An approximate solution of two-dimensional convex piston problem

A new theory of shock dynamics (NTSD) has been used to study the propagation of curved shocks originating from the motion of two-dimensional convex piston of various shapes. The results have been compared with those obtained by Whitham's classical shock dynamics and by TVD version of MacCormack's finite difference scheme.     

Spherical shock wave generated by a moving piston in mixture of a non-ideal gas and small solid particles under a gravitational field

Self-similar solutions are obtained for one-dimensional isothermal and adiabatic unsteady flows behind a strong spherical shock wave propagating in a dusty gas. The shock is assumed to be driven out by a moving piston and the dusty gas to be a mixture of a non-ideal (or perfect) gas and small solid particles, in which solid particles are continuously distributed. It is assumed that the equilibrium flow-conditions are maintained and variable energy input is continuously supplied by the piston. The medium is under the influence of the gravitational field due to a heavy nucleus at the origin (Roche model). The effects of an increase in the mass concentration of solid particles, the ratio of the density of the solid particles to the initial density of the gas, the gravitational parameter and the parameter of non-idealness of the gas in the mixture, are investigated. It is shown that due to presence of gravitational field the compressibility of the medium at any point in the flow-field behind the shock decreases and all other flow-variables and the shock strength increase. A comparison has also been made between the isothermal and adiabatic flows. It is investigated that the singularity in the density and compressibility distributions near the piston in the case of adiabatic flow are removed when the flow is isothermal.     

一维活塞问题激波解的整体存在性

本文用改进的Glimm格式的方法,研究一维活塞问题当活塞的运动速度是一个常数的扰动时含有激波的弱解的存在性.对波的相互作用以及扰动波在主激波和活塞上的反射作出了精确的估计,在对主激波的强度不加限制的情况下证明了激波解的整体存在性.     

Piston Problems of Two-Dimensional Chaplygin Gas

In this paper, the authors study the piston problem for the unsteady two-dimensional Euler system for a Chaplygin gas. The angle of the piston is allowed to vary in a wide range. The piston can be pushed forward into the static gas, or pulled back from the gas. The global existence of solution to the piston problem with any initial speed is established, and the structures of the global solutions are clearly described. The authors find that for the proceeding piston problem the front shock can be detached, attached or even adhere to the surface of the piston depending on the parameters of the flow and the piston; while for the receding problem the front rarefaction wave is always detached and the concentration will never occur.     

Global existence of shock front solutions in 1-dimensional piston problem in the relativistic Euler equations

The paper studies the 1-D piston problem of the relativistic Euler equations when the speed of the piston is a perturbation of a constant. A sequence of approximate solutions constructed by a modified Glimm scheme is proved to be convergent to the weak solution (which includes a strong leading shock) to the piston problem. In particular, we give the precise estimates on the reflection of the perturbed waves on the piston and the leading shock.     

Global existence of shock front solution to axially symmetric piston problem in compressible flow

In this paper we study the global existence of BV solution to two-dimensional piston problem in fluid dynamics. Different from previous results on related problems we remove the restriction on the strength of the leading shock and require the velocity of the piston is rather fast or the density is quite small instead. The main tool in our proof is Glimm Scheme with some improvement. To define the Glimm functional we derive more precise estimates for the interaction of elementary waves, particularly in the region near the leading shock.     

Global existence of shock front solutions in 1-dimensional piston problem in the relativistic Euler equations

The paper studies the 1-D piston problem of the relativistic Euler equations when the speed of the piston is a perturbation of a constant. A sequence of approximate solutions constructed by a modified Glimm scheme is proved to be convergent to the weak solution (which includes a strong leading shock) to the piston problem. In particular, we give the precise estimates on the reflection of the perturbed waves on the piston and the leading shock. The paper is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant 10626034) and the Special Research Fund for Selecting Excellent Young Teachers of the Universities in Shanghai.     

