Oblique Shock Waves and The Hypersonic Limit
As the Mach number of the upstream flow becomes hypersonic, the equations for the pressure, density, and temperature after the oblique shock wave reach a mathematical limit. The pressure and density ratios can then be expressed as:


For a perfect atmospheric gas approximation using γ = 1.4, the hypersonic limit for the density ratio is 6. However, hypersonic post-shock dissociation of O2 and N2 into O and N lowers γ, allowing for higher density ratios in nature. The hypersonic temperature ratio is:

Read more about this topic: Oblique Shock
Famous quotes containing the words oblique, shock, waves and/or limit:
“The jeweled stripes on the window ran straight down when the train stopped and got more and more oblique as it speeded up. The wheels rumbled in her head, saying Man-hattan Tran-sfer Man-hattan Tran-sfer.”
—John Dos Passos (18961970)
“I was not long since in a company where I wot not who of my fraternity brought news of a kind of pills, by true account, composed of a hundred and odd several ingredients; whereat we laughed very heartily, and made ourselves good sport; for what rock so hard were able to resist the shock or withstand the force of so thick and numerous a battery?”
—Michel de Montaigne (15331592)
“During our twenties...we act toward the new adulthood the way sociologists tell us new waves of immigrants acted on becoming Americans: we adopt the host cultures values in an exaggerated and rigid fashion until we can rethink them and make them our own. Our idea of what adults are and what were supposed to be is composed of outdated childhood concepts brought forward.”
—Roger Gould (20th century)
“We live in oppressive times. We have, as a nation, become our own thought police; but instead of calling the process by which we limit our expression of dissent and wonder censorship, we call it concern for commercial viability.”
—David Mamet (b. 1947)