Abstract: Based on the second viscosity, the local differential quadrature (LDQ) method is applied to solve shock tube problems. It is shown that it is necessary to consider the second viscosity to calculate shocks and to simulate shock tubes based on the viscosity model. The roles of the shear viscous stress and the second viscous stress are checked. The results show that the viscosity model combined with the LDQ method can capture the main characteristics of shocks, and this technique is objective and simple.