Journal of Computational Methods in Sciences and Engineering 14 (2014) 269–275 269

DOI 10.3233/JCM-140504
IOS Press

Numerical simulation of coupled MKdV

equation by reduced differential transform
method

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Amit Tomara,∗ and Rajan Arorab
a Department of Mathematics, DIT University, Dehradun, India
b Department of Applied Science and Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, India

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Abstract. The main goal of this article is to demonstrate the use of the Reduced Differential Transform Method (RDTM).
This method has been applied directly without using bilinear forms, Wronskian, or inverse scattering method. Also it is worth
pointing out that if the terms of the series increase, the RDTM provides better convergence to the analytical solution. In this
paper, this method is used for solving nonlinear coupled MKdV equation with given initial conditions having arbitrary constants.
The numerical solutions obtained by RDTM are compared with the known exact solutions by fixing the arbitrary constants and
with Adomian Decomposition Method (ADM) in tables as well as in figures.

Keywords: Reduced differential transform method (RDTM), coupled MKdV equation, soliton solution
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1. Introduction

There are many wave equations, which are quite useful and applicable in engineering and physics such
as the well-known linear and nonlinear wave equations. Nonlinear wave phenomena plays a major role in
sciences such as hydrodynamics, plasma physics, solid state physics, optical fibers, chemical kinetics and
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geochemistry. It is more difficult to obtain solutions of nonlinear partial differential equations (PDEs)
than those of linear PDEs. It may not always be possible to obtain analytical solutions of nonlinear
PDEs. In this case, we use semi-analytical methods giving series solutions. In these kinds of methods,
the solutions are sought in the form of series.
The RDTM is based on computing the terms of the Taylor’s series using the given initial conditions
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for the problem being considered. At this point, we encounter the concept of convergence of the series.
As the convergence analysis can be carried out theoretically, one can gain information about the con-
vergence of the series solution by looking at the absolute error between the computed numerical solution
and the known solution. In some problems, a very good convergence can be achieved using only a few
terms of the series, but more terms may be required in some problems. That is, if the terms of the series
increase, the RDTM provides better convergence to the analytical solution. In this study, similarity trans-
formation has been widely used by so many authors to reduce the governing differential equations into

∗
Corresponding author: Amit Tomar, Department of Mathematics, DIT University, Dehradun, India. Tel.: +91 9412539033;
E-mail: amitmath.14@gmail.com, atddtdpt@iitr.ernet.in.

1472-7978/14/$27.50 
c 2014 – IOS Press and the authors. All rights reserved
270 A. Tomar and R. Arora / Numerical simulation of coupled MKdV equation by reduced differential transform method

an ordinary nonlinear differential equation. In most cases, the problems do not admit analytical solution,
so these problems are solved by using special techniques.
To obtain the travelling wave solutions, many methods were attempted, such as the inverse scattering
method [1], the modified extended tanh-function method [2], Hirota’s bilinear transformation [3,4], the
decomposition method [5], the tanh function method [6,7], the variational iteration method [8], the sine–
cosine method [9], the homogeneous balance method [10], the exp function method [11], homotopy
analysis method [18,19], soliton perturbation theory [20–22], differential transform method [23] and so
on.
Recently, Keskin and Oturanç [12,13] introduced a reduced form of Differential Transform Method
(DTM) as reduced DTM (RDTM), and applied it to obtain solutions of non-linear PDEs and fractional
PDEs. More recently, Abazari and Abazari [15] applied RDTM to study the Hirota-Satsuma coupled

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KdV equation.

2. The RDTM method

The basic definitions in the reduced differential transform method [12] are as follows:


1 ∂ k u(x, t)

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Definition 1: Let function u(x, t) be analytic and k-times continuously differentiable with respect to
time t and space x in the domain of interest, and let

