Mass, momentum and total excess energy transported by a weak plane \(N\) wave (Q1370490)

A weakly nonlinear plane acoustic wave is emitted into an ideal gas of semi-infinite extent from an infinite plate by its sinusoidal motion of single period. The wave develops into an \(N\) wave in the far field, as long as the energy dissipation is negligible everywhere except for discontinuous shock fronts. The third-order effects at shock fronts are evaluated, i.e., the generation of reflected acoustic wave as a result of the interaction of shock and expansion wave and the production of entropy by the energy dissipation at shock fronts. Consideration of these effects enables one to estimate the whole mass, momentum and total excess energy (sum of the kinetic energy and excess of internal energy over an initial undisturbed value) transported by the \(N\) wave to the accuracy of third order of wave amplitude. It is shown that the mass and total excess energy transported by the \(N\) wave increase and the momentum decreases to asymptotic limits as the wave propagates.