International Journal of Dynamics and Control

https://doi.org/10.1007/s40435-018-0410-6

Stability preserving non standard finite difference schemes for certain

biological models
P. Raja Sekhara Rao1 · K. Venkata Ratnam2 · M. Sita Rama Murthy3

Received: 6 December 2017 / Revised: 7 February 2018 / Accepted: 12 February 2018

© Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2018

Abstract
Two popular models of mathematical biology with continuous dynamics are considered. Non standard finite difference
schemes are proposed for these models. The question of existence of equilibria of corresponding discrete dynamical systems
is examined. Sufficient conditions on parameters for stability of equilibrium solutions are presented. Results are compared
with their continuous counter parts wherever possible. Examples are presented to illustrate the results and simulations are
provided to visualize the examples.

Keywords Non standard finite difference schemes · Continuous dynamical system · Discrete dynamical system · Population
models · Stability
Mathematics Subject Classification 37N25 · 39A11 · 65L12 · 65L20

1 Introduction continuous dynamical system is represented by a differential

With the advent of digital technology, the need for discretiza-
tion is going up. Computers have taken up most of the jobs
of human beings especially when they involve large calcu-
lations or estimations. To assign our tasks to computer we
need to convert our analog information into its language (dis-
crete). Results are satisfactory as long as the analog data is
represented by simple functions and equivalent discrete data
fits it. Problem comes when a situation is represented by
a continuous dynamical system and the corresponding dis-
crete dynamical system does not possess the same qualities
or reflect the exact qualitative properties of the original con-
tinuous dynamical system. For example, simplest form of a
B K. Venkata Ratnam
vrkota@yahoo.com
P. Raja Sekhara Rao
raoprs@gmail.com
M. Sita Rama Murthy
srmmushunuri@gmail.com
1 Government Polytechnic, Kalidindi, A.P. 521344, India
2 Department of Mathematics, Birla Institute of Technology
and Science-Pilani, Hyderabad Campus, Jawahar Nagar,
Hyderabad 500078, India
3 Department of Basic Science, Vishnu Institute of Technology,
Bhimavaram, A.P. 534202, India
equation. The corresponding discrete dynamical system, a
difference equation, represented by Euler method is shown
to be a different kind of system not behaving exactly as
its continuous counter part [1]. Also methods of numerical
integration such as Runge–Kutta method are found to meet
our requirements only a certain extent. Thus, transformation
from continuous to discrete is not properly done by these
methods. When the gap between the terms of discrete data is
small enough, it may as well behave as continuous data. But
when step size is large, discrete data may not be adequate to
represent its analog counterpart. In such cases how to draw
conclusions from the discrete versions is a reasonably good
question to investigate. There should be a link between the
two types of data either with an additional information that
could preserve the properties or with appropriate transfor-
mation so that the entire information of continuous system
is carried into its discrete version.
Researchers have tried the second path led by Mickens
[1]. The transformation method called “Non Standard Finite
Difference method” (NSFD method, for short) has been
providing very good results to define discrete versions appre-
ciably close to their continuous counter parts. The method is
“non standard” as each dynamical system has to be treated
separately and individually.

