Generalized hydrodynamic theory of shock waves: Mach-number dependence of inverse shock width for nitrogen gas.

A generalized hydrodynamic theory of shock wave structures is presented for rigid diatomic gases. The theory yields shock solutions for all Mach numbers. The accuracy of the theory is examined for nitrogen gas as an example. Excellent agreement with experiment is obtained for the inverse shock widths for the entire range of Mach number studied by experiment. The comparison made shows that we are now in possession of a successful continuum theory of shock waves in molecular gases for all Mach numbers.