Proceedings of the 16th International Conference

on Computational and Mathematical Methods

in Science and Engineering, CMMSE 2016
4–8 July, 2016.

A modified exponential method to approximate positive and

bounded solutions of the Burgers-Fisher equation

Armando Gallegos1 , J. E. Macı́as-Dı́az2 and H. Vargas-Rodrı́guez1

1 Centro Universitario de los Lagos, Universidad de Guadalajara
2 Departamento de Matemáticas y Fı́sica, Universidad Autónoma de Aguascalientes
emails: gallegos@culagos.udg.mx, jemacias@correo.uaa.mx,
hvargas@culagos.udg.mx

Abstract

In this work, we propose an exponential-type discretization of the well-known Fisher’s

equation from population dynamics. Only positive and bounded solutions are physically
relevant in this note, and the discretization that we provide is able to preserve both prop-
erties. The method is a novel explicit exponential technique which has the advantage
of requiring less computational resources and less computer time. It is worthwhile to
note that our technique has the advantage over other exponential methodologies that it
yields no singularities. In addition, the preservation of the properties of non-negativity
and boundedness are distinctive features of our method.
Key words: Modified Bhattacharya method, non-negativity, boundedness, efficiency

1 Introduction
Throughout, we let α and β be positive numbers, and let Ω be a domain of R2 which is
open, bounded and connected. We let u = u(x, y, t) be a real function defined on the closure
of Ω × R+ , which is twice differentiable in the interior of its domain and which satisfies the
initial-boundary-value problem
∂u
(x, y, t) = ∆u(x, y, t) + αu(x, y, t) (1 − βu(x, y, t)) , ∀(x, y) ∈ Ω, ∀t ∈ R+ ,
∂t
u(x, y, 0) = φ(x, y), ∀(x, y) ∈ Ω, (1)
,
∂u
(x, y, t) = 0, ∀(x, y) ∈ ∂Ω, ∀t ∈ R+ ∪ {0},
∂n

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 MODIFIED EXPONENTIAL METHOD FOR THE BURGERS-FISHER EQUATION

for some continuous function φ : Ω → R that satisfies 0 ≤ φ(x, y) ≤ β1 at each (x, y) ∈ Ω.

Here, ∆ represents the Laplacian operator on the spatial variables x and y. Clearly, the
partial differential equation of (1) is the two-dimensional generalization of the diffusion-
reaction equation investigated simultaneously and independently in 1937 by R. A. Fisher
[1] and A. N. Kolmogorov, I. G. Petrovsky and N. S. Piscounov [2].
Let κ be a positive number. It is well-known that the two-dimensional Fisher’s equation
has non-negative and bounded solutions, some of them traveling waves [3]. In view of this
fact, we will restrict our attention to solutions satisfying u(x, y, t) ≥ 0 for each (x, y) ∈ Ω
and t ≥ 0. After dividing both sides of (1) by the nonnegative function u(x, t, y) + κ and
using the chain rule, we obtain
∂ ln(u(x, y, t) + κ) ∆u(x, y, t) + αu(x, y, t) (1 − βu(x, y, t))
= , (2)
∂t u(x, y, t) + κ
for each (x, y) ∈ Ω, ∀t ∈ R+ . Associated to this differential equation, we consider the same
initial-boundary conditions as in the problem (1) for a continuous and nonnegative function
φ. In the present work, we are interested in developing a numerical method to approxi-
mate the solution of (1), with the following characteristics: (a) the non-negativity and the
boundedness of approximations are preserved, (b) the technique is computationally fast,
(c) the method is easy to implement in any computer language, and (d) the computational
implementation allows to employ fine grid meshes.

2 Exponential method
Let M and N be positive integers and suppose that Ω is the rectangle [a, b] × [c, d] of R2 ,
where a < b and c < d. Fix uniform partitions {xm }M N
m=0 and {yn }n=0 of [a, b] and [c, d],
∞
respectively, with step-sizes given by ∆x and ∆y. Let {tk }k=0 be a partition of the temporal
interval [0, ∞). For each k ∈ Z+ ∪ {0} and z = x, y, let
∆tk = tk+1 − tk , (3)
∆tk
Rz = . (4)
(∆z)2
Let wm,n k represent an estimate of u(xm , yn , tk ), for each m ∈ {0, 1, . . . , M }, n ∈
{0, 1, . . . , N } and k ∈ Z+ ∪ {0}. Throughout, we use the following operators:
k+1 − w k
wm,n
k m,n
δt wm,n = , (5)
∆tk
k
wm+1,n k
− 2wm,n k
+ wm−1,n
k
δxx wm,n = , (6)
(∆x)2
k
wm,n+1 k
− 2wm,n k
+ wm,n−1
k
δyy wm,n = , (7)
(∆y)2

