Vol 6 - Landau+Lifschitz - Fluid Mechanics · Problem 101.1

ONE-DIMENSIONAL GAS FLOW

Physics — Landau & Lifshitz · one-dimensional-travelling-waves

Problem

A gas is in a semi-infinite cylindrical pipe (

x > 0

) terminated by a piston. At time

t = 0

the piston begins to move with a uniformly accelerated velocity

U = \pm at

. Determine the resulting flow, assuming the gas to be polytropic.