A parametric study of self-similar collapsing shock waves in radiating gas

For a collapsing shock wave in a thermal radiating thick gas the temperature gradient at the shock front is a free parameter in the framework of similarity. It must be adjusted to a particular converging shock-broadening problem to achieve information about the collapse of this shock wave. In a previous work a constraint was put on this temperature gradient to show only the influence of less radiation upon the similarity solution in the thick limit. In this paper a variation of this temperature gradient is permitted. In the framework of a parametric study the whole variety of possible similarity solutions is shown. Special attention is paid to those solutions showing the influence of much radiation. For the sake of a better overview, the parametric study first deals with a shock front where no radiative heat flux is exchanged between the shock front and the flow field, but the absorptivity of the gas is altered. Then the absorptivity of the gas is kept constant, but a heat flux exchange between the shock front and the flow field is permitted. In the framework of this parametric study, the isothermal solution plays the role of a limiting solution for a decreasing absorptivity. Solutions are shown up to this extreme and the isothermal solution is treated separately. (C) 2002 American Institute of Physics.