title: Characterization of rarefaction waves in van der Waals fluids.
abstract: We calculate the isentropic evolution of an instantaneously heated foil, assuming a van der Waals equation of state with the Maxwell construction. The analysis by Yuen and Barnard [Phys. Rev. E 92, 033019 (2015)] is extended for the particular case of three degrees of freedom. We assume heating to temperatures in the vicinity of the critical point. The self-similar profiles of the rarefaction waves describing the evolution of the foil display plateaus in density and temperature due to a phase transition from the single-phase to the two-phase regime. The hydrodynamic equations are expressed in a dimensionless form and the solutions form a set of universal curves, depending on a single parameter: the dimensionless initial entropy. We characterize the rarefaction waves by calculating how the plateau length, density, pressure, temperature, velocity, internal energy, and sound speed vary with dimensionless initial entropy.
authors.affiliation: Department of Nuclear Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA; and Department of Physics, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA; and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, USA.
authors.forename: Albert
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Yuen
authors.affiliation: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California 94550, USA.
authors.forename: John J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Barnard