The effects of viscosity on the structure of shock waves in a van der Waals gas

Abstract

The structure of viscous shock-front has been investigated in a van der Waals gas between the boundary conditions for x = −ε and x = +ε considering the flow of a gas to be viscous and one-dimensional. The exact solutions for the flow parameters, fluid velocity, pressure, temperature, and change-in-entropy in the shock transition region have been found in view of the equation of state for van der Waals gases. The effects due to the coefficient of viscosity, shock strength, and nonidealness parameter have been analyzed on the structure and flow variable in the shock transition region. The results confirm that the thickness of shock-front increases with increasing value of the coefficient of viscosity and decreases with increasing value of the shock strength and nonidealness parameter of the gases.