6. Shock waves
A shockwave is a very thin zone of flow, less than 1 mm thick, which marks the transition from supersonic velocity upstream to subsonic velocity downstream. In the same space, pressure rises sharply. As a result, the fluid particles passing through the shockwave undergo an extremely high deceleration rate of up to 109 to 1010 m /s2, or around one billion g. It's this violent impact, producing a real shock on the particles, which is the origin of the name given to this transition zone.
There are straight (or flat) shockwaves and oblique shockwaves.
Straight shock waves separate medium 1, where the flow is supersonic, from medium 2, where the flow is subsonic (figure
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Shock waves