finite difference
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S. Sekar and K. Prabakaran, Numerical solution of nonlinear problems in the calculus of variations using single-term Haar wavelet
series, International Journal of Mathematics and Computing Applications, 2(1), 2010, 25-33.
S. Sekar and M. Nalini, Numerical Analysis of Different Second Order Systems Using Adomian Decomposition Method, Applied
Mathematical Sciences, 8(77), 2014, 3825-3832.
S. Sekar and A. Kavitha, Numerical Investigation of the Time Invariant Optimal Control of Singular Systems Using Adomian
Decomposition Method, Applied Mathematical Sciences, 8(121), 2014, 6011-6018.
M. Tatari, M. Dehghan, Solution of problems in calculus of variations via He's variational iteration method, Phys. Lett. A, 362,
2007, 401-406.

DOI: 10.9790/5728-11127477

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