A Qualitative Study of the Steady-State Solutions for a Continuous Flow Stirred Tank Chemical Reactor

Abstract

An approach to the bifurcation of steady-state equilibria using singularity theory is applied to the problem of multiple equilibria in a continuous flow stirred tank chemical reactor where the flow rate is the bifurcation parameter. Under the assumption of a single first-order exothermic chemical reaction, all the qualitatively different bifurcation diagrams which occur locally are found. They form the universal unfolding of the singular bifurcation problem $x^3 + \lambda ^2 = 0$.