Heat-induced planar shock waves in supercritical fluids

We have investigated one-dimensional compression waves, produced by heat addition in quiescent and uniform initial conditions, in six different supercritical fluids, each taken in four states ranging from compressible pseudo-liquid fluid to ideal gas. Navier–Stokes simulations of a canonical semi-infinite domain flow problem, spanning five orders of magnitude of heating rate, are also carried out to support the theoretical analysis. Depending on the intensity of the Gaussian-shaped energy source, linear waves or shock waves due to nonlinear wave steepening are observed. A new reference heating rate parameter allows to collapse in the linear regime the whole dataset, together with the existing experimental data, thanks to its absorption of real-fluid effects. Moreover, the scaling strategy illustrates a clear separation between linear and nonlinear regimes for all fluids and conditions, offering motivation for the derivation of a unified fully predictive model for shock intensity. The latter is performed by extending the validity of previously obtained theoretical results in the nonlinear regime to supercritical fluids. Finally, thermal to mechanical power conversion efficiencies are shown to be proportional, in the linear regime, to the fluid’s Grüneisen parameter, which is the highest for compressible pseudo-liquid fluids, and maximum in the nonlinear regime for ideal gases.