Flow visualization with strong and weak gas dynamic discontinuities in computational fluid dynamics

A number of methods for the visualization of flows with gas dynamic discontinuities are considered. These methods allow one to perform the direct comparison of numerical results with experimental data. Methods for the optical visualization of compressible gas flows (shadowgraphs, schlieren images, and interferograms) are discussed. Some examples illustrating the visual representation of numerical solutions of gas dynamics problems related to flows containing weak and strong gas dynamic discontinuities are given. Topological methods of visualization are applied to increase the visual representation of resulting images and to define the locations of critical points as well as the separation and attachment lines.