Applied Mathematical Modelling 37 (2013) 1590–1598

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Applied Mathematical Modelling

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/apm

Short communication

A new improved Adomian decomposition method and its application

to fractional differential equations q
Lina Song ⇑, Weiguo Wang
Center for Econometric Analysis and Forecasting, School of Mathematics and Quantitative Economics, Dongbei University of Finance and Economics,
Dalian 116025, China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: In this paper, a new improved Adomian decomposition method is proposed, which intro-
Received 3 June 2011 duces a convergence-control parameter into the standard Adomian decomposition method
Received in revised form 17 January 2012 and establishes a new iterative formula. The examples prove that the presented method is
Accepted 5 March 2012
reliable, efficient, easy to implement from a computational viewpoint and can be employed
Available online 13 March 2012
to derive successfully analytical approximate solutions of fractional differential equations.
Ó 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Keywords:
Improved Adomian decomposition method
Approximate solution
Fractional differential equation

1. Introduction

Since the differential equations with fractional derivatives can describe many important phenomena in electromagnetic,
acoustics, viscoelasticity, electrochemistry, cosmology and material science [1–4], both professional and academic research-
ers in various fields have devoted considerable effort to find their explicit solutions. Because of the impossibility of achieve-
ment in solving explicit exact solutions for most of these problems, analytical approximate solutions are of academical and
practical importance. Due to the availability of the computer symbolic systems like Mathematica or Maple, some fundamen-
tal methods have been extended to solve fractional differential equations [5–11] and approximate solutions have been found
increasingly.
Adomian decomposition method (ADM) [12,13] was firstly proposed by the American mathematician, Adomian and is
one of the powerful methods by which the approximate solutions for large classes of nonlinear differential equations can
be derived. In recent years, this classical and effective method is modified to overcome the shortcomings arising in solving
process or improve the accuracy of the results. Wazwaz [14] established a new algorithm for calculating the so-called Ado-
mian polynomials and introduced the modified ADM to solve various differential equations with the strong nonlinear terms.
Based on Newton’s method, Abbasbandy [15] presented the modified ADM and applied it to construct the numerical algo-
rithms. In order to overcome inaccurate terms arising from solving nonlinear differential equations with the higher time-
derivative, Abassy [16] defined a new Adomian polynomials and provided a qualitative improvement over the standard
ADM. Based on the homotopy analysis method [18], Song and Wang [17] presented the enhanced ADM, which followed
the framework of the standard ADM, introduced the h-curve, established a recursive relationship and obtained approximate
solutions with higher accuracy. To this idea, we advance a new improved ADM in the present paper, of which the established

q
The work is partially supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 71171035) and China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (No.
20110491498).
⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +86 0411 84713681.
E-mail address: sln_dufe@hotmail.com (L. Song).

0307-904X/$ - see front matter Ó 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.apm.2012.03.016
 L. Song, W. Wang / Applied Mathematical Modelling 37 (2013) 1590–1598 1591

iterative formula in a pithy style differs from one of the enhanced ADM and can obtain more exact analytical approximations
to fractional differential equations.
The paper has been organized as follows: in Section 2, the improved ADM is described succinctly. In Section 3, approx-
imate solutions of the coupled fractional Burgers equations and the single nonlinear fractional reaction–diffusion equation
are derived and the results indicate that an appropriate choice of the convergence-control parameter involved in the im-
proved ADM can improve the accuracy of the approximate solutions. Conclusions are presented in Section 4.

