Entropy production in a perfect-gas shock

ID: entropy-production-in-a-perfect-gas-shock

For the pressure-density Hugoniot relation for a perfect gas, the change in specific entropy is , with the specific heat capacity at constant volume. Its derivative is
It is positive for a compressive normal shock wave with . For a weak shock with , integrating the leading term gives
Thus the entropy production is cubic in the small pressure jump, even though the mass density and temperature changes already appear at first order.

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