Numerical methods for nonlinear partial differential equations of fractional order

In this article, we implement relatively new analytical techniques, the variational iteration method and the Adomian decomposition method, for solving nonlinear partial differential equations of fractional order. The fractional derivatives are described in the Caputo sense. The two methods in applied mathematics can be used as alternative methods for obtaining analytic and approximate solutions for different types of fractional differential equations. In these schemes, the solution takes the form of a convergent series with easily computable components. Numerical results show that the two approaches are easy to implement and accurate when applied to partial differential equations of fractional order. (C) 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.