Uk (x) = (1)
k! ∂tk t=0
where the function Uk (x) is the transformed function of the original function u(x, t). The differential
inverse transform of Uk (x) is defined as
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∞

u(x, t) = Uk (x)tk . (2)
k=0
Then, combining Eqs (1) and (2), we write
∞
  
1 ∂ k u(x, t)
u(x, t) = tk .
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(3)
k! ∂tk t=0
k=0
From the above definitions, it can be found that the concept of the Reduced Differential Transform
method is derived from the Taylor’s series expansion.
U0 (x) = u(x, 0). (4)
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Taking the Reduced Differential Transformation of the equation to be solved, we obtain an iteration
formula for Uk (x), then the differential inverse transformation of the set of values [Uk (x)]nk=0 gives the
approximation solution as
n

un (x, t) = Uk (x)tk (5)
k=0
Therefore, the solution u(x, t) is given by
u(x, t) = lim un (x, t).
n→∞
 A. Tomar and R. Arora / Numerical simulation of coupled MKdV equation by reduced differential transform method 271

Table 1
Reduced Differential Transformation
Function Reduced Differential Transform
 
1 ∂ k u(x, t)
u(x, t) Uk (x) =
k! ∂tk t=0
w(x, t) = u(x, t) ± v(x, t) Wk (x) = Uk (x) ± Vk (x)
w(x, t) = αu(x, t) Wk (x) = αUk (x) (α is constant)
∂ ∂
w(x, t) = ∂x
u(x, t) Wk (x) =∂x
(Uk (x))
k 
w(x, t) = u(x, t)v(x, t) Wk (x) = r=0 Vr (x)Uk−r (x) = kr=0 Ur (x)Vk−r (x)
∂
w(x, t) = ∂t
u(x, t) Wk (x) = (k + 1)Uk+1 (x)

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3. Application

We consider the coupled MKdV equation [5,14,16]

1 3
ut = uxxx − 3u2 ux + vxx + 3uvx + 3ux v − 3λux , (6a)
2 2
vt = − vxxx − 3vvx − 3ux vx + 3u2 vx + 3λvx ,
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which was introduced by Wu et al. [16]. The above system becomes a generalized KdV equation for
u = 0, and MKdV equation for v = 0. More recently, the different soliton solutions for this system
(6b)

were obtained by Ali [2], Raslan [5], Fan [14], Zuo and Zhang [17]. Raslan [5] has found the numerical
solutions for this system using the decomposition method. Let us now solve the system Eqs (6a)–(6b)
by the RDTM method.
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3.1. Reduced differential transform method for coupled MKdV

Here, we apply the Reduced Differential Transform Method to obtain two functions u(x, t) and v(x, t)
satisfying the coupled MKdV Eqs (6a)–(6b) with the initial conditions is given by Ref. [14]:
u(x, 0) =k tanh(kx),
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1  (7)
v(x, 0) = 4k2 + λ − 2k2 tanh2 (kx).
2
The exact solution for the system Eqs (6a)–(6b) with initial conditions (7) is given by [14]:
u(x, t) =k tanh(kξ)
1 
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(8)
v(x, t) = 4k2 + λ − 2k2 tanh2 (kξ),
2
 
Where ξ = x + 12 −2k2 − 3λ t.
Taking the Reduced Differential transformation of both sides of Eqs (6a) and (6b), we obtain the
iterative scheme as follows:
1 ∂3 3 ∂2 ∂
(k + 1)Uk+1 (x) = 3
(Uk (x)) + Mk (Uk (x), Vk (x)) + 2
(Vk (x)) − 3λ (Uk (x)) , (9a)
2 ∂x 2 ∂x ∂x
∂3 ∂
(k + 1)Vk+1 (x) = − 3 (Vk (x)) + Pk (Uk (x), Vk (x)) + 3λ (Vk (x)) , (9b)
∂x ∂x
272 A. Tomar and R. Arora / Numerical simulation of coupled MKdV equation by reduced differential transform method

where Mk (Uk (x), Vk (x)) is the Reduced Differential Transformation of −3u2 ux + 3uvx + 3ux v , and
Nk (Uk (x)) is the Reduced Differential Transformation of −3vvx − 3ux vx + 3u2 vx .
Using initial condition (7) and the iterative scheme Eqs (9a) and (9b), we obtain some terms of the
series as follows:

U0 (x) = k tanh(kx),
1 2 
V0 (x) = 4k + λ − 2k2 2 tanh(kx)2 ,
2
U1 (x) = − 3k3 λsech(kx)2 − 15k4 sech(kx)2 tanh(kx)2
 
