bow shocks from 2-clumps simulations

I ran four simulations with 2 clumps and a wind. Each run has a different clump separation: 20, 15, 10, and 5 clump radii.

Much of the setup is the same as what I used for the mach stem runs with some slight changes to make the simulations run faster: rclump = 10 AU, nclump = 106 cm-3, namb = nwind = 1000 cm-3, Tamb = Twind = 1000 K, and vwind = 50 km/s. This means the wind is supersonic with a mach number of approximately 13.5.

movie

Once you get down to separations of about 5 rclump, the bow shocks combine into one large bow shock. This is why my mach stem runs have not behaved as expected. The separation distances I have been testing are typically on the order of 2 rclump.

I have a couple of ideas on what to do next:

  1. The formula that I am using for the bow shock shape could be incorrect or not applicable in this context. I could develop my own formula from simulations.
  2. It might just be impossible to form mach stems by forming bow shocks right next to each other in this way. A possible way around this is to form the bow shocks away from each other and then bring them closer together.

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