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A. GALLEGOS AND J. E. MACı́AS-Dı́AZ

for each m ∈ {1, . . . , M − 1}, n ∈ {1, . . . , N − 1} and k ∈ Z+ ∪ {0}. Obviously, these

operators approximate the values of the functions ut , uxx and uyy at the point (xm , yn , tk )
with order of consistency equal to ∆t, (∆x)2 and (∆y)2 , respectively. Finally, we will impose
exact discrete conditions at the time t = 0, and discrete homogeneous Neumann conditions
at the boundary of the spatial domain.
Let m ∈ {1, . . . , M − 1}, n ∈ {1, . . . , N − 1} and k ∈ Z+ ∪ {0}, and let (κk )∞ k=0 be
a sequence of positive numbers. We discretize the partial differential equation (2) at the
point (xm , yn , tk ) as follows:
k+1 + κ ) − ln(w k
ln(wm,n k k (1 − βw k )
k m,n + κk ) (δxx + δyy ) wm,n + αwm,n m,n
= k
. (8)
∆tk wm,n + κk
Equivalently,

k
∆tk (δxx + δyy ) wm,n k (1 − βw k )
+ α∆tk wm,n
k+1 k m,n
wm,n = (wm,n + κk ) exp k
− κk , (9)
wm,n + κk

which evinces the explicit nature of (8). An alternative expression of this method is readily
at hand if we consider the following notation. Let

Ak = αβ∆tk , (10)
Bk = α∆tk + 2(Rxk
+ Ryk ), (11)
k
Cm,n = Rxk (wm+1,n
k k
+ wm−1,n ) + Ryk (wm,n+1
k
+ k
wm,n−1 ). (12)
k+1 = F k (w k ), where
Clearly, the method (8) can be rewritten as wm,n m,n m,n

k
Ak w2 − Bk w + Cm,n
k
Fm,n (w) = (w + κk ) exp − κk . (13)
w + κk

Before closing this section we would like to emphasize the simplicity of the computa-
tional implementation of this scheme. There are various reports in the literature which
describe discretizations similar to (8), most notably [4, 5]. However, those approaches use
values of κk = 0 for each k ∈ Z+ ∪ {0}. Those techniques do not allow for numerical
solutions to be close or equal to zero at any point of the grid. From that perspective, the
inclusion of the parameter κ in the finite-difference discretization (8) avoids divisions by
zero when the approximations wm,n k are allowed to take on that value.

3 Dynamical properties
We establish here conditions that guarantee the positivity and the boundedness of approx-
imations obtained through (8). To that end, it suffices to bound the range of the function

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 MODIFIED EXPONENTIAL METHOD FOR THE BURGERS-FISHER EQUATION

k
Fm,n : [0, β1 ] → R of (13) in [0, β1 ]. We will restrict our attention to cases when ∆x = ∆y = 1.
Also, we will use wk to represent the lexicograpically ordered vector of approximations at
the time tk , for k ∈ Z+ ∪ {0}.

Lemma 1 Let k ∈ Z+ ∪ {0}, and suppose ∆x = ∆y = 1 and ∆tk (α + 4) < 1. Then the
k
function Fm,n of (13) is increasing in [0, β1 ] when 0 ≤ wk ≤ β1 and

4∆tk
κk > . (14)
β[1 − ∆tk (α + 4)]

The following is the main result on the existence and uniqueness of positive and bounded
solutions of (8).

Proposition 2 Let 0 ≤ w0 ≤ β1 , ∆x = ∆y = 1, ∆tk (α + 4) < 1, and suppose that (14)

holds for each k ∈ Z+ ∪ {0}. Then there exists a unique sequence (wk )∞
k=0 satisfying the
method (8) and the discrete Neumann boundary conditions, such that 0 ≤ wk ≤ β1 holds for
each k ∈ Z+ ∪ {0}.

In the present work, these and more analytical/numerical results will be extended to
the case of the Burgers-Fisher equation from population dynamics.

References
[1] Ronald Aylmer Fisher. The wave of advance of advantageous genes. Annals of Eugenics,
7(4):355–369, 1937.

[2] Andrei N Kolmogorov, IG Petrovsky, and NS Piskunov. Etude de léquation de la

diffusion avec croissance de la quantité de matiere et son applicationa un probleme
biologique. Mosc. Univ. Bull. Math, 1:1–25, 1937.

[3] Mark J Ablowitz and Anthony Zeppetella. Explicit solutions of Fisher’s equation for a
special wave speed. Bulletin of Mathematical Biology, 41(6):835–840, 1979.

[4] A Refik Bahadır. Exponential finite-difference method applied to Korteweg–de Vries

equation for small times. Applied Mathematics and Computation, 160(3):675–682, 2005.

[5] Bilge Inan and Ahmet Refik Bahadir. A numerical solution of the Burgers equation
using a Crank-Nicolson exponential finite difference method. Journal of Mathematical
and Computational Science, 4(5):849–860, 2014.

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