1. Introduction
Fractional calculus (FC) is an extension of classical calculus, which involves the study of non-integer-order integral and differential operators. In comparison with integer-order integration and differentiation, the non-local quality of FC is a major attraction for numerous scholars in diverse fields interested in delving into its definitions, properties, and applications [
1]. Recent years have witnessed a remarkable increase in FC due to its multiple uses in various fields, such as viscoelasticity [
2], continuum mechanics [
3], fluid mechanics [
4], thermoelasticity [
5], biomedicine and biology [
6], and many other applications [
7,
8,
9,
10,
11].
Fractional-order time delay partial differential equations (FDPDEs) have grown into a handy mathematical tool in various engineering and other scientific fields. These equations provide a more precise illustration of complicated dynamical systems by incorporating fractional-order derivatives and time delays to the conventional integer-order models. When modeling phenomena with memory effects and inherent features that frequently occur in fields like viscoelasticity, diffusion processes, and biological systems, FDPDEs prove especially valuable. For example, the stress–strain relationship in viscoelastic materials can be more accurately expressed using the FDPDEs as compared to the conventional models, as they consider the materials’ prior deformations [
12]. These equations are also used to model anomalous diffusion in the framework diffusion processes, which is described by a diffusion rate that differs from the conventional Brownian motion. This makes it possible for the description of super-diffusive or sub-diffusive behavior that is seen in numerous natural and artificial systems [
13,
14]. Furthermore, FDPDEs are utilized in biological systems to simulate the dynamics of populations with delays and time-dependent growth rates, giving knowledge regarding how the disease spreads and how various species interact in an ecosystem [
15]. FDPDEs have the ability to describe complex dynamics with higher accuracy, which makes them indispensable for theoretical study and real-world applications, accelerating scientific and technological developments.
The analytical solutions to FDPDEs provide a comprehensive understanding of the underlying dynamics of complex systems. Researchers have examined these solutions extensively to gain insight into a range of memory-related and inherited phenomena. Podlubny [
13] used the Laplace transform and Mittag-Leffler functions to solve differential equations including fractional derivatives analytically. The authors of [
14] presented a comprehensive and organized method for the theory and applications of fractional-order differential equations. They carefully studied numerous analytical methods, which are useful for solving these complex fractional-order DEs, including the integral transforms, Green’s functions, and the Mittag-Leffler functions. The author of [
12] showed how fractional calculus may be employed to efficiently explain the stress–strain relationship by modeling linear viscoelasticity via analytical techniques. Agarwal [
16] utilized Green’s functions to obtain analytical solutions to FPDEs, providing an organized method for various boundary value problems. Moreover, the authors of [
17] illustrated the use of the integral transform method by studying the analytical solutions of the time-fractional delay diffusion equation. These works demonstrate the worth of analytical solutions in offering precise expressions and a solid theoretical knowledge of FDPDEs.
Despite the strength of analytical techniques, numerical techniques are still required for many real-world problems modeled by FDPDEs since they are excessively complicated for exact solutions. Numerical solutions are required due to high dimensional systems, nonlinearity, and the complexity of real-world problems. The numerical solution of FDPDEs has been studied extensively by numerous researchers. Various numerical techniques have been proposed, such as in [
18]; the authors used the Chebyshev spectral collocation method for the numerical solution of FDPDEs. Hosseinpour et al. [
19] have developed a numerical scheme based on the Muntz–Legendre polynomials with the operational matrix of fractional differentiation to approximate DPDEs. The Adams–Bashforth–Moulton method combined with linear interpolation has been utilized by the authors of [
20] to approximate DPDEs. The authors of [
21] proposed radial basis functions (RBFs) for direct RBF collocation to approximate the solution to DPDEs. Singh [
22] proposed efficient Chebyshev polynomials and robust iterative solvers to obtain the numerical solution to DPDEs. Khana et al. [
23] developed a perturbation iteration algorithm for FDPDEs; they provided some numerical examples to validate their method. The authors of [
24] developed a robust spectral method for solving the FDPDEs. Farhood and Mohammed [
25] used the homotopy perturbation method to solve variable-order nonlinear FDPDEs. Further, they discussed the convergence of the method.
Recently, meshless methods have received considerable attention as a strong alternative to other numerical techniques such as finite difference/volume/element methods for solving PDEs. The finite difference/element method depends on structure meshes and they often struggle with irregular geometries. However, meshless methods use scattered node distribution. Due to this feature, meshless methods can easily handle large deformations, moving boundaries, and irregular geometries [
26]. The radial basis function (RBF) method, which is constructed using radial kernels, is one of the most effective meshless techniques. In the literature, RBF techniques have been widely applied for solving PDEs [
27,
28]. This article aims to use the local RBF method for spatial derivative approximation in conjunction with the Laplace transform method for time derivative approximation. In the local RBF method, any derivative at a point is approximated using a weighted linear sum of functional values at its neighboring points [
29]. Unlike the global RBF method, the local RBF method can be employed in many small overlapping sub-domains. Furthermore, the local RBF method has less sensitivity to the shape parameters’ selection in contrast to the global RBF method. The local RBF method has been applied to many problems such as compressible flows [
30], diffusion [
31], Darcy flows [
32], etc. The Laplace transform (LT) is employed to eliminate the stability problems associated with the finite difference time-stepping technique. The benefit of the LT method is that it develops the solution at one specific time value. The solution is produced at specified times without requiring the intermediate values if the time history is required. However, the main disadvantage of this method is that it requires a numerical inversion technique for the LT. The inversion formula for the LT is a complex integral and many inversion techniques involve complex expressions. In this work, we used the improved Talbots method, which is simple to use and provides accurate and stable results [
33].
