Metastable shock waves in the region of their ambiguous representation

Abstract

Abstract The behavior of perturbed shocks belonging to Hugoniot segments with ambiguous representation of the shock-wave discontinuity is considered. The segments are adjacent to the region of the shock wave instability L > 1 + 2M from the side of greater and lower pressure. Here, L is the D’yakov parameter and M is the post-shock Mach number. The model equation of state is used. For the constructed Hugoniot curve, the ambiguity sections are overlapped by the shock wave neutral stability regions. The three-dimensional simulations with varying post-shock parameters and perturbation intensity are performed. It is shown that shock waves considered are metastable: for any intensity of the shock wave, there are intervals of the perturbation threshold values inside of which the shock is neutrally stable or unstable. Neutral stability is characterized by the weak damping of secondary waves occurring as result of the perturbation.