Mark Jason G.

Gotas

BSME 3A

Synthesis of Vibration Effects and Shock Waves During

Flights at Hypersonic Speeds

Flight operations, flight performance, and overall health condition of the crew are the key

issues for flying a plane in a generation where comfort-demanding people dominate. However,

these issues cannot be applied to the various aircrafts travelling at different speeds. Speeds such

as Subsonic, Supersonic, and Hypersonic contribute various effects to the different issues

presented above.

Through two hundred years of hard work and diligent effort of scientist and engineers, a

picture of flight through our atmosphere was slowly accumulated. These people know that at high

speeds the dense layer of air close to the Earth's surface generates pressures that hinder an

aircraft, while at high altitudes the air density is so low that extremely fast speeds are necessary

to generate enough pressure to keep a plane flying. They designed airplanes as a compromise

between these forces, and flight became confined to a corridor that is bounded by ever-increasing

combinations of altitude and velocity. As man pushed aircraft farther up this flight corridor, the

problems began to multiply. New aerodynamic knowledge and new scientific disciplines had to

be added to the world of airflow. The concept of the atmosphere as a single gaseous envelope

gave way to one that recognized it as a series of layers, each with its own characteristics. Airflow,

too, was found to have distinct regions and characteristics. At velocities less than 500 mph, it is

tractable and easily defined. At higher speeds, its character undergoes marked change,
sometimes producing abrupt discontinuities in aerodynamic pressures. Even before man's first

flight, the noted German physicist Ernst Mach had shown that a major discontinuity occurs when

the velocity of airflow around an object approaches the speed of sound in air (760 mph at sea-

level pressure and temperature). Later work showed that the air pressures an airplane

experiences vary with the ratio of velocity of airflow to speed of sound, and scientists adopted this

ratio, called Mach number, as a measure of the flow conditions at high speeds. The effect of flight

to Mach 1 produces large changes in the air pressures that support, retard, twist, pitch, roll, and

yaw an airplane. But man edged past this speed into the realm of supersonic flight, and by the

time Mach 1.5 was attained, airplanes had undergone a vast transition in technology. Some men

saw in this transition the basis for pushing much farther up the flight corridor. In the early 1950's,

a few visionary men looked far up that corridor and became intrigued by a goal much closer than

the theoretical limit at the speed of light. They saw that the corridor flared dramatically upward at

orbital speed (Mach 24), leading out of the Earth's atmosphere into space, defining the start of a

path to the Moon, Mars, and beyond. But if their gaze was on orbital flight, their minds were on a

torrent of new problems that had to be overcome to achieve it. The supersonic-flight region led

into hypersonic flight - a fearsome region with a thermal barrier, which looked far more formidable

than had the earlier, sonic barrier.

The quantity which travels past the speed of sound is referred to as Mach number and is

defined as the speed of an object divided by the speed of sound. Objects travelling less than the

speed of sound is traveling at subsonic speeds which very well means that the objects are

travelling at Mach numbers 0 to 1. If an object is travelling at a speed that’s higher than the speed

of sound, this can be considered as traveling at a supersonic speed, and anything travelling at a

Mach number higher than 1 is referred to as supersonic. Hypersonic speed implies that an object

is traveling at a very high speed. These are objects moving at high speeds through gases and

flows moving past stationary objects. Hypersonic refers to the speed of sound which would have

a Mach number of 5 and above, therefore, hypersonic speed implies that an object is traveling
many times the speed of sound. There is a regime of speeds that we identify as transonic.

Transonic is not defined precisely as subsonic and supersonic flows. When an Object is travelling

at close to the speed of sound, there are usually regions around the object where the flow is

subsonic and regions here it is supersonic. This is the transonic regime and it usually occurs at

Mach numbers between 0.8 to 1.2.

Despite the various classifications of speed, the discussion will only be limited to the

vibrational effects in and on an aircraft during Hypersonic speed. Considering the aircraft and the

pilot as the system, syntheses of vibrational effects of the system shall be investigated in this

discussion. Impact from the aircraft environment is caused by numerous factors like sound and

vibration, motion, air quality, work space, psychological and health status, work load, and finally

by the complex field of man-machine-interaction which affects not only the performance of the

pilot but influences the overall stability of the complex safety-critical system aircraft.

