An Introduction To Gas

Dynamics

What is Gas Dynamics?

Also known as Compressible flow.

Branch of fluid mechanics that deals with flows having significant
changes in fluid density.
Study relevant to

High speed aircraft

Jet Engines
Hyperloop
High Speed Entry of space crafts
Gas pipelines and more..

History

Its origins lie with simpler machines.

In 19th century, Ernst Mach sought to understand the physical
phenomenon involved through experimentation.
At the beginning of 20th century, Ludwig Prandtl and his students
proposed important concepts ranging from theboundary layer to
supersonic shock waves, supersonic wind tunnels, and supersonic
nozzle design.
Theodore von Krmn, a student of Prandtl, continued to improve the
understanding of supersonic flow.

The Sound Barrier

In the early 20th century was a public misconception that there

existed a barrier to the attainable speed of aircraft, commonly
referred to as the "sound barrier.
In truth, the barrier to supersonic flight was merely a technological
one, although it was a stubborn barrier to overcome.
This accompanied the improved conceptual understanding of gas
dynamics .

Two forms of Gas Dynamics

Experimental gas dynamics-

Experimental gas dynamics undertakes wind tunnel model experiments

and experiments in shock tubes and ballistic ranges with the use of
optical techniques to document the findings.

Theoretical gas dynamics-

Theoretical gas dynamics considers the equations of motion applied to

a variable-density gas, and their solutions.

Mach number, wave motion, and sonic speed

The Mach number (M) is defined as the ratio of the speed of an
object (or of a flow) to the speed of sound.
M can range from 0 to , but this broad range falls naturally into
several flow regimes.

Mach angle

at a 1

vt v M
1
sin 1
M

sin

Always stays inside the

family of circular sound
waves

Always stays outside the

family of circular sound
waves

Wave front called

Mach Wave

Mach Number

V
M
a

M 1

M 1
M 1

V2
V2
V2
V2
V2
V2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
M 2

a
RT ( 1) RT 1 R T 1 CvT ( 1) e
1
1

Subsonic flow
Sonic flow

supersonic flow

The physical meaning of M

M2

Kinetic energy

Internal energy

Other Applications

Spacecraft re entry

De Laval Nozzle
High Speed flows often seem counter-intuitive when
Compared with low speed flows
Example: Convergent-Divergent Nozzle (De Laval)
In 1897 Swedish Engineer Gustav De Laval designed A turbine wheel
powered by 4- steam nozzles.
De Laval Discovered that if the steam nozzle first narrowed, and then
expanded, the efficiency of the turbine was increased dramatically.
Furthermore, the ratio of the minimum area to the inlet and outlet
areas was critical for achieving maximum efficiency Counter to
the wisdom of the day.

Salient Features of Gas Dynamics

A Complete Fluid Mechanics.

Sudden transfer of energy from one form to another form.
Shock : kinetic (ordered) to thermal (random).
Expansion Wave : Thermal to Kinetic.
Introduces inviscid entropy/vorticity layers.
Momentum boundary layer
occurs in thin layer near surface where velocity relaxes from freestream to zero to satisfy
the no-slip condition.
Necessary to predict viscous drag forces on body.
Thermal boundary layer
As fluid decelerates in momentum boundary layer kinetic energy is converted to thermal
energy
Temperature rises can be significant (> 1000 K)

Caloric gas behavior to Non-Caloric gas behavior.

vibrational relaxation effects
energy partitioned into vibrational modes in addition to translational
lowers temperature that would otherwise be realized
important for air above 800 K
unimportant for monatomic gases
Perfect gas behavior to Imperfect gas behavior.
dissociation effects
effect which happens when multi-atomic molecules split into constituent
atoms O2 totally dissociated into O near 4000 K.
N2 totally dissociated into N near 9000 K.
For T > 9000 K, ionized plasmas begin to form
Vibrational relaxation, dissociation, and ionization can be accounted for to
some extent by introducing a temperature-dependent specific heat cv(T)