Shock dynamics of weak imploding cylindrical and spherical shock waves with non-ideal gas effects

The author (Anand 2012 Astrophys. Space Sci. 342 377-88) recently obtained jump relations across a shock front in non-ideal gas flow taking into consideration the equation of state for a non-ideal gas as given by Landau and Lifshitz. In this paper an analytical solution for one-dimensional adiabatic flow behind weak converging shock waves propagating in a non-ideal gas is obtained by using Whitham's (1974 Linear and Nonlinear Waves (New York: Wiley)) geometrical shock dynamics approach. The effects of an increase in (i) the propagation distance from the centre of convergence, (ii) the non-idealness parameter and (iii) the adiabatic index of the gas, on the shock velocity, pressure, density, particle velocity, adiabatic compressibility and the change in entropy across the shock front, are analyzed. The results provided a clear picture of whether and how the non-idealness parameter and the adiabatic index affect the flow field behind the imploding shock front.