Toward a new analytical method for solving nonlinear fractional differential equations Original Research Article

The variational iteration method is widely used in approximate calculation. The main difficulty of the method is to identify the Lagrange multiplier, λ, for differential equations of fractional order, especially of high order, where the procedure is complex and merely approximate. It is shown in this paper that the application of the variational iteration method to nonlinear fractional differential equations leads to inaccurate approximations. To completely overcome the demerit, we propose a new analytical method, requiring no Lagrange multiplier, to solve nonlinear fractional differential equations, where the solution procedure becomes easier, more effective and straightforward. The validity and reliability of this method is tested by its application in various nonlinear fractional differential equations, and the obtained results reveal that the proposed method is more accurate and efficient.