2. Description of the method

Consider the general nonlinear differential equation

½L þ R þ N uðx; tÞ ¼ gðx; tÞ; ð1Þ
with the following initial condition
uðx; 0Þ ¼ f ðxÞ; ð2Þ
where L is an easily or trivially linear operator which is assumed to be easily invertible, R is the remaining linear part, N is a
nonlinear operator, and gðx; tÞ is a known analytical function.
Eq. (1) can be rewritten as
Lu ¼ g  ½R þ N u: ð3Þ
1
Applying the inverse operator L to Eq. (3), one can obtain
u ¼ U þ L1 g  L1 ½R þ N u; ð4Þ
where U is determined by its initial value problems.
The standard ADM [12,13] suggests the solution u can be decomposed into the infinite series with components
P
1
u¼ un ; ð5Þ
n¼0

and the nonlinear term N u is decomposed, as follows:

P
1
Nu ¼ An ; ð6Þ
n¼0

where An are Adomian polynomials, defined by

 n 1 
1 d P i
An ¼ nN k ui ; n P 0: ð7Þ
n! dk i¼0 k¼0

Substituting the decomposition series (5) and (6) into both sides of (4) gives the following relationship
P
1 P
1 P
1
un ¼ U þ L1 g  L1 R un  L1 An : ð8Þ
n¼0 n¼0 n¼0

The standard ADM defines the components un by the following recursive relationship

u0 ¼ U þ L1 g;
ð9Þ
unþ1 ¼ L1 ½Run þ An :
The improved ADM inserts a convergence-control parameter x into Eq. (9) and constructs new components, defined by

u0 ¼ U þ L1 g; ð10aÞ
ukþ1 ¼ L1 ½Ruk þ Ak ; ð10bÞ
Pn n!
e n ¼ C kn xk unk ; C kn ¼
u ; n P 1: ð10cÞ
k¼0 ðn  kÞ!k!

It is obviously that when x ¼ 0, the improved ADM can be reduced to the standard ADM. Under the mode of the improved
e n which contains a new parameter x, namely
one, a solution u of Eq. (1) is a infinite series with the computable components u

P
1
u ¼ u0 þ en:
u ð11Þ
n¼1

The parameter x involved in approximate solutions (11) plays the same important role as the parameter h of the homot-
opy analysis method, which provide us with a simple way to adjust and control the convergence region of the approximate
solutions. Therefore, the parameter x is a so-called convergence-control parameter. According to the theory of Liao’s
h-curve [18], the appropriate region for the auxiliary parameter x corresponds to the line segments nearly parallel to the
horizontal axis. In general, by means of the x-curve, it is straightforward to choose a valid value of x which ensures that
the solution series is convergent. For more information on the selection of the convergence-control parameter, one can refer
to Refs. [18–24] and literature therein.
1592 L. Song, W. Wang / Applied Mathematical Modelling 37 (2013) 1590–1598

3. Test examples

In this section, the coupled fractional Burgers equations and the single nonlinear fractional reaction–diffusion equation
with nonlinear terms of any order are investigated to show the efficiency of the method described in the previous section.

Example 1. Consider the coupled fractional Burgers equations

(
Dat u  uxx  2uux þ ðuv Þx ¼ 0; 0 < a 6 1;
ð12Þ
Dbt v  v xx  2vv x þ ðuv Þx ¼ 0; 0 < b 6 1;

which subjects to the following initial condition

uðx; 0Þ ¼ sinðxÞ; v ðx; 0Þ ¼ sinðxÞ: ð13Þ
The exact solution of the system (12) with a ¼ 1; b ¼ 1, is given by
uðx; tÞ ¼ expðtÞ sinðxÞ; v ðx; tÞ ¼ expðtÞ sinðxÞ: ð14Þ
Eq. (12) with the initial condition (13) is studied by the standard ADM in Ref. [11] and approximate solutions for its spe-
cial case a ¼ 1 are obtained using the standard ADM-Padé technique in Ref. [25]. The focal point of the present paper is to
take this example for indicating that the introduction of the parameter x to the standard ADM can improve the accuracy of
the approximate solutions.
The inverses L1 1
a and Lb are assumed to be Riemann–Liouville fractional integral operators of order a and b, given by
Z t
1
L1 a
a ðÞ ¼ J ðÞ ¼ ðt  sÞa1 ðÞds;
CðaÞ 0
Z t
ð15Þ
1
L1 b
b ðÞ ¼ J ðÞ ¼ ðt  sÞb1 ðÞds:
CðbÞ 0

