High and low frequency small amplitude disturbances in a perfectly conducting and radiating gas

A unified treatment of both linearized and nonlinear analyses of small amplitude disturbances propagating into a perfectly conducting and radiating gas has been given. In the linearized analysis, the solution in the near field region exhibits an exponential attenuation, which is further accentuated due to an increase in the radiative flux; this attenuation, in the case of a cylindrically symmetric flow, is further augmented by the wavefront geometry. In contrast to the linearized case, nonlinear high frequency solution exhibits distortion of the wave profile and consequent shock formation. The influence of the thermal radiation and magnetic field strength on the evolutionary behaviour of shocks are studied. The progressive wave approach describes the far field behaviour which is governed by the generalized Burgers equation.