A semi-analytic method for solving singularly perturbed twin-layer problems with a turning point

Abstract

This computational study investigates a class of singularly perturbed second-order boundary-value problems having dual (twin) boundary layers and simple turning points. It is well-known that the classical discretization methods fail to resolve sharp gradients arising in solving singularly perturbed differential equations as the perturbation (diffusion) parameter decreases, i.e., ε → 0+. To this end, this paper proposes a semi-analytic hybrid method consisting of a numerical procedure based on finite differences and an asymptotic method called the Successive Complementary Expansion Method (SCEM) to approximate the solution of such problems. Two numerical experiments are provided to demonstrate the method’s implementation and to evaluate its computational performance. Several comparisons with the numerical results existing in the literature are also made. The numerical observations reveal that the hybrid method leads to good solution profiles and achieves this in only a few iterations.

Keywords

• asymptotic expansion
• dual layers
• finite differences
• singular perturbation
• turning point