In the light of the improved ADM, the recurrence relations are

u0 ¼ sinðxÞ; v 0 ¼ sinðxÞ;
( k
"  1 # k
"  1  # )
a 2 d P1
i P i 1 d P1
i P i
ukþ1 ¼ J ukxx þ k ui k ui  k ui k vi ;
k! dkk i¼0 i¼0 x k¼0
k! dkk i¼0 i¼0 x k¼0
( "  1  # " 1  1  # )
2 d
k
P1 P i 1 d
k
P i P i ð16Þ
i
v kþ1 ¼ Jb v kxx þ k v i k v i  k u i k v i ;
k! dkk i¼0 i¼0 x
k! dkk i¼0 i¼0 x
k¼0 k¼0
P
n P
n
en ¼
u C kn k
x unk ; ve n ¼ C kn x v nk :
k

k¼0 k¼0

Using the above recursive relationship and the symbolic computation system Maple, the first few terms of the decompo-
sition series are given by the following expressions,
u0 ¼ sinðxÞ; v 0 ¼ sinðxÞ;
t a sinðxÞ
e 1 ¼ xu0 þ u1 ¼ xu0 þ J a ðu0xx þ 2u0 u0x  ðu0 v 0 Þx Þ ¼ x sinðxÞ 
u ;
Cða þ 1Þ
t b sinðxÞ
ve 1 ¼ xv 0 þ v 1 ¼ xv 0 þ Jb ðv 0xx þ 2v 0 v 0x  ðu0 v 0 Þx Þ ¼ x sinðxÞ  ;
Cðb þ 1Þ
e 2 ¼ x2 u0 þ 2xu1 þ u2 ¼ x2 u0 þ 2xu1 þ J a ½u1xx þ 2ðu0 u1x þ u1 u0x Þ  ðu0 v 1 þ u1 v 0 Þx 
u
2xt a sinðxÞ t2a ðsinðxÞ  sinð2xÞÞ t aþb sinð2xÞ
¼ x2 sinðxÞ  þ þ ;
Cða þ 1Þ Cð2a þ 1Þ Cða þ b þ 1Þ
a
ve 2 ¼ x v 0 þ 2xv 1 þ v 2 ¼ x v 0 þ 2xv 1 þ J ½v 1xx þ 2ðv 0 v 1x þ v 1 v 0x Þ  ðu0 v 1 þ u1 v 0 Þx 
2 2

2xt b sinðxÞ t 2b ðsinðxÞ  sinð2xÞÞ t aþb sinð2xÞ

¼ x2 sinðxÞ  þ þ ;
Cðb þ 1Þ Cð2b þ 1Þ Cða þ b þ 1Þ
 
e 3 ¼ x3 u0 þ 3x2 u1 þ 3xu2 þ u3 ¼ x3 u0 þ 3x2 u1 þ 3xu2 þ J a u2xx þ 2ðu0 u2x þ u1 u1x þ u2 u0x Þ  ðu0 v 2 þ u1 v 1 þ u2 v 0 Þx
u
 
3x2 ta sinðxÞ t 2a ðsinðxÞ  sinð2xÞÞ taþb sinð2xÞ
¼ x3 sinðxÞ  þ 3x þ
Cða þ 1Þ Cð2a þ 1Þ Cða þ b þ 1Þ
"   !
t 2aþb sinð2xÞ Cða þ b þ 1Þ t 3a sinð2xÞCð2a þ 1Þ
 4þ  5 sinð2xÞ  3 sinð2xÞ cosðxÞ þ sinðxÞ þ
Cð2a þ b þ 1Þ Cða þ 1ÞCðb þ 1Þ Cð3a þ 1Þ Cða þ 1Þ2
aþ2b 
t ðsinð2xÞ  3 sinð2xÞ cosðxÞ þ 2 sinðxÞÞ
þ ;
Cða þ 2b þ 1Þ
 L. Song, W. Wang / Applied Mathematical Modelling 37 (2013) 1590–1598 1593