Local existence and non-relativistic limits of shock solutions to a multidimensional piston problem for the relativistic Euler equations

The multidimensional piston problem is a special initial-boundary value problem. The boundary conditions are given in two conical surfaces: one is the boundary of the piston, and the other is the shock whose location is to be determined later. In this paper, we are concerned with spherically symmetric piston problem for the relativistic Euler equations. A local shock front solution with the state equation p = a ² ρ, a is a constant and has been established by the Newton iteration. To overcome the difficulty caused by the free boundary, we introduce a coordinate transformation to fix it and employ the linear iteration scheme to establish a sequence of approximate solutions to the auxiliary problems by iteration. In each step, the value of the solution of the previous problem is taken as the data to determine the solution of the next problem. We obtain the existence of the original problem by establishing the convergence of these sequences. Meanwhile, we establish the convergence of the local solution as c → ∞ to the corresponding solution of the classical non-relativistic Euler equations.     

Wave front analysis of weak nonlinear waves in a two-phase flow of gas and dust particles

The non-linear behavior of waves including the characteristic front, the expansion wave front and the shock front, in a mixture of gas and dust particles has been studied. Such waves are conceived of as produced by a piston moving with a small velocity as compared with the speed of sound. The trajectories of these waves and the particle paths in the physical plane are determined. The effect of solid particles and the adiabatic heat exponent on the wave propagation is also investigated.     

弱重力场中的平面活塞运动

本文分析了弱重力场中等速活塞运动驱动恒星大气的气体动力学过程.在活塞前面,气体被压缩.压缩气体利用其部分内能,以及有些情况下其动能,以克服外加重力.当逃逸速度与等离子体速度之比值为一小参数时,所有量可对小参数展开,基态解给出均匀流,如同没有重力场的气体动力学所讨论的那样.一阶关系给出外加引力场对流场的影响,即激波强度变化不大而气体内能不断耗散.对于强激波和活塞附近,近似得到的分析解有类似的特征.由于外加重力场在天体物理和大气物理过程中的重要性,这些结果对于恒星和行星大气中瞬变过程的机制会有启发.     

On the acceleration of shock waves and concentration of energy

By a series of simple examples related to exact solutions of problems in gas dynamics and magnetohydrodynamics, possible mechanisms of acceleration of shock waves and concentration of energy are elucidated. The acceleration of a shock wave is investigated in the problem of motion of a plane piston at a constant velocity in the case when the initial density of the medium drops in the presence of constant counterpressure. It is shown that in this situation a “blow-up” regime is induced by a shock wave going to infinity in finite time even for limited work of the piston. A simple spherically symmetric solution with a converging shock wave is constructed and shown to lead to the concentration of energy. A general method for solving one-dimensional non-self-similar problems related to matching the equilibrium state to a motion with homogeneous deformation on a shock wave is discussed; this method leads to a solution in quadratures.     

Self-similar solutions of the Euler equations with spherical symmetry

We consider self-similar flows arising from the uniform expansion of a spherical piston and preceded by a shock wave front. With appropriate boundary conditions imposed on the piston surface and the spherical shock, the isentropic compressible Euler system is transformed into a nonlinear ODE system. We formulate the problem in a simple form in order to present the analytic proof of the global existence of positive smooth solutions.     

Approximate calculation method for one-dimensional gas flows induced by nonmonotonic motion of a piston : PMM vol. 40, n 6, 1976, pp. 1058–1064

The problem of one-dimensional piston which at the beginning moves with increasing velocity into a gas at rest, then is decelerated, and finally stops, is solved by means of special series. The gas flow field is constructed by a successive joining of three characteristic Cauchy problems in terms of their characteristic solutions. Generalized solution of the problem of instantaneous arrest of the piston is derived. Obtained equations are used for the approximate calculation of the motion of generated shock waves.Representation of solutions of certain boundary value problems for nonlinear equations of the hyperbolic kind in the form of special series was proposed in [1, 2], The problem of the piston moving into a gas at rest is solved there, and the obtained solution was used for an approximate determination of the generated shock wave. The piston velocity was assumed to be monotonically increasing. That problem is solved here with the use of similar series in the case when the piston velocity is nonmonotonous,Numerical methods make it possible at present to determine one-dimensional flows similar to that considered below, and multidimensional problems can be solved by the method proposed in [1, 2]. The use of the proposed scheme for solving the problem of the multidimensional piston, whose velocity is nonmonotonous, does not present theoretical difficulties, but except that the formulas are more cumbersome.     

