Observation of Ultraslow Shock Waves in a Tunable Magnetic Lattice

The combination of fast propagation speeds and highly localized nature has hindered the direct observation of the evolution of shock waves at the molecular scale. To address this limitation, an experimental system is designed by tuning a one-dimensional magnetic lattice to evolve benign waveforms in...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Li, Jian, Chockalingam, S, Cohen, Tal
Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: American Physical Society (APS) 2021
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/132783
Description
Summary:The combination of fast propagation speeds and highly localized nature has hindered the direct observation of the evolution of shock waves at the molecular scale. To address this limitation, an experimental system is designed by tuning a one-dimensional magnetic lattice to evolve benign waveforms into shock waves at observable spatial and temporal scales, thus serving as a "magnifying glass" to illuminate shock processes. An accompanying analysis confirms that the formation of strong shocks is fully captured. The exhibited lack of a steady state induced by indefinite expansion of a disordered transition zone points to the absence of local thermodynamic equilibrium and resurfaces lingering questions on the validity of continuum assumptions in the presence of strong shocks.