Ab initio simulation of normal shock waves in argon.

Abstract

Abstract. The structure of a normal shock wave is calculated in a wide range of Mach numbers applying the direct simulation Monte Carlo method based on the ab initio potential for argon and for hard sphere molecules. The distributions of density and temperature in the shock wave and its thickness are calculated with the numerical accuracy of 0.5%. The numerical data are compared with other theoretical and experimental data.Palavras-chave. shock waves, ab initio potential, direct simulation Monte Carlo, argon.