2 1

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2 2 2 2
+ 3k sech(kx) (4k + λ) − 2k tanh(kx)
2
 
− 3k2 2k2 sech(kx)4 − 4k2 sech(kx)2 tanh(kx)2
1  
+ k −2k3 sech(kx)4 + 4k3 sech(kx)2 tanh(kx)2 ,
2

3 2
+ 12k sech(kx) tanh(kx)

1
2
2
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V1 (x) = − 12k3 λsech(kx)2 tanh(kx) + 12k5 sech(kx)4 tanh(kx) − 12k5 sech(kx)2 tanh(kx)3

2
(4k + λ) − 2k tanh(kx) 2



+ 2k2 −16k3 sech(kx)4 tanh(kx) + 8k3 sech(kx)2 tanh(kx)3 .
Also we have obtained U2 (x) and V2 (x) but they are not shown here since their expressions are very
lengthy. In a similar way, other components may be computed. Then, the differential inverse transfor-
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mation of the set of values [Uk (x)]2k=0 gives the second order approximation solution as
2

u2 (x, t) = Uk (x)tk = U0 (x) + U1 (x)t + U2 (x)t2 , (10)
k=0

and, the differential inverse transformation of the set of values [Vk (x)]2k=0 gives the second order ap-
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proximation solution as
2

v2 (x, t) = Vk (x)tk = V0 (x) + V1 (x)t + V2 (x)t2 . (11)
k=0

The Comparison of the RDTM solutions with the ADM solutions [5] and the exact solutions (8) for
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coupled MKdV equation with initial conditions (7) when λ = 1, k = 0.1, and t = 0.5 is shown in
Table 2, and the comparative study between these results shows very good agreement. It is obvious that
the absolute errors can be made smaller by considering more iterations in the RDTM iteration formula.
The solutions of system Eqs (6a)–(6b) with the initial condition (7) are shown in Fig. 1; the solutions
are of kink-type for u(x, t) and bell-type for v(x, t) which are same as in Raslan [5].
Now, we repeat the RDTM method to solve the same system Eqs (6a)–(6b) of coupled MKdV equa-
tion, but with different initial conditions is given by Ref. [14]
 
b λ k
u(x, 0) = + k tanh(kx), v(x, 0) = 1+ + b tanh(kx), (12)
2k 2 b
 A. Tomar and R. Arora / Numerical simulation of coupled MKdV equation by reduced differential transform method 273

Table 2
Comparison of the RDTM solutions with the ADM solutions [5] and the exact solutions (8) for coupled MKdV equation with
initial conditions (7) when λ = 1, k = 0.1 and t = 0.5
x URDTM UADM Uexact VRDTM VADM Vexact
−50 −0.0999922 −0.0999922 −0.0999922 0.500004 0.500004 0.500003
−40 −0.0999423 −0.0999423 −0.0999423 0.500031 0.500031 0.500023
−30 −0.0995744 −0.0995747 −0.0995746 0.500228 0.500229 0.500170
−20 −0.0968978 −0.0968996 −0.0968991 0.501630 0.501631 0.501221
−10 −0.0791600 −0.0791645 −0.0791524 0.509388 0.509388 0.507470
0 −0.0075500 −0.0075356 −0.0075357 0.519888 0.519889 0.519886
10 0.0728184 0.0728139 0.0728019 0.507483 0.507483 0.509400
20 0.0958310 0.0958291 0.0958286 0.501224 0.501224 0.501634
30 0.0994253 0.0994251 0.0994251 0.500170 0.500170 0.500229

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40 0.0999220 0.0999220 0.0999220 0.500023 0.500023 0.500031
50 0.0999894 0.0999894 0.0999894 0.500003 0.500003 0.500004

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u(x,, t) v(x,, t)
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Fig. 1. The approximation solutions u(x, t) and v(x, t).

where b and k are the non-zero arbitrary constants. The exact solution for the system Eqs (6a)-6(b) with
the initial conditions (12) is given by [14]:
 
b λ k
u(x, t) = + k tanh (kξ) , v(x, t) = 1+ + b tanh (kξ) . (13)
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2k 2 b
 
