Use signed velocities in the shock frame; the Mach number depends on their squares. For a genuine nonradiative perfect gas shock wave, the Rankine-Hugoniot conditions for a perfect gas give a common mass flux , a common momentum flux , and a common specific stagnation enthalpy . Here in the given equation of state is specific internal energy, despite the source's informal “energy density” wording.
Put , and . Mass and momentum give and . Substituting these into the energy relation and clearing denominators gives
The factor is the no-jump solution. On the nontrivial shock wave branch,
In particular . With , compression is therefore equivalent to . The other Mach number is
Positive pressure makes its denominator positive, and has the opposite sign to . Thus a nontrivial physical shock wave has a supersonic side and a subsonic side; the entropy-admissible flow goes from the former to the latter.
The shock compression ratio also yields . Rearranging produces the first velocity identity in the question. The pressure relation gives the second identity in the equivalent form
The numerator here contains mass density, as the original PDF shows; the converted TeX incorrectly replaces that mass density by pressure.
For reflection, the once-shocked gas is the common left state in both applications. Before rebound, its velocity in the shock frame is and the gas ahead has velocity ; after rebound, it is and the gas next to the wall has velocity . In both cases the right velocity minus the left velocity equals . Applying the first identity therefore gives the same quadratic equation,
with roots and . Their opposite signs distinguish the two roots, so .
Write , . The pressure identity applied to each shock wave gives
Squaring the root-product relation and eliminating the velocities yields
and hence the normal shock reflection at a rigid wall relation
Taking gives ; for a monatomic gas this limiting amplification is six.
Work in the shock frame, assume a calorically perfect gas with fixed specific-heat ratio , and neglect magnetic stresses and body forces across the thin shock. The internal energy per unit mass is , and the specific enthalpy is . Integrating the local conservation laws across a thin stationary control volume makes the mass flux , momentum flux , and energy flux continuous. Hence the Rankine-Hugoniot conditions for a perfect gas are
Multiplication of the last equality by gives continuity of the stated energy flux. These express that mass, momentum and energy cannot accumulate in an infinitesimally thin steady shock, although entropy production occurs on the physical compression branch. The same constant in the polytropic equation of state must therefore not be imposed on both sides. For flow from to , both signed velocities are negative; the flux equations and ratios remain valid.
In the Strong-shock Rankine-Hugoniot conditions, tends to zero. Put . The first two flux balances give and to leading order. The energy balance becomes
Discarding the unchanged-state root gives the compressive shock compression ratio and the required limits:
The original PDF supplies the intended profiles , and ; the TeX has corrupted the first two. At fixed , , and at fixed , . The spherical continuity equation is therefore
Since is nonzero, the continuity equation for a superbubble similarity solution is
The ambient gas is at rest. In the locally stationary shock frame, its velocity is ; the downstream velocity is . Using the shock compression ratio from part (a) converts the downstream speed back to the laboratory frame and gives the inner shock boundary conditions
Immediately outside the shock, the corresponding unperturbed profiles are , and , with understood in the negligible-ambient-pressure limit.
The inner boundary must supply the injected power. If the source is idealized as a point and the profiles extend all the way inward, central energy input in a similarity solution requires
or equivalently . A finite source region or an inner wind/contact region supplies a different matching description. One cannot impose a regular zero-flux centre on a source-free interior and still inject nonzero power.
Let be the signed mass flux. Momentum conservation gives
Dividing the energy-flux equation by and eliminating yields the pressure-density Hugoniot relation for a perfect gas:
With and , this becomes
Solving for the mass density ratio gives
For a compressive normal shock wave, and ; as , the finite shock compression ratio is .
The shock speed is
Apply the Strong-shock Rankine-Hugoniot conditions in the shock frame and transform the downstream velocity back to the ambient-medium frame. With the shock compression ratio
the post-shock values are
A plane shock moving at speed through initially stationary gas has upstream speed and downstream speed in the shock frame, where is the shock compression ratio. Transforming back to the initial slab frame gives . At the breakout time , a uniform downstream slab has thickness . The strong monatomic limit has , hence and . This uses a maintained planar post-shock state; boundary rarefactions and variations of shock speed can change the actual thickness of a freely evolving finite cloud.
Let and be the pressure and mass density ratios across a normal shock wave in a perfect gas with specific-heat ratio . Eliminating the velocities from the Rankine-Hugoniot conditions for a perfect gas gives
As , the ratio tends to the shock compression ratio .