Chapter 1
Introduction
In general a change in gas flow velocity involves a change in pressure, which
is related to a change in gas density. At low velocities the pressure variations
within the flow are small compared to the average absolute pressure. Density
variations will be so small that we can assume the gas to be incompressible.
As the velocity increases this approximation becomes inaccurate. Density
and temperature changes become essential. The study of compressible fluid
flows is called Gas dynamics.
The most spectacular phenomena in gas dynamics are related to the ratio
of the flow velocity V and the speed of sound c. The speed of sound c is
the velocity of propagation of a small pressure perturbation relative to the
gas. This corresponds to the velocity of the propagation of information in
the flow. The ratio M = V /c is called the Mach number. A flow in which
M < 1 is called subsonic. A flow with M > 1 is called supersonic. A
subsonic flow approaching an obstacle will be warned by acoustic waves and
will smoothly flow around the obstacle. A supersonic flow will not receive
warnings, because the acoustic waves are washed away by the flow. The flow
will collide on the obstacle forming a shock wave. In figure 1.1 we illustrate
the difference between a subsonic and a supersonic flow. As we will see later
compressibility effects become dominant for M ≥ 1.
The phenomenon corresponds to a fundamental change in the type of the
differential equations describing the flow. Subsonic flow are described by
so called elliptical differential equations. Supersonic flows are described by
hyperbolical differential equations. The same mathematics and therefore
physics is found in many other phenomena. For example the flow of shallow
water and car traffic. In both cases when the flow travel faster than the
information one can observe discontinuities. In shallow water, this is called
a water jump (see figure 1.2). In car traffic this can be an accident due
to fog. In gas flows the existence of such discontinuities was controversial
until Ernst Mach obtained a photograph of such shock waves (see figure 1.3).
2
Figure 1.1: Spherical waves generated by point sources in a) a subsonic flow
M < 1 and in b) a supersonic flow M > 1. In the subsonic flow the waves
travel upstream and can warn the flow for the presence of an obstacle. In
the supersonic flow the waves are convected away and only reach a lim-
ited conical region of space (Mach cone with opening angle 2 arcsin (c/V ) )
downstream of the origin of the perturbation.
Supersonic flows involve large velocities. The Reynolds number Re = V L/ν
(with L a characteristic length scale and ν the kinematic viscosity of the
gas) is related to the Mach number because the viscosity of a gas is related
to the speed of sound by [Landau (1987)]
ν ∼ cλ̄ (1.1)
where λ̄ is the mean free path of molecules. This is the average distance
which molecules travel between two collisions. The speed of sound is used
here as an estimate for the average thermal random velocity of the molecules,
which takes care of the viscous transport of momentum within the gas.
Hence we see that [Landau (1987)]:
L
Re ∼ M (1.2)
λ̄
For compressible flows M = O(1) so that we conclude that if we use a con-
tinuum hypothesis L/λ̄ >> 1 the Reynolds number of the flow is very large
Re >> 1. Considering low Reynolds numbers at high Mach numbers in-
volves rarefied gas effects (Knudsen effects) such as the failure of the no-slip
boundary condition at the walls. Also the assumption of local thermody-
namic equilibrium will fail. The velocity distribution of molecules is not
necessarily described by one single temperature T . In these lecture notes we
ignore such effects, which are essential in vacuum and space technology. We
focus on large Reynolds number flows, for which the fluid can be described
as a continuum with locally defined thermodynamic state variables such as
the pressure p, temperature T and the density ρ.1
1
We always consider absolute pressures and absolute temperatures.
