A question for 'Tom'

desA

Hi Tom,

Can I ask you to refresh your memory on a discussion we had around 1 year ago where we were discussing the possibility of shock waves in low-speed viscous flows.

You made a comment something along the lines of (paraphrased):

The diffusion eats up the characteristics.

In view of my current research, could I ask you to please elaborate in more detail on that point? My work in a 2D field shows that you were correct on that comment. Would you be able to describe the mechanism?

I've see a comment regarding solitons, where is was stated that the non-linear wave is prevented from breaking by the effect of the dispersion term. I'd like to try & get a minds-eye view of the physical mechanism that the diffusion uses in the N-S.

Thanks so much for your time.

desA