How does a shock in supersonic flow grow out of smooth data?

This paper is devoted to the precise description of the process of formation and construction of shock waves. If a steady supersonic flow moves above a concavely curved wall, then the flow is compressed by the bending wall, and a suspended shock will be formed in the flow field. This fact with the existence of solution having an assigned singularity structure is rigorously proved. It is indicated that the suspended shock will start from the cusp of the envelope of lambda (+) characteristics. Moreover, some estimates describing the behavior of the solution near the cusp are also obtained. (C) 2001 American Institute of Physics.