Progressive waves in non-ideal gases

Using the theory of progressive waves and some related procedures, waves of finite and moderately small amplitudes, influenced by the effects of non-linear convection, attenuation and geometrical spreading are studied in an imperfect gas modeled by the van der Waals equation of state; conditions within the wave region, which lead to a shock or no shock depend strongly on the van der Waals gas-parameters. A few specific cases are considered to trace out a complete history of shock decay after its formation. Asymptotic decay laws for perfect gases are exactly recovered.