Puzzles

12-28C
Yes and no depending on whether the flow at the throat is subsonic or supersonic. If
the flow at the throat is subsonic then the diverging section will act as a diffuser and
decelerate the flow, so the flow cannot become supersonic. If the flow at the throat is
supersonic then the diverging section will act as a supersonic nozzle and accelerate
the flow to even higher supersonic speeds.
(To achieve supersonic speed at the throat you need a second converging-nozzle
upstream that accelerates the flow to supersonic speeds)

12-29C
This will depend on whether the back pressure is low enough to give sonic flow at the
nozzle. (Choked flow.) If it is not low enough to give choked flow then the converging-
diverging nozzle will give a higher flow rate, because the diverging section acts as a
subsonic diffuser.

If the back pressure is low enough to give choked flow the mass flow rate will be the
same in both. This because you have sonic flow at the nozzle throat for both, which in
both cases means that information downstream of the throat cannot travel upstream
through the throat.

Information in a flow is transmitted by acoustic waves in the pressure field. When the
flow is sonic, the flow velocity in the downstream direction is the same as the speed
that acoustic waves trying moving upstream are travelling at. So for a converging
nozzle the waves must stop at the throat and cannot pass through.

For a converging-diverging nozzle, if the flow at the throat is sonic, then the flow in
the diverging section of the nozzle is supersonic, so the waves will be carried
downstream faster than they are able to travel upstream. So they are unable to travel
up the diverging section of the nozzle at all. They never even get to the throat.

The end result is the same. The flow rate must be the same, since all the flow knows is
the upstream conditions and the area of the throat. For the same reason, the
pressure, temperature and density of the gas will be the same for both cases, ie at the
critical values.

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Puzzles

12-31C
When the back pressure reaches the critical pressure sonic velocity is achieved at the nozzle exit and
you reach choked flow conditions. At this point the exit pressure is equal to the back pressure and
the mass flow rate reaches its maximum.

If the back pressure is lowered further below the critical pressure. Now everything on the exit plane
remains fixed - the velocity is sonic, the mass flow is the same choked flow value, and the pressure
on the nozzle exit plane remains fixed at the critical pressure. This means that the pressure on the
exit plane is higher than the pressure in the surroundings. As a result, the jet is "underexpanded"
and will expand once it leaves the nozzle. This expansions causes it to accelerate to supersonic
speeds. However this occurs outside the nozzle. The maximum velocity at the nozzle throat is still
sonic.

Normal shocks

12-48C
No. Flow must always go from supersonic to subsonic across a shock. A shock represents the
boundary between subsonic and supersonic flow.

12-51C
Velocity decreases, static temperature increases, stagnation temperature remains the same (a shock
is adiabatic), static pressure increases, stagnation pressure decreases (a shock is not isentropic.)

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12-45

The tutors explained the basic equations you need to solve here. Put these equations into the
package of your choice (Excel, Matlab, Python …) and plot.

Submit sample calculations for Pb = 700kPa and your plots. Do not submit your spreadsheet or code.

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