IMPLODING CYLINDRICAL AND SPHERICAL SHOCK WAVES IN A NON-IDEAL MEDIUM

Abstract

Converging shock waves in an almost ideal medium are considered. The kinematics of one-dimensional motion have been applied to construct an evolution equation for strong cylindrical and spherical shock waves propagating into a low density gas at rest. The approximate value of the similarity parameter obtained from there is compared with those derived from Whitham's Rule and the exact similarity solution at the instant of collapse of the shock wave. The above computation is carried out for different values of the parameter α, which depends on the internal volume of the gas molecules.