Characteristic Method Applied to Blast Waves in a Dusty Gas

The unsteady propagation of shock waves in a dusty gas is investigated theoretically. The characteristic equations are obtained without neglecting the effect of the partial pressure of the particles. Numerical computations were carried out by Hartree's technique. As examples, the flow in a shock tube and in a blast wave is examined by applying a generalized piston problem. The results show that the existence of suspended particles may cause a rapid decay of the shock strength and that the flow field is devided into several regimes which are characterized by the shock position and the relaxation times.