Dynamics of shock waves appearing during pulsed high-current electric gas discharges. II. Regular polygonal shock waves with closed surface fronts

Dynamics of regular polygonal shock waves (SWs), generated at thin wire explosion, with a closed surface front and numbers of sides n = 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 12, and 16 in the plane of polygons is experimentally studied. Depending on the initial Mach number M _PSW0 of such waves and the number n, two convergence modes are implemented: convergence with and without changes in the number of sides n. It is shown that the shape of the reflected wave front differs from the shape of the converging SW front for polygonal SWs with n ≥ 8, i.e., it becomes smooth. The number M _PSW0 is determined depending on initial characteristics of an SW generator and gas. A significant amplification of such SWs with n ≥ 12 is observed near to the center of polygons; their maximum amplification is estimated.