A shock-wave heating model for chondrule formation - II. Minimum size of chondrule precursors

Chondrule formation due to the shock wave heating of dust particles with a wide variety of shock properties are examined. We numerically simulate the steady postshock region in a framework of one-dimensional hydrodynamics, taking into account many of the physical and chemical processes that determine the properties of the region, especially nonequilibrium chemical reactions of gas species. We mainly focus on the dust particle shrinkage due to the evaporation in the postshock hot gas and the precursor size conditions for chondrule formation. We find that the small precursors whose radii are smaller than a critical value, a(pre)(min) cannot form chondrules because they evaporate away completely in the postshock region. The minimum value of a(pre)(min) is about 10 μ m, though it depends on the shock speed and the preshock gas density. Furthermore, we demonstrate the chondrule size distributions which are formed through the shock-wave heating. These results indicate that the shock-wave heating model can be regarded as a strong candidate for the mechanism of chondrule formation. © 2004 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.