123

Early works on this have concentrated on developing
basic techniques to deal with systems. The attention now
has shifted to understanding the qualitative properties such as
existence, uniqueness, stability and boundedness of solutions
of the discretized system keeping in background the behav-
ior of the continuous dynamical system. This has become
essential as the continuous system, that represents a practi-
cal situation, is actually formed basing on discrete data but is
assumed to be continuous for the purpose of analytical, math-
ematical study. Examples could be many, food–consumer
models (where feeding is discrete and growth is measured at
regular intervals), population models (based on census data),
epidemic/infectious disease models (based on clinical data),
to quote a few.
Attempts are made to analyze such models using non
standard finite difference schemes. Basic techniques are pro-
posed by the pioneering work of [1] and developed by [2,3].
Studies in [4–6] propose topological methods for dynami-
cal consistency of the models. The works of [7–12] provide
applications to biological and physical systems. Algorithms
are proposed [13] and techniques [14–17] are developed for
understanding dynamical properties of the systems to extend
the schemes to more complicated systems including delay
differential equations, differential–difference equations. The
area provides great scope for further research as finding an
analytic solution to a system of differential equations is hard
and conventional numerical solutions are less reliable and
there are no global rules in either case to understand the
behavior of dynamical systems [10].
Motivated by such studies we wish to analyze, in the
present paper, two important mathematical models—one
concerned with food–consumer interactions [18] and the
other dealing with Susceptible-Infected-Recovered popu-
lation (SIR) model under influence of vaccination and
treatment [19]. We utilize appropriate NSFD schemes to
convert the continuous dynamical systems to discrete dynam-
ical systems to study the qualitative behavior of the discrete
dynamical system and see how the properties are preserved.
Noticing that the nonlinear functional relations that repre-
sent the interactions between the populations are dominated
by negative linear terms of the constituent populations, we
modify the linear dominating terms to a higher step and retain
nonlinear interactions in present state of time and show how
this simple scheme keeps the qualitative properties such as
existence of equilibria and their stability intact for the modi-
fied discrete version. Examples are provided to illustrate the
results with supporting visualizations through simulations by
MatLab.
The paper is organized as follows: next section pro-
vides the scheme followed, definitions and useful results as
lemmas. In Sect. 3, we deal with a food–consumer model
popularly known as a chemostat model. Both local and global
stability of equilibrium solutions are studied here. In Sect. 4,
123
P. Raja Sekhara Rao et al.
we consider a proposed recently SIR model to test the scheme
further. A sufficient condition for local stability of equilib-
rium solution is established. The case of linear interaction
(Lotka–Volterra coupling) is studied in Sect. 5. A discussion
concludes the article.
2 The scheme and some preliminaries
In this section, we shall mention the notations, definitions and
some preliminary results that are to be used consequently.
Following the Mickens formulations [11,16], we set the
continuous time derivative u  of function u(t) by
(I) u  → u k+1φ−ψu k , where ψ = 1 + O(h) and φ = h +
O(h 2 ), where h is the step size.
(II) For simplicity, we let the functions ψ and φ to be ψ ≡ 1
and φ ≡ h.
Though several choices are available in literature [1,
10], these assumptions are found to be useful enough
for our models here.
(III) Further we let g(u)v → g(u k )vk to retain the same
nonlinear interactions among the constituent variables.
(IV) The lone linear term controlling the dynamics is taken
to be u k → u k+1 as in [1].
The following lemmas are useful for our study.
Lemma 2.1 Roots of a quadratic equation λ2 + αλ + β = 0
satisfy |λi | < 1 for i = 1, 2 if and only if the following
conditions hold: (i) 1 + α + β > 0 (ii) 1 − α + β > 0 and
(iii) β < 1.
For a cubic equation, we have
Lemma 2.2 The roots of the equation λ3 +a1 λ2 +a2 λ+a3 =
0 to satisfy |λi | < 1 for i = 1, 2, 3, the following conditions
are necessary and sufficient:
(i) 1 + a1 + a2 + a3 > 0; (ii) 1 − a1 + a2 − a3 > 0;
(iii) 3 + a1 − a2 − 3a3 > 0 and (iv) 1 + a1 a3 − a2 − a32
> 0.
Consider the system of difference equations
xk+1 = f (xk ), x(k0 ) = x0 , (2.1)
In (2.1), x(k) ∈ Rn is a state variable at discrete time k
with the function f satisfying at least Lipschitz conditions
to provide unique solutions to (2.1) corresponding to initial
condition given. By an equilibrium solution x ∗ of (2.1), we
mean f (x ∗ ) = x ∗ .
We introduce the notion of stability for (2.1) (see [20]).
Stability preserving non standard finite difference schemes for certain biological models

