The structure of an infinitely strong shock wave

Abstract

The structure of a shock wave propagating through a hard-sphere gas is obtained by the Direct Simulation Monte Carlo method (DSMC), in the limit of infinitely large Mach number. The shock profiles and the distribution function of molecular velocities f are compared with Grad's and Mott-Smith approximations. It is shown that the "regular" part of f, exhibits a singularity in the velocity space at the location of the upstream bulk speed. © 1999 American Institute of Physics.