Non-ideal compressible-fluid effects in oblique shock waves

The non-monotone dependence of the speed of sound along adiabatic transformations is demonstrated to result in the admissibility of non-ideal increase of the flow Mach number across oblique shock waves, for pre-shock states in close proximity of the liquid-vapour saturation curve. This non-ideal behaviour is primarily associated with a less-than-unity value of the fundamental derivative of gasdynamics and, therefore, non-ideal shock waves are expected to be observed in flows of fluids with moderate molecular complexity. The simple yet qualitatively sound van der Waals model is used to confirm the present findings and to provide exemplary non-ideal shock waves.