Extension of the Mott-Smith Method for a One-Dimensional Shock Wave

A method has been developed for adding an arbitrary number of additional terms to the two-term Mott-Smith distribution function for a one-dimensional shock wave and a calculation has been carried out, for a monatomic gas of Maxwellian molecules, with a three term distribution function. For weak shocks, the calculated reciprocal shock thicknesses are within 2% of the Navier-Stokes results. This is a substantial improvement over the Mott-Smith results which, for the same force law, are 15 to 30% too low. For strong shocks, our reciprocal shock thicknesses are below the Mott-Smith results for vx2 and for vx3 moments.