Propagation of weak discontinuities along the bicharacteristic curves in a vibrationally relaxing gas

The transport equations representing the rate of change of discontinuities in the normal derivatives of flow parameters are obtained along bicharacteristic curves in the characteristic manifold of the differential equations governing the flow of a vibrationally relaxing gas, an explicit criterion for the growth and decay of weak discontinuities along bicharacteristics is given and the specialization is made to the waves of plane, cylindrical and spherical geometry. It is investigated as to how the effects of vibrational relaxation, the magnitude of the initial discontinuity, the initial curvature of the wave front, and the upstream flow Mach number will influence the growth and decay properties of the wave front.