Axisymmetric rapid expansion of supercritical carbon dioxide is investigated in this article. The extended generalized Bender equation of state is used to give a good description of the fluids over a wide range of pressure and temperature conditions. The locations of Mach disks are analyzed and compared with an experimental correlation for the case where there is no plate positioned in front of the nozzle exit. It is found that the disagreement between our numerical results and the experimental formula is very small when the pressure ratio is small, and increases as the pressure ratio increases. It is also found that with different equations of state, the predicted positions of Mach disks do not differ a lot, but the temperature profiles in the chamber differ a lot. The case where there is a plate positioned in front of the nozzle exit is also studied in this article. A universal similarity solution is obtained. (c) 2014 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 61: 317-332, 2015