THE DETONATION PROCESS 109 



shock wave pressure-time curves do, however, show the initially rapid 

 and later more gradual decay indicated by the analysis. 



The major importance of the shock wave for many purposes is ade- 

 quately described by the initial peak pressure and the rate of decay 

 while the pressure is still an appreciable percentage of this value. If 

 the contribution to the tail of the wave is neglected, the complete peak 

 approximation of the Kirkwood-Bethe theory is obtained: 



(3.31) G{a, t) = Goiojo + W<0))e-^/^^ 



This result adequately describes the prediction of the theory for the 

 major effect on the shock wave and is the basis of numerical calculations 

 based on the theory. 



