Abstract:
In recent years, it has been proved that differential equations of fractional order and their
systems are the best tools for modeling various phenomena of chemical and physical as well
as biological sciences. Besides from these, it is also proved that the aforementioned area
has also important applications in various field of engineering and technology. Therefore,
considerable attentions were given to study the subject of fractional order differential equa-
tions in last few decades. This thesis is concerned with a detailed study of the existence
theory and numerical solutions of multi-point boundary value problems of fractional order
differential equations. For such study, first we review some useful notations, definitions, re-
sults from fractional calculus, functional analysis and fixed point theory. Also for numerical
solutions, we use some orthogonal polynomials like Legendre, Bernstein and Jacobi polyno-
mials. We begin our work with the study of existence and uniqueness of positive solutions
for simple multi point boundary value problem. Then, we obtain necessary and sufficient
conditions for existence of at least three positive solutions for the considered problems in
chapter 3. Then another class with nonlocal boundary conditions is studied by topological
degree method for existence and uniqueness of positive solutions. While a class of fractional
order differential equations, where nonlinear function involved in it depending on fractional
derivative involve in it with multi point boundary conditions is also studied for existence
of solutions. These conditions are developed by using some classical fixed point theorems
and results of functional analysis. Existence and uniqueness of positive solution for multi
point boundary value problems for coupled systems are studied in chapter 4. Sufficient
conditions for existence and uniqueness results of multi point boundary value problems for
coupled systems are established with the help of fixed point theorems such as Banach, Gue-
Krasnoselskii’s fixed point theorem of cone expansion and compression, Schauder’s fixed
point theorem and Perov’s fixed point theorem etc. Some multiplicity results for existence
of solutions to the nonlocal boundary value problem are discussed in chapter 5. For every
differential equation or system of differential equations of classical or arbitrary order it is
nor compulsory that it has a solution. Therefore conditions for nonexistence are developed
in a part of the same chapter 5. Moreover, for multiplicity of positive solutions, the nec-
essary and sufficient conditions are developed by means of monotone iterative technique
together with the method of upper and lower solutions in chapter 6. It is very difficult
to find exact solution for each and every problem of fractional order differential equations
due to the complexity of fractional order differential and integral operator involved in the
system. Therefore, there exists a strong motivation to develop numerical schemes which are
easily understandable and easily computable as well as efficient and reliable. By means of
some orthogonal polynomials such as Shifted Legendre, Bernstein and Shifted Jacobi poly-
nomials, we are developed some operational matrices of integrations and differentiations
for numerical solutions of boundary value problems for both ordinary and partial fractional
order differential equations in chapter 7. With the help of these operational matrices, we
convert the problems under consideration to algebraic equations which are easily soluble for
unknown coefficient matrices. The obtain coefficient matrices are used to fined numerical
solutions for the concerned problems. The method is extended to solve coupled systems of
boundary value problems of fractional order differential equations. To perform the com-
putations, we use Matlab and Maple software. The efficiency of the numerical methods is
checked by solving several examples, and the comparison of exact and numerical solutions
will also be demonstrated.