Numerical study of the interaction between shocks and rarefaction waves in an ideal gas

The interaction between shock waves and rarefaction waves is numerically studied using the one-dimensional Euler equations for an ideal gas. A specific form of solutions, which are called contact regions, is detected. They represent extended zones with continuously varying density and temperature at constant pressure and velocity. It is shown that, at long times, the solutions to the interaction problem tend to those to the Riemann problems with the contact discontinuity replaced by a contact region.