Outer shock structure of shock-waves propagating in partially ionized gases

Structure of a shock wave propagating through a partially ionized gas is divided into an inner heavy particle shock and two surrounding outer regions. The electron and heavy particle properties are calculated at the two edges of the inner shock and are found to vary, for a given free stream Mach number M₁, almost linearly with the degree of ionization. The Mach number that characterizes the inner shock decreases monotonically from M₁ as the degree of ionization increases and reaches a limiting value, for a given M₁, as the gas becomes fully ionized. The width of the outer regions is found to be of the order of length for electron heat conduction when this conduction is equal to the convected internal energy.