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A one-dimensional piston problem of gasdynamics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 April 2006

R. Mclaughlin
Affiliation:
Department of Mathematics, Cranfield Institute of Technology, Cranfield, Bedford MK43 0AL, England Present address: Department of Mathematics and Computing, Wigan College of Technology, Wigan, Greater Manchester, England.

Abstract

This paper considers the case of a one-dimensional piston moving outwards with a speed proportional to rα and driving a strong shock into a non-uniform ambient gas whose density is initially proportional to r−k, k > 0. This problem is connected with that studied by Grundy & McLaughlin (1977), who effectively discussed the case α = 0. We discover further important uses of the Sedov similarity solutions and find kc, the upper limit to k for the shock path to be asymptotically similar to the piston path.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© 1978 Cambridge University Press

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