Multiple solutions for steady differential equations via hyperspherical path-tracking of homotopy curves (Q2179049)

The authors study the solution multiplicity for the steady state approach applied to the natural convection of air in a two-dimensional enclosure, under the conditions that the horizontal walls are isolated, while its vertical walls are kept at two different temperatures. This is a benchmark problem to validate computational tools for solving single-solution elliptic PDEs. The implementation of global algebraic systems solvers is very complex and is perhaps the reason that only a handful of investigations have been taken up, in the context of multiple solutions. Here, the homotopy continuation method with hyperspherical path-tracking is utilized to study a wide range of the Ra number values. The proposed method is validated with a reported one-dimensional diffusion-reaction problem and a two-dimensional homemade PDE with a known solution.