Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2013 iii Paper 52 2 c Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-07
Let denote the front speed in the stationary upstream frame. In the shock frame, the upstream and downstream velocities are and . Taking in the Rankine-Hugoniot conditions for a perfect gas givesThe downstream laboratory velocity is , which distinguishes the gas speed from the front speed.
For the planar blast-wave energy scaling of a self-similar blast wave, integration of the total energy density over the shocked interval gives the energy per unit area on this side:The similarity solution makes time-independent; a finite positive explosion energy requires . Conservation of energy therefore gives for the expanding front. Integrating from ,If denotes the one-sided energy, . If the released energy feeds two symmetric fronts, and . In either convention the requested scaling is . The constant depends on the similarity profiles and the energy convention; energy conservation determines the exponent without solving those profiles. The Strong-shock Rankine-Hugoniot conditions additionally fix and .
Self-similar blast wave 2026-10-07
A self-similar blast wave is an expanding shock wave whose post-shock profiles retain their shape in a rescaled radius or distance. A fixed explosion energy, ambient mass density and geometry set the front scaling through conservation of total energy. The dimensionless coefficient requires the profiles and an energy-normalization convention.