A reliable technique to study nonlinear time-fractional coupled Korteweg–de Vries equations

Abstract

Abstract This paper employs an efficient technique, namely q-homotopy analysis transform method, to study a nonlinear coupled system of equations with Caputo fractional-time derivative. The nonlinear fractional coupled systems studied in this present investigation are the generalized Hirota–Satsuma coupled with KdV, the coupled KdV, and the modified coupled KdV equations which are used as a model in nonlinear physical phenomena arising in biology, chemistry, physics, and engineering. The series solution obtained using this method is proved to be reliable and accurate with minimal computations. Several numerical comparisons are made with well-known analytical methods and the exact solutions when $\alpha =1$ α=1 . It is evident from the results obtained that the proposed method outperformed other methods in handling the coupled systems considered in this paper. The effect of the fractional order on the problem considered is investigated, and the error estimate when compared with exact solution is presented.