Classical implicit travelling wave solutions for a quasilinear convection–diffusion equation

We discuss classical implicit solutions to the partial differential equationut=(H(u))xx+(G(u))x,ut=(H(u))xx+(G(u))x,a general convection–diffusion PDE with particular subcases appearing in many areas of fluids and astrophysics. As an illustrative example, and to compare our results with those present in the literature, we frequently consider travelling wave solutions for the quasilinear PDEut=(um)xx+(un)x,ut=(um)xx+(un)x,which has been used to describe the flow of viscous fluids on an inclined bed and as a model of convection–diffusion processes. When n ⩾ m > 1, this equation can be used to model the flow of a fluid under gravity through a homogeneous and isotropic porous medium. The travelling wave ODE for both the general and more specific cases have a first integral which is used to obtain an implicit solution for the travelling wave profiles. We should mention that, for some values of m, the implicit relation can be solved in closed form for explicit exact solutions. In the case of n = 2m − 1, solving the implicit relation gives a general way of obtaining the solutions found in Vanaja [Vanaja, V., 2009. Physica Scripta 80, p. 045402] where the travelling wave solutions for the cases (m, n) = (2, 3) and (m, n) = (3, 5) were explicitly constructed using a more complicated ansatz method. For other more complicated cases where inversion cannot be performed, we apply the method of series reversion to construct series solutions from the implicit relations. Furthermore, we deduce the dependence of travelling wave solutions on the wave speed, even in cases where the explicit exact solution cannot be found.

► Travelling wave solutions defined implicitly for a class of nonlinear convection–diffusion equations. ► Exact solutions obtained for some physically relevant cases. ► Analytical solutions obtained for power-law nonlinearity via method of series reversion. ► Influence of the wave speed on the solution profiles is examined.