An Order Four Numerical Scheme for Fourth-Order Initial Value Problems Using Lucas Polynomial with Application in Ship Dynamics

From the time immemorial, researchers have been beaming their search lights round the numerical solution of ordinary differential equation of initial value problems. This was as a result of its large applications in the area of Sciences, Engineering, Medicine, Control System, Electrical Electronics Engineering, Modeled Equations of Higher order, Thin flow, Fluid Mechanics just to mention few. There are a lot of differential equations which do not have theoretical solution; hence the use of numerical solution is very imperative. This paper presents the derivation, analysis and implementation of a class of new numerical schemes using Lucas polynomial as the approximate solution for direct solution of fourth order ODEs. The new schemes will bridge the gaps of the conventional methods such as reduction of order, Runge-kutta’s and Euler’s methods which has been reported to have a lot of setbacks. The schemes are chosen at the integration interval of seven-step being a perfection interval. The even grid-points are interpolated while the odd grid-points are collocated. The discrete scheme, additional schemes and derivatives are combined together in block mode for the solution of fourth order problems including special, linear as well as application problems from Ship Dynamics. The analysis of the schemes shows that the schemes are Reliable, P-stable and Efficient. The basic properties of the schemes were examined. Numerical results were presented to demonstrate the accuracy, the convergence rate and the speed advantage of the schemes. The schemes perform better in terms of accuracy when compared with other methods in the literature.