Collocation-Based Approximation for a Time-Fractional Sub-Diffusion Model

Abstract

We consider the numerical solution of a one-dimensional time-fractional diffusion problem, where the order of the Caputo time derivative belongs to (0, 1). Using the technique of the method of lines, we first develop from the original problem a system of fractional ordinary differential equations. Using an integral equation reformulation of this system, we study the regularity properties of the exact solution of the system of fractional differential equations and construct a piecewise polynomial collocation method to solve it numerically. We also investigate the convergence and the convergence order of the proposed method. To conclude, we present the results of some numerical experiments.