Numerical analysis of fourth-order multi-term fractional reaction-diffusion equation arises in chemical reactions

The time-fractional fourth-order reaction-diffusion problem, which contains more than one time-fractional derivative of orders lying between 0 and 1, is considered. This problem is the generalized version of the problem discussed by Nikan et al. Appl. Math. Model. 89 (2021), 819–836 that has only one time-fractional derivative. It is widely used in the study of chemical waves and patterns in reaction-diffusion systems. The analysis of non-smooth solutions to this problem is discussed broadly using the Caputo-time fractional derivative. The non-smooth solutions to the problem have a weak singularity close to zero that can be efficiently handled by considering the non-uniform mesh. The method based on the non-uniform time stepping is an efficacious way to regain accuracy. The current study presents the trigonometric quintic B-spline approach to solve this multi-term time-fractional fourth-order problem using graded mesh and effective grading parameters. The stability and convergence results are proved through rigorous analysis, which helps choose the optimal grading parameter. The accuracy and effectiveness of our technique are observed in our numerical experiments that manifest the comparison of uniform and non-uniform meshes.