‫‪Fayoum University‬‬ ‫‪Faculty of Engineering‬‬

‫)‪Mechanical Engineering Dept. (2nd‬‬

‫االسممممممممم‬

‫ع‬ ‫محمددمعمضددعبعنددض‬
‫ا راهيمع‬‫ع‬

‫الممم‪:‬سممممممم‬

‫الهنمسددددمعالميك نيكيدددددمع‬ ‫ع‬

‫المممةممم ممم‬

‫الث نيددددددددددددددددددددددددددددمع‬ ‫ع‬

‫‪Shock Waves‬‬
‫‪Prepared for‬‬
‫‪Dr: Mohamed Badr‬‬
Contents
Shock Wave Meaning .................................................................................................................................. 3
What is Shock Wave? .............................................................................................................................. 3
Shock Wave Example .............................................................................................................................. 4
Shock and Wave ...................................................................................................................................... 4
Characteristics of Shock Waves ............................................................................................................. 5
Types of Shock Waves ............................................................................................................................. 5

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Introduction

A shock wave is a type of propagating disturbance that moves faster than the local
speed of sound in a medium. Like an ordinary wave, a shock wave carries energy and
can propagate through a medium, but it is characterized by an abrupt, nearly
discontinuous change in pressure, temperature, and density of the medium1. These
waves can occur due to various phenomena, such as supersonic aircraft, explosions,
lightning, or other violent changes in pressure2. When a shock wave passes through
matter, energy is preserved, but entropy increases, manifesting as a decrease in the
energy that can be extracted as work and as a drag force on supersonic objects. Shock
waves are strongly irreversible processes.

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Shock Wave Meaning
In Physics, a shock wave is also known as shock waves. It is a strong pressure wave
in an elastic medium such as air, water, or any solid material ejected from explosions
or lightning, or other phenomena that create variations in pressure.

It is a type of disturbance that propagates at a speed greater than the speed of sound in
the medium.

As a rule, like ordinary waves, shock waves carry energy and can propagate through a
medium.

Above all, we characterize a shock wave by a sudden, nearly discontinuous, change in

pressure, temperature, and density of the medium.

What is Shock Wave?

When an aeroplane travels at a speed less than that of sound, in the first place, the air
stays ahead of it.

In the meantime, the air begins to flow out of the way, before the plane approaches it.
The pressure waves that aeroplane creates past the air, eventually end up being smooth
and gradual.

However, when an aeroplane reaches the speed of sound and catches up to its own
pressure waves, the air ahead of it receives no signal of the plane’s approach.

The aeroplane flows through the air, creating a strong pressure wave known as a shock
wave.

In this case, when air flows through the shock wave, its pressure, density, and
temperature increase sharply and quickly.

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Shock Wave Example
A medium carries various characteristics with itself, such as stress, density, and
temperature.
When a supersonic aircraft, lightning, or explosions expel a strong pressure wave or a
shock wave in an elastic medium, an intense change in pressure occurs inside the
medium.

Here, the strong wave pressure from a supersonic aircraft is a cone comprising
spherical wavefronts.

Also, the term “supersonic,” itself says that it expels the waves having much more
speed than the speed of sound in the air.

Shock and Wave

In a shock wave, compression takes place in a region of abrupt and violent change in
stress, density, and temperature of a medium it propagates/travels.

As a result, shock waves propagate in a manner varying from that of ordinary acoustic
waves.

Particularly, shock waves travel faster than sound, and their speed increases
consequently with the increase in the amplitude.

However, the intensity of a shock wave also decreases more quickly than that of a
sound wave.

Further, some of the energy of the shock wave is dissipated by heating the medium
through which it travels.

The air explosion that creates a strong shock wave has a property known as amplitude.
This property decreases conversely by the square of the distance until the wave
becomes low to obey the laws of acoustic waves.

Shock waves can reshape the electrical, mechanical, and thermal properties of
materials.
Thus, we can use shock waves to study the equation of states, such as the relation of
pressure, temperature, and volume of any material.

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Characteristics of Shock Waves
Comparing supersonic flows, we may achieve an increase in an expansion through an
expansion fan. For instance, the known expansion fan is a Prandtl-Meyer expansion
fan.

Coupled with, expansion wave may approach, collide and lastly recombine with the
shock wave, creating a process of destructive interference.
The sonic boom associates with the passage of a supersonic aircraft, which is a type of
sound wave produced as a result of constructive interference.

When a shock wave passes through matter, energy preserves, however, entropy
increases. This change in the matter's properties, as a rule, manifests itself as a decrease
in energy. However, we can extract work from this energy, also, as a drag force on
supersonic objects.

Therefore, shock waves are strongly irreversible processes.

Types of Shock Waves

• Concussive Wave
A concussive wave is a blast of energy given off by an exploding object.
Further, the explosion compresses the air immediately surrounding the site of
detonation. As a result, the compressed air scatters in all directions away from
the source - growing weaker the further, the wave travels.
Incidentally, a person close to the source of detonation can get affected by the
blast wave.