Fig. 1. The x-curves of the fourth-order approximations to Eq. (12) from the improved ADM when a ¼ b ¼ 1, solid line: u
~ ð0:01; 0:9Þ; dot line: u
~ ð0:01; 1:4Þ;
~ ð0:01; 1:8Þ.
dash line: u

Fig. 2. The residual error of Eq. (12) for the fourth-order approximate solutions when a ¼ b ¼ 1 and x ¼ 0:01, solid line: x ¼ 0; dot line: x ¼ 0:1; dash line:
x ¼ 0:2.

ve 3 ¼ x3 v 0 þ 3x2 v 1 þ 3xv 2 þ v 3 ¼ x3 v 0 þ 3x2 v 1 þ 3xv 2 þ Jb ½v 2xx þ 2ðv 0 v 2x þ v 1 v 1x þ v 2 v 0x Þ  ðu0 v 2 þ u1 v 1 þ u2 v 0 Þx 

 2b 
3x2 t b sinðxÞ t ðsinðxÞ  sinð2xÞÞ taþb sinð2xÞ
¼ x3 sinðxÞ  þ 3x þ
Cðb þ 1Þ Cð2b þ 1Þ Cða þ b þ 1Þ
"   !
t aþ2b sinð2xÞ Cða þ b þ 1Þ t 3b sinð2xÞCð2b þ 1Þ
 4þ  5 sinð2xÞ  3 sinð2xÞ cosðxÞ þ sinðxÞ þ
Cða þ 2b þ 1Þ Cða þ 1ÞCðb þ 1Þ Cð3b þ 1Þ Cðb þ 1Þ2
2aþb 
t ðsinð2xÞ  3 sinð2xÞ cosðxÞ þ 2 sinðxÞÞ
þ e 4 ¼ x4 u0 þ 4x3 u1 þ 6x2 u2 þ 4xu3 þ u4 ¼   
;u ð17Þ
Cð2a þ b þ 1Þ
1594 L. Song, W. Wang / Applied Mathematical Modelling 37 (2013) 1590–1598

Table 1
Numerical values of Eq. (12) at a ¼ b ¼ 1; x ¼ 0:01.

t Exact solution Approximate solution Absolute error

uES e 1 ðx ¼ 0Þ
u e 2 ðx ¼ 0:1Þ
u e 1  uES j
ju e 2  uES j
ju
0.9 0.00406563 0.00410831 0.00408531 0.4268e4 0.1968e4
1.0 0.00367873 0.00374994 0.00365427 0.7121e4 0.2446e4
1.1 0.00332866 0.00344165 0.00326932 0.11299e3 0.5934e4
1.2 0.00301189 0.00318395 0.00292695 0.17206e3 0.8494e4
1.3 0.00272527 0.00297833 0.00262466 0.25306e3 0.10061e3
1.4 0.00246593 0.00282729 0.00236096 0.36136e3 0.10497e3
1.5 0.00223126 0.00273433 0.00213534 0.50307e3 0.9592e4
1.6 0.00201893 0.00270395 0.00194830 0.68502e3 0.7063e4
1.7 0.00182680 0.00274166 0.00180134 0.91486e3 0.2546e4
1.8 0.00165296 0.00285395 0.00169697 0.120099e2 0.4401e4

