Shock wave

About: Shock wave is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 36184 publications have been published within this topic receiving 635848 citations. The topic is also known as: Shock waves & shockwave.

An experimental study of the oscillatory flow structure of tone-producing supersonic impinging jets

Abstract: An experimental investigation into the structure of a supersonic jet impinging on a large plate is presented. Digital particle image velocimetry (DPIV), shadowgraph photography and acoustic measurements are used to understand the relationship between the unsteady jet structure and the production of tones for nozzle-to-plate spacings between 1 and 5 nozzle exit diameters at a nozzle–pressure ratio equal to 4. Results indicate that the instability of the jet depends on the location of the plate in the shock cell structure of the corresponding free jet and the strength of the standoff shock wave, rather than on the occurrence of recirculation zones in the impingement region. Phase-locked studies show streamwise displacements of the stand-off shock wave, a moving recirculation zone in the subsonic flow in front of the plate, and significant oscillations of both the compression and expansion regions in the peripheral supersonic flow when tones are produced. Sound is shown to be generated by periodic pulsing of the wall jet boundary resulting from periodic motion of the flow in the impingement and near-wall regions of the flow.

Quantitative measurements of coronal mass ejection-driven shocks from lasco observations

Abstract: In this paper, we demonstrate that coronal mass ejection (CME)-driven shocks can be detected in white light coronagraph images and in which properties such as the density compression ratio and shock direction can be measured. Also, their propagation direction can be deduced via simple modeling. We focused on CMEs during the ascending phase of solar cycle 23 when the large-scale morphology of the corona was simple. We selected events which were good candidates to drive a shock due to their high speeds (V > 1500 km s–1). The final list includes 15 CMEs. For each event, we calibrated the LASCO data, constructed excess mass images, and searched for indications of faint and relatively sharp fronts ahead of the bright CME front. We found such signatures in 86% (13/15) of the events and measured the upstream/downstream densities to estimate the shock strength. Our values are in agreement with theoretical expectations and show good correlations with the CME kinetic energy and momentum. Finally, we used a simple forward modeling technique to estimate the three-dimensional shape and orientation of the white light shock features. We found excellent agreement with the observed density profiles and the locations of the CME source regions. Our results strongly suggest that the observed brightness enhancements result from density enhancements due to a bow-shock structure driven by the CME.

