Recent Advances in the Spatial and Temporal Discretizations of Fractional PDEs, Second Edition

A special issue of Fractal and Fractional (ISSN 2504-3110). This special issue belongs to the section "Numerical and Computational Methods".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 14 November 2025 | Viewed by 1243

Special Issue Editors


E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
1. School of Mathematics, Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, Chengdu 611130, China
2. Mathematical Institute, Utrecht University, 3584 Utrecht, The Netherlands
Interests: numerical linear algebra; numerical (fractional) PDEs; parallel-in-time methods; Krylov subspace solvers
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institute of Mathematics and Physics, College of Science, Central South University of Forestry and Technology, Changsha 410004, China
Interests: finite difference, finite volume and finite element methods for time fractional differential equations; finite element and finite difference methods for integral fractional Laplace
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Mathematics, Shandong University, Jinan 250100, China
Interests: fractional calculus; fractional differential equation; variable-order; numerical method; mathematical analysis
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Fractional PDEs (FPDEs) generalize the classic (integer-order) calculus and PDEs to any differential form of fractional orders. FPDEs are emerging as a powerful tool for modeling challenging multiscale phenomena, including overlapping microscopic and macroscopic scales, anomalous transport and long-range time–memory or spatial interactions. However, the exact solutions of FPDEs cannot be explicitly expressed; thus, numerical methods based on various spatial and temporal discretizations have become the mainstream tools for such FPDEs and have experienced a drastic development in recent decades. These spatial and temporal discretizations that maintain the important characteristics or structures of FPDEs, such as weak singularity, optimal long-time decay rate, long-term numerical stability and the convergence of numerical schemes for such FPDEs, are still limited. Therefore, developing efficient spatial and temporal discretizations for the numerical solutions of FPDEs remains challenging in the field of numerical analysis.

This Special Issue, titled “Recent Advances in the Spatial and Temporal Discretizations of Fractional PDEs, Second Edition”, will provide a platform for recent and original research results on efficient numerical methods for solving FPDEs. We invite authors to contribute original research articles on topics including, but not limited to, the following:

  • Finite difference, finite elements, finite volume and spectral methods;
  • Nonuniform and adaptive discretizations;
  • Adaptive space–time methods;
  • Numerical treatments of integro-differential equations;
  • Parallel-in-time methods;
  • Fast matrix computations arising from numerical methods for FPDEs;
  • Nonlocal modeling and computation;
  • Convolution quadrature;
  • Modeling and simulations involving (fractional) PDEs.

Dr. Xian-Ming Gu
Prof. Dr. Hongbin Chen
Prof. Dr. Xiangcheng Zheng
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Fractal and Fractional is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • fractional PDEs
  • finite difference, finite element, finite volume, spectral methods
  • nonuniform and adaptive discretizations
  • adaptive space–time methods
  • parallel-in-time methods
  • numerical methods
  • numerical treatments of integro-differential equations
  • nonlocal modeling and computation
  • convolution quadratures
  • modeling and simulations

Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue

  • Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
  • Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
  • Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
  • External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
  • Reprint: MDPI Books provides the opportunity to republish successful Special Issues in book format, both online and in print.

Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.

Related Special Issue

Published Papers (3 papers)

Order results
Result details
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

18 pages, 552 KiB  
Article
Error Analysis of the L1 Scheme on a Modified Graded Mesh for a Caputo–Hadamard Fractional Diffusion Equation
by Dan Liu, Libin Liu, Hongbin Chen and Xiongfa Mai
Fractal Fract. 2025, 9(5), 286; https://doi.org/10.3390/fractalfract9050286 - 27 Apr 2025
Viewed by 160
Abstract
The L1 scheme on a modified graded mesh is proposed to solve a Caputo–Hadamard fractional diffusion equation with order α(0,1). Firstly, an improved graded mesh frame is innovatively constructed, and its mathematical properties are verified. [...] Read more.
The L1 scheme on a modified graded mesh is proposed to solve a Caputo–Hadamard fractional diffusion equation with order α(0,1). Firstly, an improved graded mesh frame is innovatively constructed, and its mathematical properties are verified. Subsequently, a new truncation error bound for the L1 discretisation format of Caputo–Hadamard fractional-order derivatives is established by means of a Taylor cosine expansion of the integral form, and a second-order central difference method is used to achieve high-precision discretisation of spatial derivatives. Furthermore, a rigorous analysis of stability and convergence under the maximum norm is conducted, with special attention devoted to validating that the L1 approximation scheme manifests an optimal convergence order of 2α when deployed on the modified graded mesh. Finally, the theoretical results are substantiated through a series of numerical experiments, which validate their accuracy and applicability. Full article
Show Figures

Figure 1

19 pages, 4462 KiB  
Article
Variable-Order Time-Fractional Kelvin Peridynamics for Rock Steady Creep
by Chang Liu, Tiantian Dong, Yuhang Qi and Xu Guo
Fractal Fract. 2025, 9(4), 197; https://doi.org/10.3390/fractalfract9040197 - 23 Mar 2025
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 239
Abstract
A variable-order time-fractional Kelvin peridynamics model is proposed, where the variable order is utilized to reflect the changes of viscosity in viscoelastic materials to effectively capture the damage and deformation of rock steady creep. The corresponding constitutive model is established by coupling a [...] Read more.
A variable-order time-fractional Kelvin peridynamics model is proposed, where the variable order is utilized to reflect the changes of viscosity in viscoelastic materials to effectively capture the damage and deformation of rock steady creep. The corresponding constitutive model is established by coupling a spring and an Abel dashpot. Through the Caputo definition of fractional-order derivatives, finite increment formulations for the constitutive model are derived to facilitate numerical implementation by an explicit time integration scheme. We accordingly introduce a model parameter evaluation method for practical applications. To verify the validity and correctness of the model, constant-order time-fractional peridynamics is used to compare with the proposed model via a sandstone compress creep numerical test, and the results show that the latter can simulate nonlinear creep behavior more efficiently. Additionally, the numerical simulation of practical engineering is conducted. Compared with constant-order time-fractional peridynamics, the proposed model can improve the simulation accuracy by 16.7% with fewer model parameters. Full article
Show Figures

Figure 1

28 pages, 3393 KiB  
Article
An Improved Numerical Scheme for 2D Nonlinear Time-Dependent Partial Integro-Differential Equations with Multi-Term Fractional Integral Items
by Fan Ouyang, Hongyan Liu and Yanying Ma
Fractal Fract. 2025, 9(3), 167; https://doi.org/10.3390/fractalfract9030167 - 11 Mar 2025
Viewed by 539
Abstract
This paper is dedicated to investigating a highly accurate numerical solution for a class of 2D nonlinear time-dependent partial integro-differential equations with multi-term fractional integral items. These integrals are weakly singular with respect to time, which are handled using the product integration rule [...] Read more.
This paper is dedicated to investigating a highly accurate numerical solution for a class of 2D nonlinear time-dependent partial integro-differential equations with multi-term fractional integral items. These integrals are weakly singular with respect to time, which are handled using the product integration rule on graded meshes to compensate for the influence generated by the initial weak singular nature of the exact solution. The temporal derivative is approximated by a generalized Crank–Nicolson difference scheme, while the nonlinear term is approximated by a linearized method. Furthermore, the stability and convergence of the derived time semi-discretization scheme are strictly proved by revising the finite discrete parameters. Meanwhile, the differential matrices of the spatial high-order derivatives based on barycentric rational interpolation are utilized to obtain the fully discrete scheme. Finally, the effectiveness and reliability of the proposed method are validated by means of several numerical experiments. Full article
Show Figures

Figure 1

Back to TopTop