Front tracking and two-dimensional Riemann problems

A substantial improvement in resolution has been achieved for the computation of jump discontinuities in gas dynamics using the method of front tracking. The essential feature of this method is that a lower dimensional grid is fitted to and follows the discontinuous waves. At the intersection points of these discontinuities, two-dimensional Riemann problems occur. In this paper we study such two-dimensional Riemann problems from both numerical and theoretical points of view. Specifically included is a numerical solution for the Mach reflection, a general classification scheme for two-dimensional elementary waves, and a discussion of problems and conjectures in this area.