Shock Curvature due to Boundary-Layer Effects in a Shock Tube

A two-dimensional, linearized treatment, including real gas effects, of shock curvature in a shock tube is presented. An expression for shock shape as a function of shock Mach number and initial pressure of the test gas is presented. The results are compared with the available experimental data obtained in argon at low shock strengths and in air at high shock Mach numbers. Within the scatter of the data in the latter experiments, there is relatively good agreement with theory, while theory falls approximately 30 ± 10% above the data in argon. Some of this disagreement is attributed to application of the two-dimensional theoretical result to axisymmetric shock tubes of finite dimensions used in the experiments.