Evolution of the temporal slope density function for waves propagating according to the inviscid Burgers equation

An exact formulation for the evolution of the probability density function of the time derivative of a waveform (slope density) propagating according to the one-dimensional inviscid Burgers equation is given. The formulation relies on the implicit Earnshaw solution and therefore is only valid prior to shock formation. As explicit examples, the slope density evolution of an initially sinusoidal plane wave, initially Gaussian-distributed planar noise, and an initially triangular wave are presented. The triangular wave is used to examine weak-shock limits without violating the theoretical assumptions. It is also shown that the moments of the slope density function as a function of distance may be written as an expansion in terms of the moments of the source slope density function. From this expansion, approximate expressions are presented for the above cases as well as a specific non-Gaussian noise case intended to mimic features of jet noise. Finally, analytical predictions of the propagation of initially Gaussian-distributed noise are compared favorably with plane-wave tube measurements.