No label defined (Q4524927)

In the present note, the author proposes a new method for solving perturbation problems for ordinary differential equations. This method is called the variational iteration method and is illustrated by several examples. Among them the following Duffing equation is typical \[ {d^2u\over dt^2}+u +\varepsilon u^3=0,\;u(0)=1,\;u'(0)=0.\tag{*} \] To obtain an approximate solution to (*) and by constructing a correction functional of the form \[ u_{n+ 1} (t_0)=u_n (t_0)+\int^{t_0}_0\lambda \left({d^2u_n\over dt^2}+ u_n+ \varepsilon u_n^3 \right)dt,\;\lambda\text{ is a Laplace multiplier},\tag{**} \] by variation theory, it follows that \(\lambda\approx \sin(t-t_0)\). Taking \(u_0 (t)=\cos\alpha t\) as the initial approximation, here, \(\alpha\) being a nonzero constant to be determined. Substituting these relations into equation (**) and then letting the coefficient of \(\cos t\) equals to zero, then the author obtains \(\alpha= \alpha(\varepsilon)\) and the first-order approximation \[ u_1(t)=-{3 \varepsilon \over 4\bigl(1- \alpha (\varepsilon)^2 \bigr)}\cos \alpha t-{\varepsilon \over 4\bigl(1-9\alpha (\varepsilon)^2 \bigr)} \cos 3\alpha t. \] The author claims that this method can also be applied in the case when \(\varepsilon\) is not a small parameter.