 
Definition 2.3 The equilibrium solution of a system of differ- (S1) x ∗ = BA , 0 is stable if C M < D while
ence equations (2.1) is locally asymptotically stable if all the (S2) (x ∗ , y ∗ ) is stable if C M > D.
characteristic roots of the corresponding linearized system
are less than unity in absolute values. We shall see whether the NSFD scheme considered in Sect.
Definition 2.4 A function V (xk ) is said to be a Lyapunov 2 would transform system (3.1) into a stability preserving
∗
function for the system (2.1) if (i) V (x ) = 0, (ii) V (xk ) > 0 system of difference equations or not.
for x = x ∗ and (iii) V (x ) − V (x ) < 0 in a properly We consider the following transformation.
k k+1 k
defined neighborhood of an equilibrium value x ∗ .
xk+1 − xk
= A − Bxk+1 − CU (xk )yk
Definition 2.5 The equilibrium solution x ∗ of system (2.1) is h
said to be asymptotically stable in the sense of Lyapunov if yk+1 − yk
= CU (xk )yk − Dyk+1
there exists a Lyapunov function V satisfying the conditions h
of Definition 2.4.
This after a modification yields
In the following sections, we apply above schemes to convert
two important continuous dynamical systems into discrete 1  
ones and obtain sufficient conditions for stability of equilib- xk+1 = xk + h A − ChU (xk )yk
1 + Bh
rium solutions of these discrete dynamical systems. We shall 1  
see how far this scheme would preserve the stability of the the yk+1 = yk + ChU (xk )yk (3.2)
1 + Dh
continuous dynamical systems studied in [18,19]. We begin
with a food–consumer model as our first choice.
The equilibrium solutions of (3.2) are given by

1  ∗ 
3 A food–consumer model x∗ = x + h A − ChU (x ∗ )y ∗
1 + Bh
∗ 1  ∗ 
In this section, we consider the following food–consumer y = y + ChU (x ∗ )y ∗
model [18]. 1 + Dh

Clearly these equations yield:

x  = A − Bx − CU (x)y
y  = CU (x)y − Dy. (3.1)  
(i) x ∗ = B,0
A
 
D A−Bx ∗
In (3.1), x = x(t) is the food available in the system at any (ii) (U (x ∗ ), y ∗ ) = C, D ,
time t and y = y(t) represents the consumer population. A
is external food supply rate, B is the death rate of x, C is
which are same as those of (3.1).
the consumption rate of food x by the consumer y with a
consumption pattern U . D is the death rate of y. It is usually Let us see how far their stability is carried through.
assumed that food (x) and consumers (y) have the same death We shall begin with the local asymptotic stability of the
rate (B = D) that is caused by a washout of organisms system. The linearized system corresponding to (3.2) is
from the experimental vessel called chemostat. Here we may

  
consider a more general situation, namely, B and D need not 1 − ChU  (x ∗ )y ∗ −Ch ∗
1+Bh U (x∗ )
1
xk+1 xk
be the same. All the parameters are positive constants and = 1+Bh
 ∗ ∗ 1+ChU (x ) .
1+Dh U (x )y
yk+1 Ch yk
the function U is a non negative, continuous, bounded one 1+Dh
with saturation and in most of the studies U is monotonic
increasing as well. Here we assume that there exist positive That is,
constants L and M such that
  
xk+1 a1 b1 xk
|U (m) − U (n)| ≤ L|m − n| and U (x) ≤ M for all m, n. = (3.3)
yk+1 a2 b2 yk

where
The system (3.1) has two equilibria, namely an axial equi-
librium ( BA , 0) and a positive equilibrium (x ∗ , y ∗ ) given by 1   −Ch
U (x ∗ ) = CD and y ∗ = A−Bx
∗
∗ −1 D a1 = 1 − ChU  (x ∗ )y ∗ , b1 = U (x ∗ )
D . Also x = U ( C ), if U is 1 + Bh 1 + Bh
monotonic increasing. Ch 1 + ChU (x ∗ )
From [18] it follows that a2 = U  (x ∗ )y ∗ , b2 =
1 + Dh 1 + Dh