The approximate solutions of Eq. (12) obtained by the improved ADM are
e ¼ u0 þ u
u e1 þ u e2 þ u e3 þ u e4 þ    ;
ð18Þ
ve ¼ v 0 þ ve 1 þ ve 2 þ ve 3 þ ve 4 þ   
During the process of solution, the improved ADM adds a step on the basis of the standard ADM, which can be easily
realized with the help of Maple and derive approximate solutions containing a parameter x. It is obvious that when
x ¼ 0, the results (18) by the improved ADM equal to those from the standard ADM. We only consider approximate solu-
e to illustrate the practicability and effectiveness of the proposed method. For establishing the valid region of the
tions u
parameter x, the x-curves of the fourth-order approximations u ~ ð0:01; 0:9Þ; u ~ ð0:01; 1:8Þ with a ¼ b ¼ 1
~ ð0:01; 1:4Þ and u
are drawn in Fig. 1. It appears that the curves which should at least lie with in the interval [0,0.5] are horizontal and then
x 2 ½0; 0:5 is valid. When a ¼ b ¼ 1, the curves of residual error for Eq. (12) are plotted in Fig. 2, which indicates that our
analytical solutions converge with the different values of x and the residual error with h ¼ 0:1 is less than one with
h ¼ 0=0:2 in the almost entire interval. The residual error of Eq. (12) is defined as
Residual Error  Dat u
~u ~u
~ xx  2u ~ v~ Þx  Dbt v~  v~ xx  2v~ v~ x þ ðu
~ x þ ðu ~ v~ Þx : ð19Þ
Some numerical-value results obtained by the improved ADM are listed in Table 1. By investigating absolute errors between
approximate solution and exact solution, it can come to the conclusion that when a ¼ b ¼ 1; x ¼ 0:01, the approximate solu-
tions by the improved ADM are closer to the exact solutions, which owes to the existence of x. On the other hand, the im-
proved ADM is applicable for large range of t, i.e., t ¼ 10 and large range of x as shown in Fig. 3, when we take a ¼ b ¼ 1 and
x ¼ 0=0:3=0:6=0:9. Fig. 3 suggests that a right auxiliary parameter x can enhance the precision of the approximate solutions
than those from the standard ADM.

Fig. 3. The solution curves of Eq. (12) when a ¼ b ¼ 1 and t ¼ 10, point: exact solution; dot line: approximate solution with x ¼ 0; dash line: approximate
solution with x ¼ 0:3; dash dot line: approximate solution with x ¼ 0:6; solid line: approximate solution with x ¼ 0:9.
 L. Song, W. Wang / Applied Mathematical Modelling 37 (2013) 1590–1598 1595

Example 2. Consider the single nonlinear fractional reaction–diffusion equation [26]

Dat u ¼ aðup ux Þx  bu þ cupþ1 ; 0 < a 6 1; ð20Þ

which subjects to the following initial condition

0 qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi 11p
c px
B1 þ tanh að1þpÞ 2 C
uðx; 0Þ ¼ B
@  C
qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi A : ð21Þ
c px
1  tanh að1þpÞ 2

The exact solution of this system with a ¼ 1, is given by

0 qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi 11p
c px
1 þ tanh  bpt
B að1þpÞ 2 2 C
uðx; tÞ ¼ B
@ qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi C
A: ð22Þ
c px bpt
1  tanh að1þpÞ 2
 2

The inverse L1

a is assumed to be Riemann–Liouville fractional integral operators of order a, given by

Z t
1
L1 a
a ðÞ ¼ J ðÞ ¼ ðt  sÞa1 ðÞds: ð23Þ
CðaÞ 0

According to the improved ADM, the recurrence relations are

0 qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi 11p
c px
1 þ tanh
B að1þpÞ 2 C
u0 ¼ B
@ qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi C
A;
c px
1  tanh að1þpÞ 2

( "  p  1 !# " pþ1 # ) ð24Þ

k k
a a d P1
i P i d P
1
i
ukþ1 ¼ J k ui k ui  buk þ c k ui ;
k! dkk i¼0 i¼0 x dk k
i¼0
x k¼0 k¼0

P
n
en ¼
u C kn xk unk :
k¼0

The first few terms of the decomposition series are given by the symbolic computation system Maple, namely,
0 qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi 11p
c px
1 þ tanh
B að1þpÞ 2 C
u0 ¼ B
@ qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi C;
c px A
1  tanhð að1þpÞ 2
Þ

