A singular multi-dimensional piston problem in compressible flow

This paper concerns the multi-dimensional piston problem, which is a special initial boundary value problem of multi-dimensional unsteady potential flow equation. The problem is defined in a domain bounded by two conical surfaces, one of them is shock, whose location is also to be determined. By introducing self-similar coordinates, the problem can be reduced to a free boundary value problem of an elliptic equation. The existence of the problem is proved by using partial hodograph transformation and nonlinear alternating iteration. The result also shows the stability of the structure of shock front in symmetric case under small perturbation. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science (USA). All rights reserved.