Magnetohydrodynamic Shock Polar

Abstract

The steady shock discontinuity in the flow of a perfectly conducting gas with aligned magnetic field is considered by taking, as the parameters, the Mach number and the Alfvén number ahead of the shock and the shock angle. The jumps across the shock, which satisfy the various conservation laws as well as the entropy and evolutionary conditions, are calculated by making use of an electronic computer. The possible types of MHD shock polar are shown in the speed-deflection plane for various combination of parameters.