Symmetries and Related Physical Balances for Discontinuous Flow Phenomena within the Framework of Lagrange Formalism

By rigorous analysis, it is proven that from discontinuous Lagrangians, which are invariant with respect to the Galilean group, Rankine–Hugoniot conditions for propagating discontinuities can be derived via a straight forward procedure that can be considered an extension of Noether’s theorem. The use of this general procedure is demonstrated in particular for a Lagrangian for viscous flow, reproducing the well known Rankine–Hugoniot conditions for shock waves.