3. Existence Theory
The section addresses the existence and uniqueness of the solution for the problem under consideration. Let
be the Banach space of all continuous functions with the norm defined as
. We consider the following FDPDE:
subject to
and boundary conditions
where
and
while
are given constants
is an unknown function to be determined,
is the Laplace operator,
is the boundary operator, and
is the spatial domain with a smooth boundary
. The functions
and
are continuous and
is sufficiently smooth.
Lemma 1. We suppose that and are continuous functions. Then, is a solution of the integral equationiff is a solution to the problem (1)–(3). We consider the following assumptions to prove our results:
H1. For any
, there exist constants
such that
H2. For all
, there exist
such that
H3. For
and
, we have
Theorem 3. The considered problem (1)–(3) has at least one solution if H1 holds. Proof. This proof involves several stages.
To begin, we formulate the problem given in (
1)–(
3) as a fixed-point problem. Let us define the operator
as
Stage 1: We are going to prove that the operator
is continuous.
Let
be a sequence. For any
, we have
Since
Y is continuous, so we obtain
Thus, the operator
is continuous.
Stage 2: We are going to prove that the operator is bounded.
For every
there exists a constant
such that for every
, one has
; for each
, we have
which implies
which yields for
Thus, is bounded.
Stage 3: We are going to prove that the operator is equicontinuous.
Let
represent bounded subset of
as in step 2, and let
; then, for
and
with
, we obtain
which implies
Thus,
Hence,
Therefore, by the Arzelà–Ascoli Theorem [
35],
is completely continuous.
Stage 4: A priori estimate.
Let us define a set
We need to show that the set
is bounded. If
then, by definition,
with
Therefore, for any
, we have
which, by using the inequality in stage 2, we have
which gives
Hence,
is bounded. Thus, by Schaefer’s fixed-point theorem,
has at least one fixed point. Thus, the problem (
1)–(
3) has at least one solution. □
Theorem 4. The solution to the problem defined in Equations (1)–(3) is unique under the hypothesis if the inequalityholds. Proof. Let
then, for each
we have
Hence,
is a contraction; thus, by Banach’s fixed-point theorem,
has a unique fixed point, and, therefore, the problem defined in Equations (
1)–(
3) has a unique solution. □
6. Numerical Results
In this section, we present numerical results of the local RBF method on different examples. The multiquadric kernel was utilized in all numerical examples. The accuracy of the proposed local RBF method was measured via the following four error norms:
where
and
are the exact and numerical solutions, respectively. The collocation points in the global and local domains are denoted by
and
respectively, whereas
n denotes the quadrature nodes. The numerical result was performed using the multiquadric RBF. The initial boundary conditions and the source terms for each problem were selected using the exact solution.
The exact solution for Example 1 is given by
Table 1 presents the error norms
,
and
for various values of the parameters
n,
, and
. In
Figure 1a, we plot the approximate and exact solutions, while
Figure 1b illustrates the comparison of
,
and
as a function of
n. The results demonstrate the convergence of our method as the parameter
n increases, enhancing the accuracy in approximations. Moreover, we compared our results with two established methods: a spectral method and a numerical method using Müntz–Legendre polynomials. Our method’s results show a high level of agreement with these approaches, confirming the reliability and effectiveness of the proposed method in solving the problem accurately.
The analytical solution for Example 2 is given by
Table 2 summarizes the error values
,
and
for various parameters
n,
, and
. Additionally,
Table 2 shows that varying the quadrature nodes (
n) and spatial nodes in both local and global domains
consistently yields accurate and stable results. In
Figure 2a, the approximate solution is plotted alongside the exact solution, offering a visual comparison, while
Figure 2b provides a detailed look at the error measures
,
and
, which vary with increasing
n. The results demonstrate a clear reduction in error as
n grows, highlighting the improved accuracy of the method with higher
n values.
We considered the FDPDE
The analytical solution for Example 3 is given by
Table 3 provides error values
,
and
corresponding to different values of parameters
n,
, and
. In
Figure 3a, the approximate and analytical solutions are plotted, while
Figure 3b shows the comparison of errors
,
and
versus
n. These results demonstrate a consistent decrease in error as
n grows, highlighting the improved accuracy of the method with higher values of
We considered the FDPDE
The exact solution for Example 4 is given as
Table 4 and
Table 5 present the error norms
,
and
for computation on square and star-shaped domains, respectively, using various values of
n,
, and
.
Figure 4a,b illustrate the numerical solutions on these domains, while
Figure 5a,b provide plots of the absolute error
. Moreover,
Figure 6a,b show the comparison of errors
,
and
as a function of
n on the square and star-shaped domains, respectively. The results demonstrate that errors consistently decrease as
n increases, highlighting the effectiveness of the proposed method for solving such problems. This approach is both stable and efficient, offering accurate results with minimal computational cost. The method’s robustness in managing complex PDEs is demonstrated by its ability to maintain accuracy across different domains.
We considered the FDPDE
The exact solution for Example 5 is given by
Table 6 and
Table 7 display the error matrices
,
and
on square and nut-shaped domains, respectively, for various values of
n,
, and
. As the number of spatial and quadrature nodes increases, the method’s accuracy correspondingly improves.
Figure 7a,b illustrate the numerical solutions on square and nut-shaped domains, while
Figure 8a,b depict the absolute error
for these domains. Additionally,
Figure 9a,b compare
,
and
a function of
n on the square and nut-shaped domains, respectively. The results confirm this method’s strong suitability for FDPDEs, with high accuracy and flexibility across various domains.