Time-resolved polychrome Mach-Zehnder interferometry of diffracting shock waves

摘要

The fundamental shock wave interaction process of a wave diffraction at a sharp 90 degree corner was investigatedby means of time-resolved Mach-Zehnder interferometry. The obtained results show that the process ismacroscopically self-similar as has been assumed in the past but that some elements of the flow show non-selfsimilarbehavior. The use of polychrome (white light) interferometry enables one to quantify the density distributionand by how much it is altered as a result of the non-self-similar behavior.