Compressible Fluid Flow

Lecture Notes Fluid Mechanics--ME 326

Compressibility Regimes
 Key Terms
• Enthalpy
• Steady flow • Entropy

• Unsteady flow
• Constant pressure process
• Constant volume process
• Viscid flow • Isothermal Process
• In-viscid flow
• Adiabatic Process
• Compressible flow
• Reversible Process
• Incompressible flow
• Irreversible Process

• Laminar flow • Isentropic Process

• Turbulent flow (Adiabatic+Reversible)
Governing Equations for Compressible Flow

• Continuity
• Momentum
• Energy
• Equation of State
Perfect Gas
 Isentropic Process

• Adiabatic Process: No heat is added or removed from system

– Q= 0
Note: Temperature can still change because of changing density
• Reversible Process: No friction (or other dissipative effects)
• Isentropic Process: (1) Adiabatic + (2) Reversible
– Provides important relationships among thermodynamic variables
at two different points along a streamline
 Isentropic Process
From Ist and 2nd laws of thermodynamics, the entropy change is given by:

For perfect gas dh=Cp dT

Entropy change between point 1 and 2 is given by integration as:

For an isentropic process : s2  S1  0

 Speed of sound

Continuity equation

Momentum equation
Speed of Sound
Adiabatic and Isentropic Steady Flow
Adiabatic and Isentropic Steady Flow

=Stagnation Enthalpy
=Stagnation Temperature

=Max Vel. @ Absolute Zero

Mach Number Relations

Adiabatic Flow

Isentropic Flow
Mach Number Relations for Air
Critical Values at Sonic Point (Ma = 1)

(At sonic point Ma=1.0)

Example
Example
Example
Example
Example
Example
Example
Example
Example
Isentropic Flow with Area Change
 Isentropic Flow with Area Change

Differential form of Continuity Equation

Differential form of Momentum Equation

 Isentropic Flow with Area Change

• If Flow is Subsonic (M < 1)

– For V to increase (dV positive) area must decrease (dA negative)
– Note that this is consistent with Euler’s equation for dV and dp

• If Flow is Supersonic (M > 1)

– For V to increase (dV positive) area must increase (dA positive)

• If Flow is Sonic (M = 1)
– M = 1 occurs at a minimum area of cross-section
– Minimum area is called a throat (dA/A = 0)
Isentropic Flow with Area Change
Isentropic Flow with Area Change

Diffuser
Nozzle dv < 0
dv > 0 dp > 0
dp < 0
Isentropic Flow with Area Change
Continuity Equation
Isentropic Flow with Area Change

For air, K=1.4 and the area ratio becomes:

For Air
 Choking

For given stagnation conditions, maximum flow passes thru the duct when the throat is
at sonic speed (M=1)
Approx Formulae for Mach
Vs Area Ratios
 Supersonic Flow
• What can happen in supersonic flows?

• Supersonic flows (M > 1) are qualitatively and quantitatively different from

subsonic flows (M < 1)
How And Why Does A Shock Wave Form?
 How And Why Does A Shock Wave Form?
• “a” is ‘speed of sound in the medium ’
and Mach number “M=V/a” as ratio of
flow speed to speed of sound

• If M < 1 information available throughout

flow field

• If M > 1 information confined to some

region of flow field Zone of silence

Zone of Action
Normal Shock Wave
 Normal Shocks

• Control Volume
Normal Shocks Relations

Rankine Hugoniot Relation

Normal Shocks Relations
Normal Shocks Relations
Normal Shocks Relations ( Contd.)
Variation of Properties across Normal Shock Wave
 Variation of Properties Across Normal Shock Wave

Across A Normal Shock Wave

 Downstream flow will be subsonic
 Flow is adiabatic but not isentropic
 Large and discontinuous rise in static pressure
 Static temperature increases moderately
 Stagnation temperature remains constant(adiabatic)
 Stagnation pressure and stagnation density decrease (in the same
ratio)
 Throat area A* increases slowly at first and then rapidly
 Entropy increases (Weak shocks are nearly isentropic)
Oblique Shock Wave
 Oblique Shocks
• Oblique Shock: Control Volume

M2
M2
M1 , M2t
M1
, M2n
M1t

M1n
Oblique Shock Analysis
Relations for Oblique Shock Wave
Shock Stand Off
 Oblique Shocks

• Oblique Shock: Deflection Angle

The
Oblique Shock Wave – Graphical
Representation

Locus of Ɵmax
Locus of Sonic Points

Week Shock Strong Shock