Solution method for the time‐fractional hyperbolic heat equation

Abstract

In this article, we propose a method to solve the time‐fractional hyperbolic heat equation. We first formulate a boundary value problem for the standard hyperbolic heat equation in a finite domain and provide an analytical solution by means of separation of variables and Fourier series. Then, we consider the same boundary value problem for the fractional hyperbolic heat equation. The fractional problem is solved using three different definitions of the fractional derivative: the Caputo fractional derivative and two recently defined alternative versions of this derivative, the Caputo–Fabrizio and the Atangana–Baleanu. A closed form of the solution is provided for each case. Finally, we compare the solutions of the fractional and the standard problem and show numerically that the solution of the standard hyperbolic heat equation can be retrieved from the solution of the fractional equation in the limit γ→2, where γ represents the exponent of the fractional derivative.