Two-dimensional quasi-stationary flows in gas dynamics

In this paper we are concerned with the two-dimensional, unsteady flow of an inviscid, polytropic gas whose adiabatic index γ lies between 1 and 3. We recall that comparatively early in the study of gas dynamics we encounter two exact solutions of gas dynamic problems. One, in one-dimensional unsteady flow, is the expansion of a semi-infinite column of gas which is initially at rest behind a piston which, at time t = 0, begins to move with constant speed away from the gas. The second, in two-dimensional, steady, supersonic flow, is the Prandtl–Meyer flow round a sharp convex corner. Both of those flows may be regarded as special cases of more general exact solutions which are obtained by the method of characteristics (see, for example, Courant and Friedrichs(1)). On the other hand, each may be obtained directly from the appropriate equations by making use of the fact that, in so far as neither problem contains any characteristic length parameter in its formulation, the principle of dynamic similarity can be used to reduce the system of partial differential equations to one of ordinary differential equations. In the first case the independent variables x and t occur only in the combination x/t and in the second the independent variables x and y occur only in the combination x/y. Interesting and instructive as the derivation of these solutions from such principles may be, it is an unfortunate fact that they are the only non-trivial solutions of the respective equations. This is not altogether surprising as the equations are ordinary with (in this case) a limited number of non-trivially distinct solutions.