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• Oblique Shockwave
For analyzing shock waves, we attach them to the body. After that, we find that
the shock waves deviate at an arbitrary angle from the flow direction.
Meanwhile, we call this shockwave the oblique shock wave.
As a matter of fact, these shock waves require a component vector analysis of
the flow.
However, doing so permits the flow treatment in a direction orthogonal to the
oblique shock as a normal shock.

• Mach Wave
A mach wave is a pressure wave in fluid dynamics. It travels with the speed of
sound by a slight change of pressure added to a compressible flow.

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Normal Shock waves
Normal shockwaves occur perpendicular to the flow direction and result
from abrupt changes in flow conditions, such as flow deceleration in a
converging nozzle or flow obstruction by a solid object.

Conclusion

When the speed of a source equals the speed of sound (v = c) the wave fronts cannot
escape the source. The resulting pile of waves forms a large amplitude "sound barrier"
that makes sustained flight at this speed difficult and risky.

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The term "sound barrier" or "sonic barrier" first came into use during World War Two.
Fighter pilots engaged in high speed dives noticed several irregularities as flying speeds
approached the speed of sound: aerodynamic drag increased markedly, much more than
normally associated with increased speed, while lift and maneuverability decreased in
a similarly unusual manner. Pilots at the time mistakenly thought that these effects
meant that supersonic flight was impossible; that somehow airplanes would never
travel faster than the speed of sound. They were wrong.

When the speed of a source exceeds the speed of sound (v > c) the wave fronts lag
behind the source in a cone-shaped region with the source at the vertex. The edge of
the cone forms a supersonic wave front with an unusually large amplitude called a
"shock wave". When a shock wave reaches an observer a "sonic boom" is heard.
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Unlike ordinary sound waves, the speed of a shock wave varies with its amplitude. The
speed of a shock wave is always greater than the speed of sound in the fluid and
decreases as the amplitude of the wave decreases. When the shock wave speed equals
the normal speed, the shock wave dies and is reduced to an ordinary sound wave.

The ratio of the speed of a moving object (v) to the speed of sound (c) in a fluid is
known as the Mach number (Ma) in honor of Ernst Mach (1838–1916), the Moravian
physicist, psychologist, and philosopher who studied sound and ballistics.
v
Ma =
c
The Mach number is a dimensionless measure of speed common in aerodynamics.
Mach 0.5 is half the speed of sound, Mach 2 is twice the speed of sound, and so on.
Speeds less than the speed of sound have a Mach number between zero and one and
are described as subsonic. Those greater than the speed of sound have Mach numbers
greater than one are a described as supersonic. Speeds approximately equal to the speed
of sound have Mach numbers approximately equal to one and are described
as transonic.
The shock wave from a supersonic object is a cone composed of overlapping spherical
wavefronts. As any one of these wavefont forms, it propagates radially outward at
speed c and acquires a radius ct. At the same time the source, traveling at
speed v moves forward vt. These two displacements form the leg and hypotenuse,
respectively, of a right triangle and can be used to determine the Mach angle μ at the
vertex of the shock cone.
c
sin μ =
v

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When an object travels slower than sound, the ratio in this equation is greater than one,
and the equation does not have a real solution. This makes absolute sense as there is no
shock wave to speak of at subsonic speeds. Traveling at the speed of sound makes the
ratio equal one and results in a Mach angle of ninety degrees. At transonic speeds the
shock wave is a wall of high pressure moving with the object, perpendicular to its
velocity. Above the speed of sound, the ratio is less than one and the Mach angle is less
than ninety degrees. The faster the object moves, the narrower the cone of high pressure
behind it becomes. Measuring the vertex angle is thus a simple way to determine the
speed of a supersonic object.

Applications of shock wave

1. Aerospace: Shock waves play a crucial role in supersonic and hypersonic

flight. They are responsible for phenomena like sonic booms and aerodynamic
heating.

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2. Medicine: Medical shock wave therapy is used for treating conditions such as
kidney stones, tendinitis, and non-healing fractures. It promotes tissue
regeneration and accelerates healing.

3. Biological Sciences: Shock waves are investigated for their effects on cell
transfection, gene therapy, and inactivation of microorganisms.

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4. Material Processing: Shock waves are employed in material science for
compacting powders, forming ceramics, and enhancing material properties.

5. Manufacturing: Shock wave forming techniques are used to shape metals and
other materials.

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6. Microelectronic Industries: Shock waves aid in precision cutting, drilling,
and cleaning of microstructures.

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7. Astrophysics: Supernova explosions generate shock waves that propagate
through interstellar space, influencing the evolution of galaxies .

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References:
An Introduction with Examples from Astrophysics and Geophysics

Shock Wave - Meaning, Types, Example and Characteristics (vedantu.com)

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