14.7. APPENDIX: OBLIQUE SHOCK STABILITY ANALYSIS 299
to as the stable situation. On the other hand, if the answer is negative, then the sit-
uation is referred to as unstable. An example to this situation, is a ball shown in the
Figure (14.24). Instinctively, the stable and unstable can be recognized. There is also
the situation where the ball is between the stable and unstable situations when the ball
is on a plane field which is referred to as the neutrally stable. In the same manner,
the analysis for the oblique shock wave is carried out. The only difference is that here,
there are more than one parameter that can be changed, for example, the shock angle,
deflection angle, and upstream Mach number. In this example only the weak solution
is explained. The similar analysis can be applied to strong shock. Yet, in that analysis
it has to be remembered that when the flow becomes subsonic the equation changes
from hyperbolic to an elliptic equation. This change complicates the explanation and is
omitted in this section. Of course, in the analysis the strong shock results in an elliptic
solution (or region) as opposed to a hyperbolic in weak shock. As results, the discussion
is more complicated but similar analysis can be applied to the strong shock.
Fig. -14.25. The schematic of stability analysis
for oblique shock.
The change in the inclination angle results
in a different upstream Mach number and
a different pressure. On the other hand, to
maintain the same direction stream lines,
the virtual change in the deflection angle
has to be in the opposite direction of the
change of the shock angle. The change
is determined from the solution provided
before or from the approximation (14.62).
∆θ =
k + 1
2
∆δ (14.66)
Equation (14.66) can be applied for either positive, ∆θ
+
or negative ∆θ
−
values.
The pressure difference at the wall becomes a negative increment which tends to pull
the shock angle to the opposite direction. The opposite happens when the deflection
increment becomes negative, the deflection angle becomes positive which increases the
pressure at the wall. Thus, the weak shock is stable.
Please note that this analysis doesn’t apply to the case of the close proximity of the
δ = 0. In fact, the shock wave is unstable according to this analysis to one direction
but stable to the other direction. Yet, it must be pointed out that it doesn’t mean
that the flow is unstable but rather that the model is incorrect. There isn’t any known
experimental evidence to show that flow is unstable for δ = 0.