Shock Wave
The characteristic cone-shaped wave front that is produced whenever an object travels faster than the speed of the waves in the surrounding medium.
- Mach wedge
- The wave front semi-angle for a wake generated by supersonic motion of a body in a non-dispersive medium.
- Kelvin wedge
- For waves in the wake of a boat (gravity waves). In this case the wedge semi-angle is independent of the speed of the body.
- Spherical adiabatic shock
- Rankine-Hugoniot shock relations
- These are solutions for a steady, normal shock in the frame moving with the shock front.
- where
- νb = Speed of body
- νp = Wave speed
- θw = Wedge semi-angle
- λK = Characteristic wavelength
- g = Standard acceleration due to gravity
- r = Shock radius
- E = Energy release
- t = Time
- T = Temperature
- M = Mach number
- p = Pressure
- ν = Velocity
- ρ = Density
- ρ0 = Density of undisturbed medium
- γ = Ratio of specific heats
- νp = Wave speed
- Note: Subscripts 1 and 2 denote upstream and downstream values respectively.
