2009/05/12 by Wm. G. Hoover, Hoover, Wm. G., Carol G. Hoover +1
Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #Dust and Plasma Wave Phenomena #Gas Dynamics and Kinetic Theory #cond-mat.stat-mech
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.0905.1913
15 pages with 8 figures, after review at Physical Review E
arxiv created 2009/06/24 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01
The anisotropy of temperature is studied here in a strong two-dimensional shockwave, simulated with conventional molecular dynamics. Several forms of the kinetic temperature are considered, corresponding to different choices for the local instantaneous stream velocity. A local particle-based definition omitting any "self" contribution to the stream velocity gives the best results. The configurational temperature is not useful for this shockwave problem. Configurational temperature is subject to a shear instability and can give local negative temperatures in the vicinity of the shock front. The decay of sinusoidal shockfront perturbations shows that strong two-dimensional planar shockwaves are stable to such perturbations.