Bifurcation Phenomena in Stirred Tanks and Catalytic Reactors

摘要

A review of the present state of understanding of continuous stirred tank reactors is presented along with certain new results on bifurcation phenomena for catalytic surfaces. A few examples are discussed which show repeated Hopf bifurcation, complex oscillations, and chaotic behaviour arising from a simple catalyst surface model. The mathematical concepts brought to bear on this problem include static and Hopf bifurcation, multiple and secondary bifurcation, and singularity theory. The features arising in the problems discussed here are thought to be common to a wide range of chemically reacting systems.