|
What is Mach number? – All about Aircraft
Reference Section @ BillDoll.com – The Billion Dollar Site
|
|
|
|
What is Mach number?
..
..
For all aircraft related questions see the All about Aircraft section.
What is Mach number?
Mach Number, a measure of relative speed, the ratio of the actual velocity of an object at a given point to the velocity of sound in the same gas in similar conditions. It is named after Austrian physicist and philosopher Ernst Mach.
An excerpt from Wikipedia article on Mach Number
“The Mach number is commonly used both with objects travelling at high speed in a fluid, and with high-speed fluid flows inside channels such as nozzles, diffusers or wind tunnels. As it is defined as a ratio of two speeds, it is a dimensionless number. At a temperature of 15 degrees Celsius and at sea level, Mach 1 is 340.3 m/s (1,225 km/h, 761.2 mph, or 661.7 kts) in the Earth's atmosphere. The speed represented by Mach 1 is not a constant; it is temperature dependent. Hence in the stratosphere it remains about the same regardless of height, though the air pressure changes with height.
Since the speed of sound increases as the temperature increases, the actual speed of an object travelling at Mach 1 will depend on the fluid temperature around it. Mach number is useful because the fluid behaves in a similar way at the same Mach number. So, an aircraft travelling at Mach 1 at sea level (340.3 m/s, 1,225.08 km/h) will experience shock waves in much the same manner as when it is travelling at Mach 1 at 11,000 m (36,000 ft), even though it is travelling at 295 m/s (654.632 MPH, 1,062 km/h, 86% of its speed at sea level).
It can be shown that the Mach number is also the ratio of inertial forces (also referred to aerodynamic forces) to elastic forces.
High-speed flow around objects
High speed flight can be classified in five categories:
sonic: Ma=1 Subsonic: Ma < 1 Transonic: 0.8 < Ma < 1.2 Supersonic: 1.2 < Ma < 5 Hypersonic: Ma > 5 (For comparison: the required speed for low Earth orbit is ca. 7.5 km·s-1 = Ma 25.4 in air at high altitudes)
At transonic speeds, the flow field around the object includes both sub- and supersonic parts. The transonic period begins when first zones of Ma>1 flow appear around the object. In case of an airfoil (such as an aircraft's wing), this typically happens above the wing. Supersonic flow can decelerate back to subsonic only in a normal shock; this typically happens before the trailing edge.
As the velocity increases, the zone of Ma>1 flow increases towards both leading and trailing edges. As Ma=1 is reached and passed, the normal shock reaches the trailing edge and becomes a weak oblique shock: the flow decelerates over the shock, but remains supersonic. A normal shock is created ahead of the object, and the only subsonic zone in the flow field is a small area around the object's leading edge.
When an aircraft exceeds Mach 1 (i.e. the sound barrier) a large pressure difference is created just in front of the aircraft. This abrupt pressure difference, called a shock wave, spreads backward and outward from the aircraft in a cone shape (a so-called Mach cone). It is this shock wave that causes the sonic boom heard as a fast moving aircraft travels overhead. A person inside the aircraft will not hear this. The higher the speed, the more narrow the cone; at just over Ma=1 it is hardly a cone at all, but closer to a slightly concave plane.
At fully supersonic velocity the shock wave starts to take its cone shape, and flow is either completely supersonic, or (in case of a blunt object), only a very small subsonic flow area remains between the object's nose and the shock wave it creates ahead of itself. (In the case of a sharp object, there is no air between the nose and the shock wave: the shock wave starts from the nose.)
As the Mach number increases, so does the strength of the shock wave and the Mach cone becomes increasingly narrow. As the fluid flow crosses the shock wave, its speed is reduced and temperature, pressure, and density increase. The stronger the shock, the greater the changes. At high enough Mach numbers the temperature increases so much over the shock that ionization and dissociation of gas molecules behind the shock wave begin. Such flows are called hypersonic.
It is clear that any object travelling at hypersonic velocities will likewise be exposed to the same extreme temperatures as the gas behind the nose shock wave, and hence choice of heat-resistant materials becomes important. “
Main Sections @ The Billion Dollar Site
Credits & Copyright: This page is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses content from the Wikipedia article Mach number
|