Body vibration is usually classified according to “whole body vibration” (WBV) or “local

vibration”. During flights, principal possibilities that contribute to WBV are sitting on a vibrating the

seat, and/or standing on vibrating surfaces. Effects on the body depend on frequency, amplitude,

and duration and range from “motion sickness” (due to low frequency-high amplitude), to fatigue-

decreased proficiency and permanent damage to hands and arms (due to high frequency-low

amplitude). Vibrational effects to the body vary from the speed at which the aircraft is travelling in,

causing change in the frequency and amplitude of the entire system. Potential WBV-related health

problems include: Joint, muscle, and spine problems; Digestive system problems; Reproductive

damage in females, Muscular fatigue and stiffness; Impairment of vision or balance; etc. For the

people who man the aircraft, prolonged exposure to vibration that is localize to the hand and arm

may result in the hand-arm vibration syndrome (HAVS) which may also cause serious health

problems such as numbness and/or clumsiness with hands, reduced sense of heat, cold, and

pain in hands, trouble in picking up objects, and etc.

 Airplanes shake and vibrate due to air turbulence and dynamic forces in their engines.

The same goes for helicopters with the addition of torque transmission-related dynamic forces for

the main and tail rotor. Helicopters, propeller aircraft, and jet engines which are capable of

hypersonic speed produce excessive vibration which is potentially harmful due to the possibility

of: Wire chafing; Loosening of fasteners; Intermittent electrical content; Seal deformation;

Component fatigue; Cracking and rupturing; Optical Misalignment; and Shorting of electrical parts.

Spinning shafts of industrial, aviation, and aerospace machinery such as turbines,

compressors, motors, fans, and so on vibrate due to their inherent imbalance, misalignment,

looseness, resonance, inadequate damping, interaction with the transmitted liquid or gas, gear

forces, failed bearings, and so on. Most of the machines mentioned above operate at high speeds

(1000-50,000 rpm) and have very small clearances between spinning rotor and stationary stator

components. This accentuates the potential seriousness of controlling vibration which may lead

to internal rubs followed by loss of machinery, product, and sometimes, lives.

Boundary-Layer Noise is of significance during the major portion of the flight. Noise from

the boundary layer which, of course is in turbulent condition is important from two aspects: (1)

The noise generated is transmitted through the vehicle skin into the interior, which could damage

equipment or cause discomfiture of passenger or pilot. (2) The noise generated could damage

the exterior skin structure through long-term exposure and resulting fatigue failure.

Gust response is a measure of the effective wind loading on a structur. For supersonic

aircrafts, such as the B-70 and SST, it is not the wing which is the main contributing factor to

turbulence, but rather the fuselage-wing combination, or more specifically, the complete airplane

vibration modes, which for these long slender configurations contain a large degree of flexibility

in the fuselage, as opposed to the rather stiff fuselages and flexible wings of the present subsonic

jets.
 Flutter is a self-induced oscillation of a surface which can result in the destruction of the

surface. The flutter speed of wings throughout the subsonic range as well as the supersonic range

can be analytically predicted in the transonic speed range, where the theories are still not

adequate, and wind-tunnel testing is mandatory. Sonic fatigue is the damaging of a small section

of the aircraft by noise generated mainly by the exhaust of jets or due to the boundary layer itself.

Pre-loaded bolts or nuts rotate loose when relative motion between the male and female

threads takes place. This motion reduces the friction grip and permits the off-torque which is

proportional to the preload and thread pitch, to loosen the fastener. Transversely applied

alternating forces generate the most severe condition for self-loosening. Appropriate choice of

washers, installation of tie wires, and use of special bolts with more uniform load distributions

between mating thread surfaces are some means to reduce bolt loosening. Attenuation of

vibration treats this problem at its source. Fastener looseness is an especially important concern

in high-performance machinery such as aircraft, helicopters, space shuttles race cars, trains, roller

coasters, and so on. Flying at Mach 5 and above speeds require tightening that could withstand

the vibration emitted by the jet engines and the turbulence of the fluid the aircraft is moving against.

By definition, hypersonic speed may be considered as supersonic but there are at least 5

characteristics of hypersonic flow that are different than supersonic flow: (1) Thin shock layers.

(2) Entropy Layers. (3) Viscous-inviscid interactions. (4) High-temperature effects and extreme

heat transfer. (5) Low-density Flows.

The shock layer is the region between the shock and the surface of the body. For

supersonic Mach numbers the shock later is quite large. As the Mach number increases, the

shock is swept further aft, so the shock layer becomes thinner. Higher Mach numbers yields

thicker layers. This means that hypersonic boundary layers, which often occur at high altitudes

and Mach numbers are relatively thick. Couple the fact that the boundary layers can interact with

thin shock layers and increase the skin friction and heating on the surface on the vehicle.
 Supersonic flow theory assumed that the flow was isentropic everywhere except across a

shock wave. This was a strong assumption but implicit to this assumption is the fact that the shock

waves had to be straight or nearly straight. In hypersonic flow, however, bow shocks typically

form in front of vehicles which are highly curved. Along the curved portion of the shock wave,

entropy changes vary at each location since the local shock angle is different. This means that

there are different levels of entropy behind each location along the shock, so the flow of fluid is

not isentropic.