Tsunamis: Non-Breaking and Breaking Solitary Wave Run-Up

Abstract: This study considers the run-up of non-breaking and breaking solitary waves on a smooth sloping beach. A non-linear theory and a numerical model solving the non-linear shallow water equations (NLSW) were developed to model this physical process. Various experiments to obtain wave amplitude time-histories, water particle velocities, wave free-surface profiles, and maximum run-up were conducted and the results were compared with the analytical and numerical models. A higher order theoretical solution to the non-linear shallow water equations, which describes the non-breaking wave characteristics on the beach, was sought and presented in this study. The solution was obtained analytically by using the Carrier and Greenspan (1958) hodograph transformation. It was found that the non-linear theory agreed well with experimental results. The maximum run-up predicted by the non-linear theory is larger than that predicted by Synolakis (1986) at the order of the offshore relative wave height for a given slope. This correction for non-breaking waves on beach decreases as the beach slope steepens, and increases as the relative incident solitary wave height increases. A unique run-up gage that consists of a laser and a photodiode camera was developed in connection with this study to measure the time-history of the tip of the run-up tongue of a non-breaking solitary wave as it progresses up the slope. The results obtained with this run-up gage agree well with other measurements and provides a simple and reliable way of measuring run-up time histories. The run-up of breaking solitary waves was studied experimentally and numerically since no fully theoretical approach is possible. The wave characteristics such as wave shape and shoaling characteristics, and, for plunging breakers, the shape of the jet produced are presented. The experimental results show that wave breaking is such a complicated process that even sophisticated numerical models cannot adequately model its details. Two different plunging wave breaking and resultant run-up were found from the experiments. The point, where the tip of the incident jet produced by the plunging breaking wave impinges determines the characteristics of the resulting splash-up. If the jet impinges on a dry slope, no splash-up occurs and the plunging breaker simply collapses. If the impingement point is located on the free-surface, splash-up including a reflected jet is formed, which further increases the turbulence and energy dissipation associated with wave breaking. It is hypothesized that both clockwise and counter clockwise vortices may be generated by the impinging plunging jet and the reflected jet associated with the splash-up when the jet impinges on the front face of a breaking wave or on the still water surface in front of the wave. If only the run-up process and maximum run-up are of interest, the wave and the water flow produced after breaking can be simplified as a propagating bore, which is analogous to a shock wave in gas dynamics. A numerical model using this bore structure to treat the process of wave breaking and propagation was developed. The non-linear shallow water equations were solved using the weighted essentially non-oscillatory (WENO) shock capturing scheme employed in gas dynamics. Wave breaking and propagation is handled automatically 1w this scheme and no ad-hoc term is required. A computational domain mapping technique proposed by Zhang (1996) is used in the numerical scheme to model the shoreline movement. This numerical scheme is found to provide a somewhat simple and reasonably good prediction of various aspects of the run-up process. The numerical results agree well with the experiments corresponding to the run-up on a. relatively steep slope (1:2.08) as well as on a more gentle slope (1:19.85). A simple empirical estimate of maximum run-up based on energy conservation considerations is also presented where the energy dissipation associated with wave breaking was estimated using the results from the numerical model. This approach appears to be useful and the maximum run-up predicted agrees reasonably well with the experimental results. The splash-up of a solitary wave on a vertical wall positioned at different locations on a gentle slope was also investigated in this study to understand the degree of protection from tsunamis afforded by seawalls. It was found that the effect of breaking wave kinematics offshore of the vertical wall on the splash-up is of critical importance to the maximum splash-up. The maximum slope of the front face of the wave upon impingement of the wave on the wall, which represents the maximum water particle acceleration, was important in defining the maximum sheet splash-up as well as the trend for splash-up composed of drops and spray.

Shock enhancement of cellular structures under impact loading: Part I Experiments

Abstract: This paper aims at showing experimental proof of the existence of a shock front in cellular structures under impact loading, especially at low critical impact velocities around 50 m/s. First, an original testing procedure using a large diameter Nylon Hopkinson bar is introduced. With this large diameter soft Hopkinson bar, tests under two different configurations (pressure bar behind/ahead of the supposed shock front) at the same impact speed are used to obtain the force/time histories behind and ahead of the assumed shock front within the cellular material specimen. Stress jumps (up to 60% of initial stress level) as well as shock front speed are measured for tests at 55 m/s on Alporas foams and nickel hollow sphere agglomerates, whereas no significant shock enhancement is observed for Cymat foams and 5056 aluminium honeycombs. The corresponding rate sensitivity of the studied cellular structures is also measured and it is proven that it is not responsible for the sharp strength enhancement. A photomechanical measurement of the shock front speed is also proposed to obtain a direct experimental proof. The displacement and strain fields during the test are obtained by correlating images shot with a high speed camera. The strain field measurements at different times show that the shock front discontinuity propagates and allows for the measurement of the propagation velocity. All the experimental evidences enable us to confirm the existence of a shock front enhancement even at quite low impact velocities for a number of studied materials.

Energization of solar wind ions by reflection from the Earth's bow shock

Abstract: The existence of ion beams with energies a few times the solar wind energy and streaming outward from the earth's bow shock has been known for some time. To explain the observed ion energies, a simple reflection model has been proposed in which the particles gain energy by displacement parallel to the interplanetary electric field. In this model the energy gained in the reflection can be described as a function of the angles between the interplanetary magnetic field, the solar wind velocity, and the local shock normal. Ion beams under widely varying conditions have been observed in ISEE 1 and 2. For 18 cases, with beam energies ranging from approximately 1.4 to 30 times the solar wind energy, a comparison between the observed and the predicted beam energies has been made.