123
 P. Raja Sekhara Rao et al.

The characteristic equation corresponding to (3.3) is 5

x
  y
 a1 − λ b1 
 
 a2 b2 − λ  = 0.
4

3
That is

x, y
λ2 − (a1 + b2 )λ + (a1 b2 − a2 b1 = 0). (3.4) 2

Then we have
1
Theorem 3.1 The equilibrium solution of (3.2) is locally
asymptotically stable provided the following conditions are 0
satisfied. 0 200 400 600 800 1000

(i) 1 − (a1 + b2 ) + a1 b2 − a2 b1 > 0, (ii) 1 + a1 + b2 + a1 b2 − t

a2 b1 > 0 and (iii) a1 b2 − a2 b1 < 1. Fig. 1 Populations (x, y) converging to equilibrium (1, 4) for large
time t as predicted by Theorem 3.1
Proof The result follows from a direct application of Lemma
2.1 for Eq. (3.4). 

10
x
Remark 3.2 In case the equilibrium is ( BA , 0), we have a2 = 0 y
8
and hence λ1 = a1 , λ2 = b2 are roots of the given equation.
Thus the above conditions reduce to |a1 | < 1, |b2 | < 1,
(x ∗ )
equivalently, 1+Bh1
< 1 and 1+ChU 1+Dh < 1. First one is x, y 6

vacuously true for any h > 0 and the second one yields
CU (x ∗ ) < D or U (x ∗ ) < CD . 4

This condition is same as the one for the local asymptotic

stability (S1) of equilibrium ( BA , 0) of (3.1). Thus, stability is 2
transformed as it is from (3.1) to (3.2) for axial equilibrium.
Let us illustrate the case of stability of positive equilibrium 0
solution (3.2) with numerical examples and compare with 0 200 400 600 800 1000
t
that of (3.1). It is known that the positive equilibrium for
system (3.1) is stable in these cases. Fig. 2 Equilibrium (6, 2) is stable under the NSFD scheme (3.2). Pop-
ulations (x, y) versus time t
Example 3.3 Case A For the system (3.1) [or (3.2)] choose
A = 10, B = 2, C = 6, D = 2, U (x) = x+2 x
. Clearly
(1,4) is the positive equilibrium of (3.1) which is stable by With this motivation, and to enrich the literature, we shall
(S2). now proceed to the global stability of positive equilibrium
It may be verified that all the conditions of Theorem 3.1 of (3.2). We shall find a Lyapunov function for this purpose.
are satisfied, and hence, the same equilibrium (1, 4) of (3.2) Before that, we arrange (3.2) using equilibrium values as
is locally asymptotically stable by virtue of Theorem 3.1.
1 
Further the simulations for the given system (3.2) with the xk+1 − x ∗ = (xk − x ∗ ) − ChU (xk )(yk − y ∗ )
above parameters support this. See Fig. 1 below. Both the 1 + Bh

populations x and y are shown on vertical axis against time t − Chy ∗ (U (xk ) − U (x ∗ ))
to reflect the convergence to the equilibrium value specified 1 
yk+1 − y ∗ = (yk − y ∗ ) + ChU (xk )(yk − y ∗ )
in the same figure for an easy understanding of behavior of 1 + Dh

solutions of the system. + Chy ∗ (U (xk ) − U (x ∗ )) .
Case B Modifying the food supply rate A and death rate
D for y we consider (3.1) with A = 21, B = 2, C = Further we suppose that there exists positive constants L 1 and
6, D = 4.5, U (x) = x+2 x
. The corresponding system has M1 , for some l > 0 such that |U (xk )−U (x ∗ )| ≤ L 1 |xk − x ∗ |
(6, 2) as its equilibrium which is stable in the continuous and |U (xk )| ≤ M1 for k > l, sufficiently large.
case and Theorem 3.1 here establishes the stability of the
same equilibrium for (3.2) (see Fig. 2). Theorem 3.4 The positive equilibrium (x ∗ , y ∗ ) is globally
Thus, we may conclude that the non standard scheme has asymptotically stable provided (i) B − 2C L y ∗ > 0 and
preserved the stability properties of system (3.1). (ii) D − 2C M1 > 0 hold.

