Abstract

In this paper, we considered a steady state, exothermic nth order oxidation chemical reaction in a slab with reactant consumption in the presence of convective heat and oxygen exchange with the surrounding ambient at the slab surface. The coupled nonlinear differential equations governing the system are obtained and are solved numerically using the standard Newton–Raphson shooting method along with a fourth-order Runge–Kutta integration algorithm. A perturbation method together with a special type of Hermite-Padé series summation and improvement technique is also employed to tackle the problem. Important properties of the temperature field including the effects of embedded parameters on the thermal stability of the system are discussed.

Key words: Rectangular slab, reactant consumption, thermal criticality, Hermite-Padé series, shooting method, convective boundary conditions.