Propagation of weak discontinuities in a vibrationally-excited gas flow (Q1072865)

Propagation of weak discontinuities headed by wavefronts of arbitrary shape in three dimensions are studied in vibrationally relaxing gas flow. The transport equations representing the rate of change of discontinuities in the normal derivatives of the flow variables are obtained, and it is found that the nonlinearity in the governing equations does not contribute anything to the vibrationally relaxing gas. An explicit criterion for the growth and decay of weak discontinuities along bi-characteristic curves in the characteristic manifold of the governing differential equations is given. A special case of interest is also discussed.