title: The D'yakov-kontorovich instability of shock waves in real gases
abstract: In the 1950s, D'yakov and Kontorovich predicted that under certain conditions perturbed shock waves in nonideal gases can become unstable by emitting undamped sound and entropy-vortex waves. For the last 45 years, though, little progress has been made in the identification and numerical modeling of physical conditions for which this phenomenon might occur. Using a van der Waals equation of state, we present for the first time a dynamical simulation of a D'yakov-Kontorovich instability. The two-dimensional emission pattern of acoustic waves appearing in the simulation agrees with the prediction of a linearized theory.
authors.affiliation: Applied Physics Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545, USA.
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Bates
authors.initials: DC
authors.lastname: Montgomery