Focusing of weak shock waves in confined axisymmetric chambers

Theoretical study of a weak shock wave focusing process on a spherical region in confined 3-D axisymmetric chambers is presented. The chambers are elliptic or parabolic in the plane cross-section containing their axis of symmetry. In the elliptic case a spherical shock wave of constant strength generated at one of the focal points will reflect off the chamber wall and converge on a spherical region around the second focus of the chamber. It is shown that the pressure distribution on the converging spherical shock wave is not homogeneous. In the parabolic case two possibilities of shock generation are considered. In the first one a plane shock wave of constant intensity is send in the inner of the chamber. This shock wave with the plane perpendicular to the symmetry axis will after the reflection off the chamber wall transform to a spherical shock with non-homogeneous pressure distribution. Alternatively, a spherical shock of constant intensity generated at the focus of the paraboloidal chamber will after the reflection transform to a plane shock with non-homogeneous pressure distribution propagating in the outer of the chamber. The above mentioned problems are solved within the frame of the geometrical acoustics approximation and the flow fields as well as the non-uniform shock strengths behind the converging wave fronts are calculated.This article was processed using Springer-Verlag T_EX Shock Waves macro package 1.0 and the AMS fonts, developed by the American Mathematical Society.