title: Heat-flow equation motivated by the ideal-gas shock wave.
abstract: We present an equation for the heat-flux vector that goes beyond Fourier's Law of heat conduction, in order to model shockwave propagation in gases. Our approach is motivated by the observation of a disequilibrium among the three components of temperature, namely, the difference between the temperature component in the direction of a planar shock wave, versus those in the transverse directions. This difference is most prominent near the shock front. We test our heat-flow equation for the case of strong shock waves in the ideal gas, which has been studied in the past and compared to Navier-Stokes solutions. The new heat-flow treatment improves the agreement with nonequilibrium molecular-dynamics simulations of hard spheres under strong shockwave conditions.
authors.affiliation: Theoretical Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM 87545, USA.
authors.forename: Brad Lee
authors.initials: BL
authors.lastname: Holian
authors.forename: Michel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mareschal