3b2
Where ξ = x + 14 −4k2 − 6λ + 6kλ b + k 2 t.
Using initial condition (12) and the iterative scheme Eqs (9a) and (9b), we obtain some terms of the
series as follows:
b
U0 (x) = + k tanh(kx),
2k
 
λ k
V0 (x) = 1+ + b tanh(kx),
2 b
274 A. Tomar and R. Arora / Numerical simulation of coupled MKdV equation by reduced differential transform method

Table 3
Comparison of the RDTM solutions with the ADM solutions [5] and the exact solutions (13) for coupled MKdV equation with
initial conditions (12) when λ = 0.1, k = 0.1, b = 0.1 and t = 0.5
x URDTM UADM Uexact VRDTM VADM Vexact
−50 0.400010 0.400010 0.400010 9.776288E6 9.776290E6 9.7769127E6
−40 0.400072 0.400072 0.400072 0.000072215 0.000072215 0.0000722196
−30 0.400532 0.400532 0.400532 0.000532373 0.000532373 0.0005324064
−20 0.403868 0.403868 0.403868 0.003867974 0.003867970 0.0038681909
−10 0.425438 0.425438 0.425439 0.025438277 0.025438300 0.0254387962
0 0.503700 0.503700 0.503698 0.103700000 0.103700000 0.1036983125
10 0.577670 0.577670 0.577670 0.177669533 0.177670000 0.1776700628
20 0.596655 0.596655 0.596655 0.196654842 0.196655000 0.1966550519
30 0.599541 0.599541 0.599541 0.199540636 0.199541000 0.1995406680

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40 0.599938 0.599938 0.599938 0.199937708 0.199938000 0.1999377125
50 0.599992 0.599992 0.599992 0.199991567 0.199992000 0.1999915680

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u(x, t) v(x, t)
Fig. 2. The approximation solutions u(x, t) and v(x, t).
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U1 (x) = − 3k2 λsech(kx)2 − 3bk2 sech(kx)2 tanh(kx)

   
2 2 1 k
+ 3k sech(kx) 1+ λ + b tanh(kx)
2 b
   
2 2 b 2 2 b 2
+ 3bk sech(kx) + k tanh(kx) − 3k sech(kx) + k tanh(kx)
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2k 2k
1  
+ k −2k3 sech(kx)4 + 4k3 sech(kx)2 tanh(kx)2 ,
2
   
2 3 4 2 1 k
V1 (x) =3bkλsech(kx) − 3bk sech(kx) − 3bksech(kx) 1+ λ + b tanh(kx)
2 b
 2
2 b
+ 3bksech(kx) + k tanh(kx)
2k
 
− b −2k3 sech(kx)4 + 4k3 sech(kx)2 tanh(kx)2 .
 A. Tomar and R. Arora / Numerical simulation of coupled MKdV equation by reduced differential transform method 275

Also we have obtained U2 (x) and V2 (x) but they are not shown here since their expressions are very
lengthy. In a similar way, other components may be computed. After putting these values in Eqs (10)
and (11), we obtain the second order approximation. The Comparison of the RDTM solutions with the
ADM solutions [5] and the exact solutions (13) for coupled MKdV equation with initial conditions (12)
when λ = 0.1, k = 0.1, b = 0.1 and t = 0.5 is shown in Table 3, and the comparative study between
these results shows very good agreement.
The solutions of system (6a)–(6b) with the initial condition (12) are shown in Fig. 2; the solutions are
of kink-type for both u(x, t) and v(x, t) which are same as in Raslan [5].

4. Conclusions

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The RDTM method is used for finding soliton solutions of the coupled MKdV equation with two dif-
ferent initial conditions. This method has been applied directly without using bilinear forms, Wronskian,
or inverse scattering method. It is worth pointing out that the RDTM have convergence for the solutions,
actually, the accuracy of the series solution increases when the number of terms in the series solution

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is increased. From computational process of RDTM, we have found that the RDTM is easier to apply
rather than other methods. We have used the software package “MATHEMATICA” to calculate the terms
of the series obtained from the RDTM. The numerical results are compared with the exact solutions and
ADM. A comparative study between these results shows very good agreement. It may be concluded that
the RTDM method is a very powerful and efficient technique to obtain exact or approximate solutions
for a wide classes of problems.
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