A kinetic analysis of hypersonic viscous flows of a polyatomic gas in a thin three-dimensional shock layer

Polyatomic gas flows in a thin three-dimensinal shock layer are analyzed asymptotically for the case of hypersonic flows past blunt bodies using a kinetic equation for a gas with internal degrees of freedom. The applicability limits of a phenomenological description of hypersonic flows of a viscous gas based on a thin shock layer model are investigated; the physical meaning of the Newtonian transition in the limit in the Navier-Stokes and kinetic equations is analyzed. An asymptotic form is obtained for macroscopic equations associated with the Newtonian transition in the limit in an infinite chain of distribution function moments.