123
Stability preserving non standard finite difference schemes for certain biological models

Proof We consider the functional of the infected population-either not at all treated or inade-
V (xk , yk ) = (1 + Bh)|xk − x ∗ | + (1 + Dh)|yk − y ∗ |. quately treated or beyond the treatment. P(y) is the recovery
(by treatment) function of the infected while r > 0 denotes
Consider the rate of treatment and also the recovery rate. The parame-
V (xk+1 , yk+1 ) − V (xk , yk ) ter α > 0 is the rate at which a recovered individual may be
an exposed susceptible again. For basic properties of V , f
= |(xk − x ∗ ) − ChU (xk )(yk − y ∗ )
and P and examples of such functions readers may refer to
− Chy ∗ (U (xk ) − U (x ∗ ))| [19]. Under suitable conditions on these functions it is shown
+ |(yk − y ∗ ) + ChU (xk )(yk − y ∗ ) that (4.1) possesses both disease free equilibrium (x ∗ , 0, 0)
+ y ∗ Ch(U (xk ) − U (x ∗ ))| and an endemic equilibrium (x ∗ , y ∗ , z ∗ ).
Now considering NSFD scheme as in earlier section, sys-
− (1 + Bh)|xk − x ∗ | − (1 + Dh)|yk − y ∗ |
tem (4.1) may be written as
≤ −Bh|xk − x ∗ | + 2y ∗ Ch|U (xk ) − U (x ∗ )|
− Dh|yk − y ∗ | + 2hCU (xk )|yk − y ∗ | xk+1 − xk
= a − b f (xk )yk − d xk+1 − cV (xk ) + αz k
∗ ∗ h
≤ − (B − 2C L 1 y )h|xk − x |
yk+1 − yk
− (D − 2C M1 )h|yk − y ∗ | = b f (xk )yk − r P(yk ) − d1 yk+1
h
< 0, z k+1 − z k
= r P(yk ) − αz k+1 (4.2)
h
by assumptions. Clearly V is the required Lyapunov function
and the conclusion follows from Definition 2.5. The proof is This after a rearrangement yields
complete. 

1  
xk+1 = xk + h(a − b f (xk )yk − cV (xk ) + αz k )
We shall now proceed to a three dimensional model to 1 + dh
further verify the scheme proposed. 1  
yk+1 = yk + h(b f (xk )yk − r P(yk ))
1 + d1 h
1  
4 SIR model with vaccination z k+1 = z k + hr P(yk ) (4.3)
1 + αh
We consider now the following model
As earlier, the equilibria for this case are given by the solu-
x  = a − b f (x)y − cV (x) − d x + αz tions of
y  = b f (x)y − r P(y) − d1 y
z  = r P(y) − αz. (4.1) d x ∗ = a − b f (x ∗ )y ∗ − cV (x ∗ ) + αz ∗
d1 y ∗ = b f (x ∗ )y ∗ − r P(y ∗ )
In (4.1), x = x(t), y = y(t) and z = z(t) denote the sus- αz ∗ = r P(y ∗ ) (4.4)
ceptible, infected and recovered (by treatment) populations
at any time t respectively. The parameter a ≥ 0 is the growth In this case also, we notice that Eq. (4.3) has the same set
rate of the susceptible population, f denotes the non-linear of equilibria as that of (4.1) in view of (4.4). We shall pro-
incidence or infection function showing how the susceptibles ceed to the local stability of equilibria of (4.3). Here under
x are converted into infected y. Parameter b > 0 denotes the (x ∗ , y ∗ , z ∗ ) denotes either of the equilibria of the system,
rate of contact of infected with the susceptibles and d is the unless specified.
rate of removal of such susceptible individuals from the sys- The linearized version of (4.3) may be represented as