0 qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi 11p

 1 þ tanh c px
B a
að1þpÞ 2 C
bt
e 1 ¼ xu0 þ u1 ¼ xu0 þ J a ½aðup0 u0x Þx  bu0 þ cupþ1
u  ¼ x  B  C
qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi A ;
0
Cða þ 1Þ @ c px
1  tanh að1þpÞ 2

h i
e 2 ¼ x2 u0 þ 2xu1 þ u2 ¼ x2 u0 þ 2xu1 þ J a aðup0 u1x þ pup1
u p
0 u1 u0x Þx  bu1 þ cðp þ 1Þu0 u1

0 qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi 11p
! 1 þ tanh c px
aB 2 2a
að1þpÞ 2 C
2xbt b t B
2
¼ x  þ qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi C
A;
Cða þ 1Þ Cð2a þ 1Þ @ c px
1  tanh að1þpÞ 2

e 3 ¼ x3 u0 þ 3x2 u1 þ 3xu2 þ u3 ¼ x3 u0 þ 3x2 u1 þ 3xu2

u
      
pðp  1Þ p2 2 ðp þ 1Þp p1 2
þ J a a up0 u2x þ pup1 p1
0 u1 u1x þ pu0 u2 þ u0 u1 u0x  bu2 þ c ðp þ 1Þup0 u2 þ u0 u1
2 x 2
0 qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi 11p
! 1 þ tanh c px
a 2 3
3x2 bt 3xb t2a b t3a B
B
að1þpÞ 2 C
C
¼ x3  þ   qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi A ;
Cða þ 1Þ Cð2a þ 1Þ Cð3a þ 1Þ @ c px
1  tanh að1þpÞ 2
1596 L. Song, W. Wang / Applied Mathematical Modelling 37 (2013) 1590–1598

Fig. 4. The x-curves of the fourth-order approximations to Eq. (20) from the improved ADM when a ¼ a ¼ b ¼ 1; c ¼ 1; p ¼ 2, solid line: u
~ ð0:05; 0:9Þ; dot
~ ð0:5; 0:9Þ.
line: u

Fig. 5. The solution curves of Eq. (20) when a ¼ a ¼ b ¼ 1; c ¼ 1; p ¼ 2 and t ¼ 0:9, point: exact solution; solid line: approximate solution with x ¼ 0:1;
dot line: approximate solution with x ¼ 0; dash line: approximate solution with x ¼ 0:1; dash dot line: approximate solution with x ¼ 0:2.
 L. Song, W. Wang / Applied Mathematical Modelling 37 (2013) 1590–1598 1597

Table 2
Numerical values of Eq. (20) at a ¼ a ¼ b ¼ 1; c ¼ 1; p ¼ 2; t ¼ 0:9.

x Exact solution Approximate solution Absolute error

uES e 1 ðx ¼ 0Þ
u e 2 ðx ¼ 0:2Þ
u e 1  uES j
ju e 2  uES j
ju
0.05 0.41847736 0.42287020 0.41854719 0.439284e2 0.6983e4
0.06 0.42090043 0.42531870 0.42097066 0.441827e2 0.7023e4
0.07 0.42333753 0.42778138 0.42340817 0.444385e2 0.7064e4
0.08 0.42578874 0.43025832 0.42585978 0.446958e2 0.7104e4
0.09 0.42825414 0.43274961 0.42832560 0.449547e2 0.7146e4
0.10 0.43073382 0.43525531 0.43080569 0.452149e2 0.7187e4
0.20 0.45633415 0.46112438 0.45641030 0.479023e2 0.7615e4
0.30 0.48345603 0.48853096 0.48353670 0.507493e2 0.8067e4
0.40 0.51218987 0.51756642 0.51227533 0.537655e2 0.8546e4
0.50 0.54263148 0.54832759 0.54272202 0.569611e2 0.9054e4

Fig. 6. The solution curves of Eq. (20) when a ¼ a ¼ b ¼ 1; c ¼ 1; p ¼ 12 and t ¼ 2, point: exact solution; solid line: approximate solution with x ¼ 0; dot
line: approximate solution with x ¼ 0:1; dash line: approximate solution with x ¼ 0:13; dash dot line: approximate solution with x ¼ 0:2.

