Effects of the dust size distribution on shock waves in dusty plasma

Abstract By using a Korteweg-deVries-Burgers(KdV-Burgers) equation and considering the dust size distribution, we have studied effects of the dust size distribution on the shock wave in dusty plasma. The dependence of characteristics of the shock wave on different dust size distributions has been given. It is found that the speed and amplitude of a shock wave considering the dust size distribution are larger than that of the dusty plasma with the averaged dust size. However, the width of a shock wave considering the dust size distribution is smaller than that of the dusty plasma with the averaged dust size.