A novel method for solving second order fractional eigenvalue problems

The paper presents a new numerical method for solving eigenvalue problems for fractional differential equations. It combines two techniques: the method of external excitation (MEE) and the backward substitution method (BSM). The first one is a mathematical model of physical measurements when a mechanical, electrical or acoustic system is excited by some source and resonant frequencies can be determined by using the growth of the amplitude of oscillations near these frequencies. The BSM consists of replacing the original equation by an approximate equation which has an exact analytic solution with a set of free parameters. These free parameters are determined by the use of the collocation procedure. Some examples are given to demonstrate the validity and applicability of the new method and a comparison is made with the existing results. The numerical results show that the proposed method is of a high accuracy and is efficient for solving of a wide class of eigenvalue problems. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.