An oblique shock wave, unlike a normal shock, is inclined with respect to the incident upstream flow direction. It will occur when a supersonic flow encounters a corner that effectively turns the flow into itself and compresses. The upstream streamlines are uniformly deflected after the shock wave. The most common way to produce an oblique shock wave is to place a wedge into supersonic, compressible flow. Similar to a normal shock wave, the oblique shock wave consists of a very thin region across which nearly discontinuous changes in the thermodynamic properties of a gas occur. While the upstream and downstream flow directions are unchanged across a normal shock, they are different for flow across an oblique shock wave.
It is always possible to convert an oblique shock into a normal shock by a Galilean transformation.
Read more about Oblique Shock: Oblique Shock Wave Theory, Oblique Shock Wave Applications, Oblique Shock Waves and The Hypersonic Limit
Famous quotes containing the words oblique and/or shock:
“Street lamps come out, and lean at corners, awry,
Casting black shadows, oblique and intense....”
—Philip Larkin (1922–1986)
“It is a great shock at the age of five or six to find that in a world of Gary Coopers you are the Indian.”
—James Baldwin (1924–1987)