Analytical method for systems of nonlinear singular boundary value problems

Abstract

The standard Lane–Emden equations model several physical phenomena such as isotropic continuous media, thermal behaviour of a spherical cloud of gas, and isothermal gas spheres. Systems of Lane–Emden-type equations appear in the modelling of the concentration of carbon substrate and oxygen, catalytic diffusion reactions, the steady state concentration of carbon dioxide, dusty fluid models, and pattern formation. In solving singular boundary value problems, one faces challenges resulting from the divergence of the associated variable coefficients at the singular points. This research article explores the power series approach to analytically approximate solutions to a class of systems of strongly nonlinear singular boundary value problems of Lane–Emden-type. The nonlinear terms in the proposed problems are transformed into power series using the generalised Cauchy product before establishing explicit recursion formulae for the expansion coefficients of the system of series solutions. The initial conditions required in the proposed boundary value problems are assumed and determined from a set of nonlinear algebraic equations resulting from the given right boundary conditions. Three special systems of nonlinear singular boundary value problems of Lane–Emden type are presented to demonstrate the proposed method’s reliability, effectiveness, and accuracy. The obtained approximate solutions are compared with the exact solutions (where they are available), or with other existing results (where the exact solution is not readily available). The series solution of the first example has a slow convergent rate, while the results of the other two examples are in excellent agreement with the exact solutions and other published results.