Laminar flow in channels with porous walls: advancing the existence, uniqueness and approximation of solutions via fixed point approaches (Q2675371)

In the paper, a complete theory of laminar flow in channels with porous walls that is modelled by a fourth-order boundary value problem is established. Existence, uniqueness and approximation of solutions to the nonlinear, fourth-order differential equation of the form \[ f^{(4)}+{\mathcal R}(f'f''-ff''')=0,\qquad\eta\in[0,1] \] satisfying the two-point boundary conditions \[ f(0)=f''(0)=f'(1)=0,\qquad f(1)=1 \] is studied, where \(f=f(\eta)\in C^4([0,1])\), \({\mathcal R}\) is the Reynolds number. The most authors consider and analyze the problem (relating to laminar flow within channels with porous walls and its variations) as the equivalent third-order boundary value problem: \begin{align*} f'''+{\mathcal R}[(f')'2-ff'')&=K,\\ f(0)=f'(1)=f''(0)&=0, \end{align*} where the constant of integration \(K\) is to be determined from the remaining boundary condition \(f(1)=1\). The use of contractive mappings enables an extension of existing results in literature. While the case \({\mathcal R}< 0\) has been shown to possess a unique solution, the case \({\mathcal R} > 0\) is open, with the best range for the existence and uniqueness set in [\textit{C. A. Wang} et al., Comput. Math. Appl. 20, No. 2, 35--40 (1990; Zbl 0704.34018)] at \[ 0<{\mathcal R} \lessapprox 4.005014\times10^{-2}. \] This range is extended in this paper by at least an order of magnitude.