Global existence of shock front solution to axially symmetric piston problem in compressible flow

In this paper we study the global existence of BV solution to two-dimensional piston problem in fluid dynamics. Different from previous results on related problems we remove the restriction on the strength of the leading shock and require the velocity of the piston is rather fast or the density is quite small instead. The main tool in our proof is Glimm Scheme with some improvement. To define the Glimm functional we derive more precise estimates for the interaction of elementary waves, particularly in the region near the leading shock. The paper is partially supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China 10531020, the National Basic Research Program of China 2006CB805902 and the Doctorial Foundation of National Educational Ministry 20050246001.     

Inverse Piston Problem for the System of One-Dimensional Isentropic Flow

In this paper, the authors consider the inverse piston problem for the system of one-dimensional isentropic flow and obtain that, under suitable conditions, the piston velocity can be uniquely determined by the initial state of the gas on the right side of the piston and the position of the forward shock.     

Nonself-similar flow with a shock wave reflected from the center of symmetry and new self-similar solutions with two reflected shocks

In some problems concerning cylindrically and spherically symmetric unsteady ideal (inviscid and nonheat-conducting) gas flows at the axis and center of symmetry (hereafter, at the center of symmetry), the gas density vanishes and the speed of sound becomes infinite starting at some time. This situation occurs in the problem of a shock wave reflecting from the center of symmetry. For an ideal gas with constant heat capacities and their ratio γ (adiabatic exponent), the solution of this problem near the reflection point is self-similar with a self-similarity exponent determined in the course of the solution construction. Assuming that γ on the reflected shock wave decreases, if this decrease exceeds a threshold value, the flow changes substantially. Assuming that the type of the solution remains unchanged for such γ, self-similarity is preserved if a piston starts expanding from the center of symmetry at the reflection time preceded by a finite-intensity reflected shock wave propagating at the speed of sound. To answer some questions arising in this formulation, specifically, to find the solution in the absence of the piston, the evolution of a close-to-self-similar solution calculated by the method of characteristics is traced. The required modification of the method of characteristics and the results obtained with it are described. The numerical results reveal a number of unexpected features. As a result, new self-similar solutions are constructed in which two (rather than one) shock waves reflect from the center of symmetry in the absence of the piston.     

Dynamically adapted grids for interacting discontinuous solutions

Further development of the dynamic adaptation method for gas dynamics problems that describe multiple interactions of shock waves, rarefaction waves, and contact discontinuities is considered. Using the Woodward-Colella problem and a nonuniformly accelerating piston as examples, the efficiency of the proposed method is demonstrated for the gas dynamics problems with shock wave and contact discontinuity tracking. The grid points are distributed under the control of the diffusion approximation. The choice of the diffusion coefficient for obtaining both quasi-uniform and strongly nonuniform grids for each subdomain of the solution is validated. The interaction between discontinuities is resolved using the Riemann problem for an arbitrary discontinuity. Application of the dynamic adaptation method to the Woodward-Colella problem made it possible to obtain a solution on a grid consisting of 420 cells that is almost identical to the solution obtained using the WENO5m method on a grid consisting of 12 800 cells. In the problem for a nonuniformly accelerating piston, a proper choice of the diffusion coefficient in the transformation functions makes it possible to generate strongly nonuniform grids, which are used to simulate the interaction of a series of shock waves using shock wave and contact discontinuity tracking.     

On a moving boundary problem of transitional ballistics

A hybrid algorithm for calculating the flow around a flat-nosed projectile moving through a fluid is established. At cells of fixed volume away from the projectile, Harten's total variation diminishing (TVD), second-order accurate, shock capturing scheme is utilized. Due to projectile motion, cells adjacent to the projectile can be treated as compressing or expanding in volume. For such cells, a local finite volume approach has been employed to derive a cell update algorithm. Proof of concept for the expanding cell scheme is established through calculating the one-dimensional flow behind a moving piston, whose theoretical solution is well-known. The resulting hybrid scheme is applied to the problem of blast wave simulation in axisymmetric geometries. Flow around a vertical muzzle brake is calculated for the case of an embedded moving projectile.     

A self-similar wave problem in a Prandtl-Reuss elastoplastic medium

We consider a self-similar piston problem in which stresses on the boundary of a half-space are changed instantaneously. The half-space is filled with a Prandtl–Reuss medium in a uniform stressed state. It is assumed that the formation of shock waves is possible in the medium. We prove the existence of a solution to the problem in the cases when two or all three stress components are changed at the initial moment.