Invariant analysis, exact solutions, and conservation laws of time fractional thin liquid film equations

Abstract

This present paper investigates Lie symmetry analysis, one-dimensional optimal system, exact solutions and conservation laws of the (2 + 1)-dimensional time fractional thin liquid film equations (TFTLFE) with Riemann–Liouville fractional derivative. Explicitly, we obtain six vector fields and the one-dimensional optimal system admitted by TFTLFE. Then, we perform the symmetry reductions with the help of Erdélyi–Kober fractional differential operator and (2 + 1)-dimensional TFTLFE is reduced into (1 + 1)-dimensional fractional partial differential equations (FPDEs). Additionally, by means of compound variable transformation and the power series expansion method, the solution of reduced FPDEs is obtained and its convergence is verified. Moreover, we derive other solutions for the reduced equations taking advantage of the invariant subspace method. Furthermore, the conservation laws are also established utilizing generalized Noether's theorem. Finally, we construct the exact solution using the method of conservation laws.