Mean free path effects in the shock-implosion problem

The effects of finite Knudsen number in the problem of a cylindrically imploding shock wave in a monatomic gas are investigated. Numerical solutions of the flow field are obtained with initial conditions in the ranges 1.25 M0 5 and 0.005 Kn0 0.1 using the direct simulation Monte Carlo method. Results show that as Kn0 decreases and M0 increases, the maximum implosion temperature scales increasingly well with the similarity exponent predicted in the Guderley solution for an imploding strong shock in the Euler limit. When the radius of curvature is large, the cylindrical shock thickness is found to be almost identical to the thickness of a planar shock for a given shock Mach number. For small radii of curvature, the cylindrical shock was found to be thicker than the corresponding planar shock. © 2009 American Institute of Physics. DOI: 10.1063/1.3075952