Intro to Compressible Waves

Shock-Expansion Theory – Lesson 1

Intro - What Are Waves in Gas Dynamics?
• Gas flow over a body (or body motion in the gas) creates disturbances which propagate
through the fluid domain and interact with other parts of the body.
• These disturbances are called waves, and their motion is referred to as wave motion.
• Wave motion has a profound effect on the dynamics of gas flow, and it affects forces and
thermal loads on the body.
• Wave motion in compressible flows is a complex phenomenon and its basic physics must be
understood and correctly described by predictive methods when analyzing gas flows.
• In this course we will apply one-dimensional governing equations of gas dynamics to analyze
wave motion in gas flows.
• In this introductory lesson we will describe different types of compressible waves, but
without going into details about their physics, which we will expand on in following lessons.

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Shock Waves due to Supersonic Motion
• A shock wave is a fluid flow disturbance propagating through the gas faster than the
local speed of sound.
• As the object moves through the fluid at a supersonic speed, waves generated by its
motion cannot propagate upstream. Instead, they coalesce a short distance in front
of the object, forming a very thin wave front called a shock wave (or simply shock).
Shock wave
• The lag of the wave fronts
behind the object restricts Zone of silence
them to a cone-shaped
region. Wave fronts at the 𝑀 > 1.0
edge of this cone form a
shock wave, which is
effectively the downstream
part of the upstream shock.

Shock wave

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Shock Waves due to Supersonic Motion

• Shocks that are oriented perpendicular to the (a) (b)

flow direction are called normal shocks. If
they are inclined at an angle to the flow, they
are called oblique shocks.
• A shock that is displaced upstream away from
the impingement point of the body and arcs
away from this position as an oblique shock is
called a bow shock. Bow Shock

• Shock waves can be visualized using a Oblique Shocks

technique called Schlieren photography.

(a) Bow shock due to a blunt body, (b) Oblique shock due
to a wedge body moving at a supersonic speed.

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Characteristics of Shock Waves
• Shock waves are very thin. Measurements indicate a typical thickness of a shock
wave is on the order of magnitude of the mean free molecule path. Thus, in the
continuum description of gas dynamics, they are treated as discontinuities.
• Shock waves are characterized by an abrupt change in flow properties across the
shock:
‐ An increase in static properties (pressure, temperature, density)
‐ A decrease in Mach number and total pressure
‐ An increase in entropy

Contour plots showing sharp changes in Mach number (left), pressure (middle) and temperature (right) across the shock waves.

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Shock Waves due to a Sudden Release of Energy
• Another mechanism of generating a shock wave
is a sudden release of energy. This energy is
dissipated into ambient through an expanding
shock, followed by a subsonic flow.
• An obvious example of this type of shock is a
blast wave created by an explosion.
• The amount of energy released does not
Supernova explosion
necessarily have to be large to create a shock,
it must only be sudden (within microseconds).
‐ That popping sound you hear when popping an air
balloon or stomping on a packaging air pillow is the
shock wave hitting your eardrums!

Balloon in the process of bursting

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Expansion Waves
• Expansion waves (also called expansion fans) are another type of wave in supersonic
flows. They develop when the flow area suddenly expands, e. g., when the flow turns
a convex corner.
• The expansion fan is a mechanism for supersonic flow to expand without “violating”
laws of thermodynamics.

𝜇1

Expansion Waves

𝑀1 > 1 𝜇2 < 𝜇1
𝑝1 , 𝜌1 , 𝑇1

Mach number contour plot showing the expansion

waves formed at a convex corner.

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Summary

• In this lesson we introduced the concept of waves in compressible flows and

described different types of waves: shocks and expansion waves.
• We will spend the remainder of this course on waves in supersonic flows.