Concerning isothermal self-similar blast waves |
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Authors: | I Lerche |
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Institution: | (1) Enrico Fermi Institute and Dept. of Physics, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA |
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Abstract: | We investigate the one-dimensional self-similar flow behind a blast wave from a plane explosion in a medium whose density varies with distance asx
– with the assumption that the flow is isothermal. If <0 a continuous solution passing through the origin and the shock does not exist. If 1/3>>0 one critical point exists. To be physically acceptable the flow must by-pass this critical point. It is shown that a continuous solution passing through both the origin and through the shock and by-passing the critical point does exist. If 1>>1/3 the first critical point does not exist but a second one appears. To be physically acceptable the flow must again by-pass this new critical point. We show that a continuous solution passing through both the origin and the shock and by-passing the new critical point exists in this case. If >1 no physically acceptable solution exists since the mass behind the shock is infinite.The dependence of the solutions on the parameter is analytic for >0 so that interpolation between neighboring values of is permitted.We investigate the stability of these isothermal blast waves to one-dimensional but non-self-similar perturbations. If 0<<5/7, the solutions are shown to be linearly unstable against short wavelength perturbations near the origin. If the solution crosses the shock with a normalized velocityu>2 the solution is linearly unstable against short wavelength perturbations near the shock for 1>>0. If the solution crosses the shock with normalized velocity 2>u>1 (and it must cross the shock withu>1), the solution is certainly unstable against short wavelength perturbations near the shock for >11/19 and, depending on the crossing velocity, can be unstable there for all .Thus for 1>>0, the solution is always unstable somewhere. Since there is no characteristic time scale in the system all instabilities grow as a power law of time rather than exponentially. The existence of these instabilities implies that initial deviations do not decay and the system does not tend to a self-similar form. |
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