The study of spherically symmetric motion is important for the theory of explosion waves. In this paper, we consider a ‘spherical piston’ problem for the relativistic Euler equations, which describes the wave motion produced by a sphere expanding into an infinite surrounding medium. We use the reflected characteristics method to construct a global piecewise smooth solution with a single shock of this spherical piston problem, provided that the speed of the sphere is a small perturbation of a constant speed.

The study of radially symmetric motion is important for the theory of explosion waves. We construct rigorously self-similar entropy solutions to Riemann initial-boundary value problems for the radially symmetric relativistic Euler equations. We use the assumption of self-similarity to reduce the relativistic Euler equations to a system of nonlinear ordinary differential equations, from which we obtain detailed structures of solutions besides their existence. For the ultra-relativistic Euler equations, we also obtain the uniqueness of the self-similar entropy solution to the Riemann initial-boundary value problems.

The formation of singularities in relativistic flows is not well understood. Smooth solutions to the relativistic Euler equations are known to have a finite lifespan; the possible breakdown mechanisms are shock formation, violation of the subluminal conditions and mass concentration. We propose a new hybrid Glimm/central-upwind scheme for relativistic flows. The scheme is used to numerically investigate, for a family of problems, which of the above mechanisms is involved.