The functional variable method is a powerful solution method for obtaining exact solutions of some nonlinear partial differential equations. In this paper, the functional variable method is used to establish exact solutions of the generalized forms of Klein–Gordon equation, the $(2 + 1)$-dimensional Camassa–Holm Kadomtsev–Petviashvili equation and the higher-order nonlinear Schrödinger equation. By using this useful method, we found some exact solutions of the above-mentioned equations. The obtained solutions include solitary wave solutions, periodic wave solutions and combined formal solutions. It is shown that the proposed method is effective and general.

Studying compactons, solitons, solitary patterns and periodic solutions is important in nonlinear phenomena. In this paper we study nonlinear variants of the Kadomtsev–Petviashvili (KP) and the Korteweg–de Vries (KdV) equations with positive and negative exponents. The functional variable method is used to establish compactons, solitons, solitary patterns and periodic solutions for these variants. This method is a powerful tool for searching exact travelling solutions in closed form.

This paper studies a couple of fractional nonlinear evolution equations using first integral method. These evolution equations are foam drainage equation and Klein–Gordon equation (KGE), the latter of which is considered in (2 + 1) dimensions. For the fractional evolution, the Jumarie’s modified Riemann–Liouville derivative is considered. Exact solutions to these equations are obtained.

This paper obtains solitons as well as other solutions to a few nonlinear evolution equations that appear in various areas of mathematical physics. The two analytical integrators that are applied to extract solutions are tan–cot method and functional variable approaches. The soliton solutions can be used in the further study of shallow water waves in (1+1) as well as (2+1) dimensions.

This paper investigates, for the first time, the applicability and effectiveness of He’s semi-inverse variational principle method and the ansatz method on systems of nonlinear fractional partial differential equations. He’s semi-inverse variational principle method and the ansatz method are used to construct exact solutions of nonlinear fractional Klein–Gordon equation and generalized Hirota–Satsuma coupled KdV system. These equations have been widely applied in many branches of nonlinear sciences such as nonlinear optics, plasma physics, superconductivity and quantum mechanics. So, finding exact solutions of such equations are very helpful in the theoretical and numerical studies.