⎛   −bh
⎞
⎛ ⎞ 1
1+dh 1 − h(b f  (x ∗ )y ∗ − cV  (x ∗ )) 1+dh f (x ∗ ) dh
1+dh ⎛ ⎞
xk+1 ⎜ ⎟ xk
⎝ yk+1 ⎠ = ⎜
⎜ bh
f  (x ∗ )y ∗ 1+bh f (x ∗ )−hr P  (y ∗ ) ⎟⎝ ⎠
0 ⎟ yk (4.5)
⎝ 1+d1 h 1+d1 h ⎠
z k+1 hr P  (y ∗ ) 1 zk
0 1+αh 1+αh

tem who are naturally immune to the infection and in no way

get infected. V (x) is the vaccination function (depends on ⎛ ⎞ ⎛ ⎞⎛ ⎞
xk+1 A1 B1 C1 xk
the susceptible population), c > 0 is the rate of successful ⎝ yk+1 ⎠ = ⎝ A2 B2 0 ⎠ ⎝ yk ⎠ (4.6)
vaccination. The parameter d1 > 0 is the removal/death rate z k+1 A3 B3 C3 zk

123
 P. Raja Sekhara Rao et al.

where A1 , B1 , C1 , A2 , B2 , A3 , B3 and C3 represent the cor- 10

responding terms in coefficient matrix of system (4.5).

The characteristic equation of (4.6) is given by 8 x

  y
 A1 − λ B1 C1  z
 6
 A2 B2 − λ 0  = 0,

x, y, z
 
 A3 B3 C3 − λ 
4

which may be written as

2
λ3 − (A1 + B2 + C3 )λ2 + (A1 B2 + A1 C3 + B2 C3 − A2 B1 )λ
+ (A2 B1 C3 − A1 B2 C3 − A2 B3 C1 ) = 0 0
0 200 400 600 800 1000
t
or simply
Fig. 3 Stability of disease free equilibrium (9.18, 0, 0). All the three
λ3 + Lλ2 + Mλ + N = 0, (4.7) populations (x, y, z) are shown on vertical axis against same time vari-
able t on horizontal axis
where L = −(A1 + B2 +C3 ), M = A1 B2 + A1 C3 + B2 C3 − 1.4
A2 B1 , and N = A2 B1 C3 − A1 B2 C3 − A2 B3 C1 .
We now state 1.2

Theorem 4.1 The equilibrium solution of (x ∗ , y ∗ , z ∗ ) of 1

(4.3) is locally asymptotically stable provided the following
x
conditions hold. 0.8
x, y, z

y
z
0.6
(i) 1 + L + M + N > 0, (ii) 1 − L + M − N > 0,
(iii) 3+ L − M −3N > 0 and (iv) 1+ L N − M − N 2 > 0. 0.4

Proof Conclusion follows immediately from Lemma 2.2 as 0.2

the above assumptions lead to |λi | < 1, for i = 1, 2, 3, the

0
characteristic roots λi of (4.7). 0 200 400 600 800 1000
The following example illustrates this result. It is estab- t
lished in [19] that the system (4.1) in this case has a disease
Fig. 4 Convergence of solutions of the system in Example 4.3. Popu-
free equilibrium (9.18, 0, 0) (approximately) which is locally lations versus time
asymptotically stable. 

