4.

3 Compressibility Buffet, Mach Cone

At supersonic speeds the air flowing over the aircraft surface does no longer act as an
incompressible fluid, but it will actually be compressed and follows the laws of compressible
fluid flow.
Incompressible Fluid Flow
Refer to Figure 4.
When air flows at a subsonic speed it acts like an incompressible fluid. As air flows through the
converging duct of an engine air inlet, the mass of air remains constant at all locations.
For the same mass of air to pass through a restriction in the tube it must become faster. As its
velocity increases its pressure decreases.
When the air leaves the restriction and enters the diverging portion of the duct, it slows down to
its original velocity and its pressure rises to its original value.
The density of this subsonic flow of air does not change.
Compressible Fluid Flow
Refer to Figure 5.
When the air flows through the same converging duct described above but now at a supersonic
velocity, it behaves differently.
First it is compressed and its density increases. At the same time, its velocity decreases and its
pressure increases.
As it flows into the diverging portion of the duct it expands and its density decreases. Its velocity
increases as its pressure decreases.
Note: Under compressible flow (or: supersonic) conditions Bernoullis theorem does no longer
apply.
Mach Cone
A stationary source of sound generates pressure waves of concentric spherical shape. In a
simplified way they can be imagined as circles. The number of circles per second depends on
the frequency (or: pitch) of the sound. A high pitch means a high number of sound waves and a
low pitch means less sound waves per second.

If the source of sound is moving, the spacing between the emitted sound waves changes.
Sound waves ahead (i.e. in the direction of movement) of the sound source will be spaced
closer to each other, and the distance between sound waves behind the sound source will be
larger. Since a change of the spacing affects the frequency of the sound waves, narrower
spacing generates a sound with a higher pitch, wider spacing a sound with a lower pitch.
A typical example is the change of sound created by a passing race car or aircraft. This
phenomenon is called the Doppler effect in honour of the Austrian physicist Christian Doppler.
His research on such frequency changes led to the invention of the Doppler radar.
Refer to Figure 6.
If the sound source accelerates the sound waves ahead will start to bunch up. As it reaches the
speed of sound the difference between the speed of the sound waves and the speed of the
source will be zero.
The pressure disturbances (or: sound waves) pile up and create a pressure front, commonly
known as the shock wave. If the sound source can now accelerate through this shock wave (or:
sound barrier), then it will be trailing the sound waves behind as it moves faster than the speed
of sound. The shock wave changes to the shape of a cone and contains all emitted sound
waves (i.e. pressure disturbances) within. An observer on the ground would see a supersonic
aircraft passing in complete silence and thereafter he would hear and feel the sonic boom as
soon as the shock waves of the cone reach him.
This so-called Mach cone is variable since its shape and angle depend on the speed and shape
of the object travelling at supersonic speed. As a general rule it can be stated that the faster the
object travels the smaller the angle at the tip of the cone, the blunter the object the larger the
angle or the blunter the cone.
If the shape of the object exceeds a certain angle then the nose of the Mach cone becomes
rounded and detaches from the object. For example, a backwards flying rifle bullet would have
that effect.
Sonic Boom
Refer to Figure 7.
Every object flying at supersonic speed produces shock waves which form the so called Mach
cone whose angle is dependent on the speed. The higher the Mach number the smaller the
angle will be.
When the edge of this cone reaches the ground an observer will notice the shock wave (or:
sudden change of pressure) like a bang similar to the sound of a cannon being fired.

Since an aircraft can generate several shock waves (but at least two: a nose and a tail shock
wave) the sonic boom can often be heard as a double bang. The intensity of this acoustic
disturbance depends on three factors:

the height above ground (the higher the aircraft flies the less intense the sonic boom will
be)
the weight of the aircraft (the intensity of the sonic boom is proportional to the weight)
the speed of the aircraft (the faster the aircraft flies the less intense the sonic boom will
be).