A parabolic singular perturbation problem with an internal layer

Abstract

A method is presented to approximate with singular perturbation methods a parabolic differential equation for the quarter plane with a discontinuity at the corner. This discontinuity gives rise to an internal layer. It is necessary to match the local solution in this layer with the one in a corner layer as otherwise terms in the internal layer solution remain unnoticed. The problem is explained using the exact solution of a special case. The asymptotic solution is proved to approximate the exact solution in the general case using the maximum principle for parabolic differential equations.