An investigation of some nonclassical methods for the numerical approximation of Caputo-type fractional derivatives

Traditional methods for the numerical approximation of fractional derivatives have a number of drawbacks due to the non-local nature of the fractional differential operators. The main problems are the arithmetic complexity and the potentially high memory requirements when they are implemented on a computer. In a recent paper, Yuan and Agrawal have proposed an approach for operators of order α ∈ (0,1) that differs substantially from the standard methods. We extend the method to arbitrary α > 0, , and give an analysis of the main properties of this approach. In particular it turns out that the original algorithm converges rather slowly. Based on our analysis we are able to identify the source of this slow convergence and propose some modifications leading to a much more satisfactory behaviour. Similar results are obtained for a closely related method proposed by Chatterjee. Dedicated to Professor Paul L. Butzer on the occasion of his 80th birthday.