ON MULTIPLICITY OF STEADY STATES IN BOUNDARY LAYER PROBLEMS WITH SURFACE REACTION

This study centers on the nature of steady state solutions of problems involving laminar boundary layer flow with chemical reactions on surfaces of the wedge type. It is shown that the usual boundary layer equations have a unique solution although commonly employed approximate solution methods lead to multivalued temperature and concentration fields. It is shown further that a mathematical description of the boundary layer process which accounts for the longitudinal conduction of heat in the solid plate admits multiple solutions. Concluding discussion is carried beyond the particular boundary layer problem to the general problem of mathematical modeling of chemically reacting systems. In particular it stresses the risk of destroying the qualitative features of solutions of the more exact description or of introducing spurious features when approximations, simplifications or modeling techniques are invoked. © 1969.