Numerical computation of nonsimple turning points and cusps

Summary A method is developed for the numerical computation of a double turning point corresponding to a cusp catastrophe of a nonlinear operator equation depending on two parameters. An augmented system containing the original equation is introduced, for which the cusp point is an isolated solution. An efficient implementation of Newton's method in the finite-dimensional case is presented. Results are given for some chemical engineering problems and this direct method is compared with some other techniques to locate cusp points.