Normal Shock Calculator

Normal shock in a calorically perfect gas. Enter any one of the tabulated quantities, the upstream or downstream Mach number, a static or total-pressure ratio, or the Pitot ratio p_0,2/p₁, and the others follow from the normal-shock relations, in place of the tables in Anderson’s Appendix B. The γ in the top bar applies to every value on the page.

Appendix B · Normal shock properties

Calculator

Enter one known quantity

Reference

Relations used

Across the shock

Total pressure, entropy, and the Pitot tube

Every ratio is monotonic in M₁ for M₁ ≥ 1, so a known ratio fixes M₁; the calculator finds it by bisection on 1 ≤ M₁ ≤ 50. The Rayleigh Pitot formula (8.80) gives the pressure at the nose of a Pitot tube in supersonic flow, behind the normal part of its bow shock.

Background

Calculator

Relations used

Across the shock

Total pressure, entropy, and the Pitot tube

Where these relations come from