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 ra diating gas has been given. In the linearized analysis, the solution i n the near field region exhibits an exponential attenuation, which is further accentuated due to an increase in the radiative flux; this att enuation, in the case of a cylindrically symmetric flow, is further au gmented by the wavefront geometry. In contrast to the linearized case, nonlinear high frequency solution exhibits distortion of the wave pro file and consequent shock formation. The influence of the thermal radi ation and magnetic field strength on the evolutionary behaviour of sho cks are studied. The progressive wave approach describes the far field behaviour which is governed by the generalized Burgers equation.