A geometric singular perturbation approach for planar stationary shock waves

Abstract The non-linear non-equilibrium nature of shock waves in gas dynamics is investigated for the planar case. Along each streamline, the Euler equations with non-equilibrium pressure are reduced to a set of ordinary differential equations defining a slow–fast system, and geometric singular perturbation theory is applied. The proposed theory shows that an orbit on the slow manifold corresponds to the smooth part of the solution to the Euler equation, where non-equilibrium effects are negligible; and a relaxation motion from the unsteady to the steady branch of the slow manifold corresponds to a shock wave, where the flow relaxes from non-equilibrium to equilibrium. Recognizing the shock wave as a fast motion is found to be especially useful for shock wave detection when post-processing experimental measured or numerical calculated flow fields. Various existing shock detection methods can be derived from the proposed theory in a rigorous mathematical manner. The proposed theory provides a new shock detection method based on its non-linear non-equilibrium nature, and may also serve as the theoretical foundation for many popular shock wave detection techniques.