Severe problems of locally high heating or premature boundary-layer separation may

result due to viscous-inviscid interactions, another term for shock-boundary layer interactions,

which occur during flight at supersonic Mach numbers. The shock wave will generally cause the

upstream boundary layer to separate with locally high heating rates occurring when the flow

reattaches. Other viscous interaction problems can occur when the shock waves generated by

the forebody and other external components impinge on downstream surfaces of the vehicle.

Chemically reacting flows take place when the flow-field temperature reaches levels that cause

the molecules in the atmosphere to start reacting and changing their state. For example, at

temperatures greater than 800 K molecular vibrations occurs. For temperatures about 2000 K,

diatomic oxygens dissociate (O2 becomes O), and above 4000K, oxygen dissociation is complete

and diatomic nitrogen dissociates and forms Nitric Oxide (NO) which may ionize. At temperatures

above 9000 K, nitrogen dissociation is complete, and oxygen and nitrogen atoms ionize. From

these observations, it can be said that most of the basic assumptions about perfect gasses being

in equilibrium with constant ratio of specific heats are invalid. This means traditional analysis of

heating on hypersonic vehicles can be in error. High temperatures exist in the regions between

the shock waves and the body and it may be necessary to consider real gas effects (molecular

vibration, dissociation, and ionization) when analyzing the flow fields

 The peak heat-transfer rates of a vehicle entering the atmosphere typically occurs at

altitudes where the air behaves as a continuum. Nevertheless, anomalously high temperatures

already were being measured on the clevis and the spar.

The kinetic energy associated with hypersonic flight is converted to high temperatures

within shock layer. As a result, heat transfer is a very important factor in the design of hypersonic

vehicles. Shar leading edges would experience such extremely large heating rates in hypersonic

flights that they would quickly melt or ablate depending on the material used. Therefore, if a low-

drag configuration is desired, the design would probably involve a slender cone with a spherical

blunted nose. For a manned reentry craft, where the time of flight can be long and the dissipation

of kinetic energy at relatively high altitude is desirable, the resultant high-drag configurations may

be airplane-like Space Shuttles that flies at high angles of attack or a blunt, spherical segment.

Shock waves can occur in a flow when its moving at a speed higher than the speed of

sound or in a gas through which an object is moving at close to the speed of sound or in excess

of the speed of sound. Shock waves can occur in flows that are transonic, supersonic, or

hypersonic. Shock waves that move at supersonic and hypersonic speeds can also be generated

through stationary gases. A shock wave is a very thin region in a flow where the gas properties

such as pressure, temperature, and flow speed, all change very abruptly. In other words, the

formation of a shock wave occurs when supersonic flow decelerates in response to a sharp

increase in pressure or when a supersonic flow encounters a sudden, compressive change in

direction. A shock wave is formed as the supersonic flow encounters the two-dimensional double-

wedge airfoil. Since the shock wave is attached to the leading edge and is planar, the downstream

flow is isentropic.

If the shock wave is generated by a blast or a sonic boom from an aircraft, the shock would

be followed by an expansion that would soon return the air to its original condition. Behind the

shock wave, the pressure and temperature e would increase, and the speed of the flow would

decrease. For flow conditions where the gas is a continuum, the shock wave is a narrow region
across which there is an almost instantaneous change in the values of the flow parameters.

Because of the large streamwise variations in velocity, pressure, and temperature, viscous and

heat-conduction effects are important within the shock wave.

Airplanes traveling faster than the speed of sound can produce an incredibly loud sound

called a sonic boom. The shock wave forms a cone of pressurized air molecules which move

outward and rearward in all directions and extend to the ground. As the cone spreads across the

landscape along the flight path, they create a continuous sonic boom along the full width of the

cone's base. The sharp release of pressure, after the buildup by the shock wave, is heard as the

sonic boom. The change in air pressure associated with a sonic boom is only a few pounds per

square foot -- about the same pressure change experienced riding an elevator down two or three

floors. It is the rate of change, the sudden onset of the pressure change, that makes the sonic

boom audible. All aircraft generate two cones, at the nose and at the tail. They are usually of

similar strength and the time interval between the two as they reach the ground is primarily

dependent on the size of the aircraft and its altitude. Most people on the ground cannot distinguish

between the two and they are usually heard as a single sonic boom. Sonic booms created by

vehicles the size and mass of the space shuttle are very distinguishable and two distinct booms

are easily heard.

