Shocks, Interfaces and Patterns in Supersonic Jets
Smarr, L., Norman, M., Winkler, K.-H.. Physica 12D, 83-106. (1984).
Abstract
Supersonic gaseous jets exhibit coherent nonlinear dynamic structures. We use a supercomputer to obtain solutions to the equations of two-dimensional inviscid hydrodynamics, representing both axisymmetric and planar jets boring their way through a uniform medium. We use color images to display these high-resolution computations. Several basic morphologies of interfaces and shock structures arise which we discuss in simple terms. The global structure of the two-parameter solution space is analyzed. A number of the basic structures, which appear in the supercomputer simulations, seem to occur in both terrestrial and astrophysical supersonic jets.