In this work, we have developed a fourth order Newton-like method based on harmonic mean and its multi-step version for solving system of nonlinear equations. The new fourth order method requires evaluation of one function and two first order Fréchet derivatives for each iteration. The multi-step version requires one more function evaluation for each iteration. The proposed new scheme does not require the evaluation of second or higher order Fréchet derivatives and still reaches fourth order convergence. The multi-step version converges with order 2r+4, where r is a positive integer and r ≥ 1. We have proved that the root α is a point of attraction for a general iterative function, whereas the proposed new schemes also satisfy this result. Numerical experiments including an application to 1-D Bratu problem are given to illustrate the efficiency of the new methods. Also, the new methods are compared with some existing methods.

Three new iterative methods for solving scalar nonlinear equations using weight function technique are presented. The first one is a two-step fifth order method with four function evaluations which is improved from a two-step Newton’s method having same number of function evaluations. By this, the efficiency index of the new method is improved from 1.414 to 1.495. The second one is a three step method with one additional function evaluation producing eighth order accuracy with efficiency index 1.516. The last one is a new fourth order optimal two-step method with efficiency index 1.587. All these three methods are better than Newton’s method and many other equivalent higher order methods. Convergence analyses are established so that these methods have fifth, eighth and fourth order respectively. Numerical examples ascertain that the proposed methods are efficient and demonstrate better performance when compared to some equivalent and optimal methods. Seven application problems are solved to illustrate the efficiency and performance of the proposed methods.