A conical sector shock tube generates a sector of a classical diverging spherical shock wave which emanates radially from an effective point source in a non-focusing but highly directional manner. A compression front having a radius of curvature equal to its separation from the apex of the sector shock tube defines the leading edge of a "cap shock" of accurately controllable and predictable intensity. A trailing rarefaction front of the cap shock is defined by the diffraction caused by the rim of the sector shock tube. The rarefaction front progressively erodes the cap shock as it is projected toward the target calculus, defining the width and duration of the propagating cap shock. The cap shock uniformly pulverizes the target calculus in a comparatively small quantity of shock wave applications, as compared with the larger (two orders of magnitude greater) number of shots employed in known ellipsoidal focused shock wave methods.
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