Abstract
A series of experiment has been carried out by the use of a conventional shock tube to investigate the unsteady behavior of shock reflection. Especially, attention is focused on the phenomenon in the vicinity of the transition wedge angle for a specified incident shock Mach number. Although models used in the experiment are ordinary plane wedges, a transition phenomenon from regular to Mach reflection has taken place during the shock propagation. In other words, the phenomenon cannot be regarded steady with respect to some fixed point on the incident shock. The discrepancy between theory and experiment is ascribed to this unsteadiness (non-selfsimilarity). The behavior of incidence and reflection angles suggests that the so-called von Neumann paradox might be resolved as the incident shock proceeds. It is concluded that the cause of unsteadiness lies in the transport properties of the medium.
