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From a strictly aerodynamic point of view, the term should refer only to those side-effects arising as a result of the changes in airflow from an incompressible fluid (similar in effect to water) to a compressible fluid (acting as a gas) as the speed of sound is approached. There are two effects in particular, wave drag and critical mach.
In fluid dynamics, a flow is considered incompressible if the divergence of the flow velocity is zero. However, related formulations can sometimes be used, depending on the flow system being modelled. Some versions are described below: Incompressible flow: =. This can assume either constant density (strict incompressible) or varying density flow.
Compressible flow (or gas dynamics) is the branch of fluid mechanics that deals with flows having significant changes in fluid density.While all flows are compressible, flows are usually treated as being incompressible when the Mach number (the ratio of the speed of the flow to the speed of sound) is smaller than 0.3 (since the density change due to velocity is about 5% in that case). [1]
As it moves, the mass of a fluid parcel remains constant, while—in a compressible flow—its volume may change, [2] [3] and its shape changes due to distortion by the flow. [1] In an incompressible flow, the volume of the fluid parcel is also a constant (isochoric flow).
ρ (Greek letter rho) is the fluid mass density (e.g. in kg/m 3), and; u is the flow speed in m/s. It can be thought of as the fluid's kinetic energy per unit volume. For incompressible flow, the dynamic pressure of a fluid is the difference between its total pressure and static pressure. From Bernoulli's law, dynamic pressure is given by
In fluid dynamics, two types of stream function are defined: The two-dimensional (or Lagrange) stream function, introduced by Joseph Louis Lagrange in 1781, [ 1 ] is defined for incompressible ( divergence-free ), two-dimensional flows .
Compressible fluid: A fluid that causes volume reduction or density change when pressure is applied to the fluid or when the fluid becomes supersonic. Incompressible fluid: A fluid that does not vary in volume with changes in pressure or flow velocity (i.e., ρ=constant) such as water or oil. Newtonian and incompressible fluids do not actually ...
Dimensionless numbers (or characteristic numbers) have an important role in analyzing the behavior of fluids and their flow as well as in other transport phenomena. [1] They include the Reynolds and the Mach numbers, which describe as ratios the relative magnitude of fluid and physical system characteristics, such as density, viscosity, speed of sound, and flow speed.