SHOCK WAVES IN INERT AND REACTIVE MEDIA

Shock waves are of special interest from a whole number of aspects. On the one hand, where attempts at integrating equations without introducing discontinuities (i.e., shock waves) lead to these or those paradoxes and to the impossibility of solving these equations, the shock wave theory resolves paradoxes and permits creating regimes of motion under any conditions. One the other hand, shock waves themselves are a paradoxical event. They are paradoxical in the sense that without making any assumptions about dissipative forces — about viscosity and heat conduction — we obtain, from elementary considerations, laws, according to which there is an increase in entropy, i.e., laws, according to which the processes proceeding in the shock wave are irreversible.″
   
Author:  N. A. Fomin
Keywords:  shock wave, combustion, detonation, supersonic flows
Page:  736