The sonic boom from a low-flying airplane can rattle and even break windows. Prior to the

first supersonic flight by aircraft, sonic booms had not been explicitly anticipated. They were at

first regarded as a unique or curious phenomenon. Early theories of the cause of sonic boom

speculated on the coalescence of sound as an aircraft broke the sound barrier. A key factor in

this finding was the existence of far-field shock wave analysis from the ballistic projectile

community in the 1940s and earlier. When an airplane reaches extremely high speeds, it catches

up to its own sound waves. The waves start to pile up and form a high-pressure area in front of

the plane. If the airplane has enough acceleration, it breaks through the barrier, making a sonic

boom. The airplane gets ahead of both the pressure barrier and the sound waves and is said to
be traveling at supersonic speeds—speeds faster than the speed of sound. The sonic boom is a

steady state phenomenon. It is generated continuously as the aircraft flies supersonically and not

only at that moment when the aircraft breaks the sound barrier. The sonic boom is emitted by the

aircraft and propagates along sound rays until it touches the observer at the ground. The observer

hears the sonic boom when passed through by the wave front. Sonic boom is the noise from

shock waves, as heard at ground. Sonic booms are weak shocks, the typical overpressure at the

ground is up to 100 Pa = 1 hPa

Depending on the flight and atmospheric conditions, the shock wave formed by supersonic

flight can reach the observer on the ground in four forms – primary boom, secondary boom,

focused boom, and shadow zone. The primary boom refers to shock waves leaving the aircraft

downwards and propagating directly to the ground. The typical pressure signature at the ground

is a double shock N-wave, characterized by two sudden rises in pressure of 10–100 Pa, separated

by 0.1–0.3 s, the corresponding sound pressure level would be 114–134 dB. The primary carpet,

defined as the area on the ground where primary boom is heard, is an elliptical strip below the

aircraft. The primary boom is the most annoying type of booms, it is so startling because there is

no precursor. The noise carpet of a sonic boom at the ground depends on the source and the

propagation through the atmosphere. The used ray tracing theory for the sound propagation

describes the location of the sound wave from the source through the atmosphere to the ground.

The wave front of the sonic boom may touch the ground directly or it may be distorted and

refracted accordingly the real temperature and wind profile. As these atmospheric parameters

vary widely in time and space, the sonic boom characteristics also vary widely. The frequency of

booms touching the ground and those not touching the ground are identified.

There are several factors that can influence sonic booms -- weight, size, and shape of the

aircraft or vehicle, plus its altitude, attitude and flight path, and weather or atmospheric conditions.

A larger and heavier aircraft must displace more air and create more lift to sustain flight, compared

with small, light aircraft. Therefore, they will create sonic booms stronger and louder than those
of smaller, lighter aircraft. The larger and heavier the aircraft, the stronger the shock waves will

be.

Hypersonic flight presents major challenges to airframe and control system designers.

High velocity can cause a hypersonic vehicle to be highly sensitive to changes in flight

conditions (Mach Number, and angle of attack) that can result in instability or weakly damped

transient oscillations of the airframe. Preparations must be made when manning an aircraft that

can fly in hypersonic speed. Vibrations from rotating shafts, body vibrations, fastener looseness,

heat, shock, fluid, noise, and more must be considered.

Reference

[1] Anthony J. Brammer & Donald R. Peterson, Vibration, Mechanical Shock, and Impact.

[2] Colin C. Coleman & Farhan A. Faruqi, Stability and Control of Hypersonic Vehicles,
Weapons Systems Division Defense Science and Technology Organization.

[3] Volker Mellert, Ingo Baumann, Nils Freese, & Reinhard Weber, Investigation of Noice and
Vibration Impact on Aircraft Crew, Studied in an Aircraft Simulator, Oldenburg University,
Institute of Physics.

[4] Harry L. Runyan, Some Recent Information on Aircraft Vibration Due to Aerodynamic
Forces, 1968, Nasa Langley research Center.

[5] Martina Kasner & Dietrich Heimann, Sound Propagation of Sonic Booms Through Real
Atmospheres Emitted from a New Supersonic Business Aircraft, Institute of Atmosphere
Physics, German Aerospace Center.

[6] Dryden Flight Research Center, Sonic Booms, National Aeronautics and Space
Administration (NASA).

[7] Kenneth J. Plotkin, Review of Sonic Boom Theory, Wyle Laboratories.

[8] The First Hypersonic Airplane:

https://history.nasa.gov/SP-60/ch-2.html

[9] Hypersonics – from Shock waves to Scram Jets:

https://courses.edx.org/courses/course-v1:UQx+Hypers301x+1T2019/course/