√
Example 4.2 Consider the system (4.1), correspondingly ( 57−3
4 , 0, 0) is locally asymptotically stable. Same is the
(4.2), with a = 10, b = c = d = r = α = 1, d1 = case with system (4.1) for the same equilibrium [19]. Thus,
y
3, f (x) = x+2
x
, V (x) = x+2
x
, P(y) = y+1 . our scheme retains the stability properties of the system in
One may verify that all conditions of Theorem 4.1 are this case also. Figure 4 depicts this.
satisfied and thus, the equilibrium solution (9.18, 0, 0) of So far we have studied the beahavior of systems with
(4.2) is locally asymptotically stable. The simulations also bounded interaction functions in these examples. They are
support the theory as may be seen in Fig. 3. well behaved in the sense that they have a saturation limit as
Thus, we may conclude that the system of difference equa- well. We shall go a little further in the following section.
tions (4.3) has preserved the stability of equilibrium solution
of (4.1).
We provide one more example.
5 A particular case
Example 4.3 Consider system (4.1) and at the same time (4.2)
for the choice of parameters a = 1.5, b = 3, c = d = In this section, we deal with the particular case of linear
r = α = d1 = 1 and functions f (x) = x+2 x
, V (x) = interaction functions. To elaborate, we let U (x) ≡ x in
y
x
x+2 , P(y) = y+1 . model (3.1) and V (x) ≡ x, f (x) ≡ x, and p(y) ≡ y in
It is easy to verify that all conditions of Theorem 4.1 (4.1). Though the local stability conditions do not specifically
are satisfied for system (4.2), and hence, the equilibrium require a pre-defined form for these functions, we notice that

123
Stability preserving non standard finite difference schemes for certain biological models

Theorem 3.3 requires U (xk ) to be bounded and take values 5

lower than 2CDM1 for xk > x ∗ . Similar conditions are required
in its continuous counterpart for stability. More over we have
simply replaced U (x)y in (3.1) by U (xk )yk in (3.2) rather 4 x
than attempting to modify it. Same is the case with functions y
in Sect. 4. But the system is able to sustain the stability in
3
both spaces in both cases. One may notice that linear func-

x, y
tional relations are simply unbounded. Therefore, results in
Sects. 3 and 4 may not guarantee the stability of respective 2
systems. Let us examine this with the help of a numerical
example.
Consider the system 1

x  = 10 − 2x − 6x y
y  = 6x y − 2y, (5.1) 0
0 200 400 600 800 1000
t
obtained by taking U (x) ≡ x in (3.1) and its discrete version
from (3.2) given by Fig. 5 Solutions converging to equilibrium solution of (5.1) under
scheme (5.2) for step size h = 0.01
1  
xk+1 = xk + 10h − 6hxk yk
1 + 2h 6
1  
yk+1 = yk + 6hxk yk . (5.2)
1 + 2h 5

It is easy to see that both systems have the same equilibrium 4

solution (1/3, 14/3). Thus, our scheme preserves the equi-
libria of the original system. However simulations show that 3
x
x, y

solutions of (5.2) behave well as those of (5.1) for small step y

2
sizes (h < 0.1) and exhibit undamped oscillatory behaviour
for step sizes h ≥ 0.1. As similar situations are encountered 1
in several applications and dealt with in the early develop-
ment of theory, we wish to recall the basic rules proposed 0
by Mickens for (3.1) when U (x) ≡ x. Thus, we propose
the following modification to (3.2), replacing the term x y in -1
0 20 40 60 80 100
(3.1) by xk+1 yk . t

xk+1 − xk Fig. 6 Chaotic behavior of solutions of the system (5.1) under scheme
= A − Bxk+1 − C xk+1 yk (5.2) for step size h = 0.1
h
yk+1 − yk
= C xk+1 yk − Dxk+1 .
h
We have,
This yields

1   xk+1 − xk
xk+1 = xk + Ah = a − bxk+1 yk − c1 xk+1 + αz k
1 + Bh + Chyk h
yk   yk+1 − yk
yk+1 = 1 + Chxk+1 . (5.3) = 2bxk+1 yk − bxk+1 yk+1 − β yk+1
1 + hD h
z k+1 − z k
One may notice for the choice parameters A = 10, B = = r yk+1 − αz k+1 .
h
2, C = 6 and D = 2, (5.3) provides the appropriate discrete
version of (5.1) for any step size h. These observations may
be seen clearly from the following figures (Figs. 5, 6, 7). Notice that we have utilized the transformation bx y =
Motivated by the above, we apply the following modifica- 2bx y − bx y → 2bxk+1 yk − bxk+1 yk+1 in the second equa-
tion to (4.1) for the case V (x) ≡ x, f (x) ≡ x, and p(y) ≡ y. tion of (4.1).

