The influence of dense gases on the curvature and the strength of a normal shock near curved walls is discussed. In classical gasdynamics there is a postshock expansion and the shock is curved upstream if the wall is convex. The transonic small disturbance theory for the problem has been derived, including the fundamental gasdynamic derivative &Ggr; and the second nonlinearity parameter &Lgr;. Special attention is drawn on flows where &Ggr; becomes either zero or negative. According to the similarity laws, change of the sign of &Ggr; changes the sign of the velocity disturbances &Jgr;xand &Jgr;yand of the wall curvature. Thus an expansion shock is followed by a compression if &Ggr;<0 and the wall is concave. Again the shock is curved upstream. A variation of the second nonlinearity parameter &Lgr; influences the strength of the shock, its curvature, and of the postshock expansion. Considering a &Ggr;≳0 flow at a convex wall, the postshock expansion and the shock curvature are weakened if &Lgr;≳0. Comparing the real gas flow with the perfect gas flow (e.g., &Ggr;=1.2 and &Lgr;=0), both the expansion behind the shock and the shock curvature increase if &Lgr; becomes negative.