e 4 ¼ x4 u0 þ 4x3 u1 þ 6x2 u2 þ 4xu3 þ u4 ¼ x4 u0 þ 4x3 u1 þ 6x2 u2 þ 4xu3

u
      
pðp  1Þ p2 2 pðp  1Þðp  2Þ p3 3
þ J a a up0 u3x þ pup1 p1
0 u1 u2x þ pu0 u2 þ u0 u1 u1x þ pup1 p2
0 u3 þ pðp  1Þu0 u1 u2 þ u0 u1 u0x
2 6 x
 
p p1 ðp þ 1Þpðp  1Þ p2 3
bu2 þ c ðp þ 1Þu0 u3 þ ðp þ 1Þpu0 u1 u2 þ u 0 u1
6
0 qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi 11p
! 1 þ tanh c px
3 a 2 2 2a 3 3a 4 4a
B að1þpÞ 2 C
4x bt 6x b t 4xb t b t B C
¼ x4  þ  þ  qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi A ;
Cða þ 1Þ Cð2a þ 1Þ Cð3a þ 1Þ Cð4a þ 1Þ @ c px
1  tanh að1þpÞ 2

e 5 ¼ x5 u0 þ 5x4 u1 þ 10x3 u2 þ 10x2 u3 þ 5xu4 þ u5 ¼ 

u

The approximate solutions of Eq. (20) obtained by the improved ADM are

u e1 þ u
e ¼ u0 þ u e2 þ u
e3 þ u
e4 þ u
e5 þ    ð26Þ
Fig. 4 shows the x-curves of u ~ ð0:05; 0:9Þ and u
~ ð0:5; 0:9Þ given by the fourth-order improved ADM approximate solutions
with a ¼ a ¼ b ¼ 1; c ¼ 1; p ¼ 2. It is found that, when the valid value of x should at least lie with in the interval
[0.2, 0.3], the solution series are convergent. The fourth-order approximate solutions with x ¼ 0:1=0=0:1=0:2 and exact
solutions are drawn in Fig. 5 when a ¼ a ¼ b ¼ 1; c ¼ 1; p ¼ 2; t ¼ 0:9. Under the same conditions, Table 2 gives the
1598 L. Song, W. Wang / Applied Mathematical Modelling 37 (2013) 1590–1598

numerical comparison between the fourth-order approximate solutions obtained and exact solutions (19). From Fig. 5 and
the absolute errors of Table 2, the best value of x in this case is not 0. It is evident that approximate solutions by the
improved ADM are more accurate if x is identified optimally. To demonstrate further the effectiveness of the proposed
method, we consider the conditions that a ¼ a ¼ b ¼ 1; c ¼ 1; p ¼ 12 ; t ¼ 2, Fig. 6 shows the exact and approximate solu-
tion curves of Eq. (20) with different x and suggests that the result with x ¼ 0:13 is much closer to the exact solution.

4. Conclusions

In this paper, the improved ADM is employed to solve analytic approximate solutions of the coupled fractional Burgers
equations and the single nonlinear fractional reaction–diffusion equation with nonlinear terms of any order, where the
time-fractional derivative is interpreted in the sense of Caputo’s definition. The proposed scheme is capable of deriving
approximate solutions in the form of power series with a convergence-control parameter x. Numerical comparisons reveal
that an appropriate choice of the parameter x improves the precision of the approximate solutions and the proposed
algorithm can be viewed as an efficient alternative for solving nonlinear fractional differential equations. The key to the
feasibility of the improved ADM lies in the selection of the convergence-control parameter x. As Liao [19] said, some
rigorous mathematical theorems are urgently needed to find the best convergence-control parameter. In our work, the
modified algorithm of the standard ADM can have two different forms: Eq. (10) and Eq. (10) given by Ref. [17], the effective-
ness of which are testified by some fractional differential equations. The novel modification of the ADM and the way to
establish the best convergence-control parameter need further study.

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to express their gratitude to the reviewers for the careful reading of the manuscript and for their
constructive comments.

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