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 P. Raja Sekhara Rao et al.

5 8
x
7 y
4 x z
y 6

5
3

x, y, z
x, y

2 3

2
1
1

0
0 0 500 1000 1500
0 200 400 600 800 1000
t
t
Fig. 8 Behavior of solutions of the system in Example 5.1—scheme
Fig. 7 Solutions of system (5.1) converging to equilibrium solution (4.3). Susceptibles x, infected y and recovered z populations plotted
under scheme (5.3) for any step size. Populations (x, y) on vertical axis with the same coordinate system with time variable t on the horizontal
versus time variable on horizontal axis in all the three plots—Figs. 5, axis
6, 7
8
x
A rearrangement gives 7 y
z
6
1  
xk+1 = ah + αhz k + xk
1 + c1 h + hbyk 5
x, y, z

1   4
yk+1 = (1 + 2hb1 xk+1 )yk
1 + βh + hbxk+1 3
1  
z k+1 = hr yk+1 + z k . (5.4)
1 + hα 2

The following example compares the two schemes.
Example 5.1 For the system (4.1) choose a = 10, b = c =
d = r = α = 1, d1 = 3, f (x) = x, V (x) = x, P(y) = y.
This system has an endemic equilibrium given by (2, 6, 6)
which is asymptotically stable. The following Figs. 8 and 9
show that both schemes (4.3) and (5.4) retain the stability of
equilibrium in discrete form.
From this we may infer that scheme (4.3) takes care of
linear interaction terms and no extra efforts are required to
retain stability of system in the discrete space here.
6 Discussion
In this paper we have studied two important mathematical
models of population biology to understand the behavior
of solutions, particularly the existence and stability of an
equilibrium solution when the continuous dynamical system
is transformed into a discrete one using non standard finite
difference schemes. For standard nonlinear functions repre-
senting interactions among populations it is found that the
schemes proposed have successfully transformed the equi-
1
0
0 500 1000 1500
t
Fig. 9 Solutions converging to equilibrium solution (2, 6, 6) under
scheme (5.4). Susceptibles x, infected y and recovered z populations
plotted with the same coordinate system with time variable t on the
horizontal axis and populations on vertical axis
libria and their stability from continuous space into discrete
space. Results on local as well as global stability are obtained
for model in Sect. 3 and only a local stability result is pro-
vided for model in Sect. 4. Examples are provided to illustrate
the performance of the scheme supported by visualizations
generated by MatLab for better understanding. As the stabil-
ity of equilibrium is the main concern, graphs are generated
with populations (x, y) or (x, y, z) (all dependent variables),
as the case may be, are shown on the vertical axis against
time (the independent variable) on the horizontal axis to
reflect their behavior over the period under consideration.
This minimizes the number of graphs to be drawn, the job of
comparison easy and for behavior at a glance. Modifications
to the schemes are proposed to consider the linear unbounded

123
Stability preserving non standard finite difference schemes for certain biological models
functions in the system. In most of the cases it is found that
results are independent of step size h and hence, behavior of
the system is not affected by step size.
Complex systems such as (4.1) with many non linear inter-
action functions are not easy to handle with. Understanding
the behavior of solutions is quite useful in controlling the
growth of unwanted populations in such models of real world
situations. Thus, proper discretization helps understand its
behavior and provide numerical solutions to such practical
systems. In fact, such models are based on discrete data sets
and thus, discrete forms of these models tend to be close to
reality. Our study is a step in this direction though there is
still a very long way to go.
Our study in this article shows that simple schemes are
sufficient to transform continuous dynamical systems into
appropriate discrete dynamical systems retaining most of the
qualitative properties. However, care needs to be taken in
modifying the interaction terms if they are the chief archi-
tects of the system dynamics and there are no terms in the
system that could control their influence. One may conclude
that continuous dynamical systems that have strong inherent
stability tend to retain the property even in discrete forms.
Acknowledgements The authors thank the anonymous refereees for
useful comments for a better presentation of the content.
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