On the shock thickness for a binary gas mixture

We discuss the structure of the shock wave solution for a system of Navier–Stokes equations, obtained as hydrodynamic limit of a BGK description of the dynamics of monoatomic gases at kinetic level. We investigate first the thickness of the transition region of the shock profile for a monoatomic gas, for varying Mach number and different physical options for the viscosity coefficient. The analysis is then extended to a binary gas mixture. Some numerical results for noble gases are presented and discussed.