AbstractA strongly coupled dusty plasma system consisting of non-thermal electrons, Maxwellian ions, and negatively charged dust in presence of polarization force has been considered. The nonlinear propagation of dust-acoustic shock waves in such a dusty plasma system has been theoretically investigated by employing the reductive perturbation method. The effects of the polarization force and non-thermal electrons, on the properties of these dust-acoustic shock waves are briefly discussed. It is shown that the strong correlation among the charged dust grains is a source of dissipation, and is responsible for the formation of the dust-acoustic shock waves. It has been found that the effects of polarization force and non-thermal electrons significantly modify the basic features of such shock waves. It has been proposed to design a new laboratory experiment, which will be able to identify the basic features of the dust-acoustic shock waves predicted in this present investigation.