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Mach number - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Mach number
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Mach 2" redirects here. For the film, see Mach 2 (film).
In fluid mechanics, Mach number (M or Ma) /mx/ is a
dimensionless quantity representing the ratio of speed of an
object moving through a fluid and the local speed of
sound.[1][2]

where
M is the Mach number,
v is the velocity of the source relative to the medium,
and
v sound is the speed of sound in the medium.

An F/A-18 Hornet creating a vapor cone at

transonic speed just before reaching the speed of
sound

Mach number varies by the composition of the surrounding medium and also by local conditions, especially
temperature and pressure. The Mach number can be used to determine if a flow can be treated as an
incompressible flow. If M < 0.20.3 and the flow is (quasi) steady and isothermal, compressibility effects will be
small and a simplified incompressible flow model can be used.[1][2]
The Mach number is named after Austrian physicist and philosopher Ernst Mach, a designation proposed by
aeronautical engineer Jakob Ackeret. Because the Mach number is often viewed as a dimensionless quantity rather
than a unit of measure, with Mach, the number comes after the unit; the second Mach number is "Mach 2" instead
of "2 Mach" (or Machs). This is somewhat reminiscent of the early modern ocean sounding unit "mark" (a synonym
for fathom), which was also unit-first, and may have influenced the use of the term Mach. In the decade preceding
faster-than-sound human flight, aeronautical engineers referred to the speed of sound as Mach's number, never
"Mach 1."[3]
In French, the Mach number is sometimes called the "nombre de Sarrau" ("Sarrau number") after mile Sarrau who
researched explosions in the 1870s and 1880s.[4]

Contents
1 Overview
2 Classification of Mach regimes
3 High-speed flow around objects
4 High-speed flow in a channel
5 Calculation
5.1 Calculating Mach Number from Pitot Tube Pressure

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5.1 Calculating Mach Number from Pitot Tube Pressure

6 See also
7 Notes
8 External links

Overview
The Mach number is commonly used both with objects traveling at high speed in a fluid, and with high-speed fluid
flows inside channels such as nozzles, diffusers or wind tunnels. As it is defined as a ratio of two speeds, it is a
dimensionless number. At Standard Sea Level conditions (corresponding to a temperature of 15 degrees Celsius),
the speed of sound is 340.3 m/s[5] (1225 km/h, or 761.2 mph, or 661.5 knots, or 1116 ft/s) in the Earth's
atmosphere. The speed represented by Mach 1 is not a constant; for example, it is mostly dependent on
temperature and atmospheric composition and largely independent of pressure. Since the speed of sound increases
as the temperature increases, the actual speed of an object traveling at Mach 1 will depend on the fluid temperature
around it. Mach number is useful because the fluid behaves in a similar way at the same Mach number. So, an
aircraft traveling at Mach 1 at 20C or 68F, at sea level, will experience shock waves in much the same manner as
when it is traveling at Mach 1 at 11,000 m (36,000 ft) at 50C or 58F, even though it is traveling at only 86% of
its speed at higher temperature like 20C or 68F.[6]

Classification of Mach regimes

While the terms "subsonic" and "supersonic" in the purest verbal sense refer to speeds below and above the local
speed of sound respectively, aerodynamicists often use the same terms to talk about particular ranges of Mach
values. This occurs because of the presence of a "transonic regime" around M = 1 where approximations of the
Navier-Stokes equations used for subsonic design actually no longer apply, the simplest of many reasons being that
the flow locally begins to exceed M = 1 even when the freestream Mach number is below this value.
Meanwhile, the "supersonic regime" is usually used to talk about the set of Mach numbers for which linearised
theory may be used, where for example the (air) flow is not chemically reacting, and where heat-transfer between
air and vehicle may be reasonably neglected in calculations.
In the following table, the "regimes" or "ranges of Mach values" are referred to, and not the "pure" meanings of the
words "subsonic" and "supersonic".
Generally, NASA defines "high" hypersonic as any Mach number from 10 to 25, and re-entry speeds as anything
greater than Mach 25. Aircraft operating in this regime include the Space Shuttle and various space planes in
development.

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Regime

Mach

mph

km/h

m/s

General plane characteristics

Subsonic <0.8

<610

<980

<270

Most often propeller-driven and commercial turbofan aircraft

with high aspect-ratio (slender) wings, and rounded features like
the nose and leading edges.

0.8Transonic
1.2

610915

9801,470

270410

Transonic aircraft nearly always have swept wings, delaying

drag-divergence, and often feature design adhering to the
principles of the Whitcomb Area rule.

1,470
6,150

410
1,710

Aircraft designed to fly at supersonic speeds show large

differences in their aerodynamic design because of the radical
differences in the behaviour of flows above Mach 1. Sharp
edges, thin aerofoil-sections, and all-moving tailplane/canards
are common. Modern combat aircraft must compromise in
order to maintain low-speed handling; "true" supersonic designs
include the F-104 Starfighter, SR-71 Blackbird and
BAC/Arospatiale Concorde.

6,150
12,300

Cooled nickel-titanium skin; highly integrated (due to

1,710 domination of interference effects: non-linear behaviour means
3,415 that superposition of results for separate components is invalid),
small wings, such as those on the X-51A Waverider

Supersonic

Hypersonic

1.2
5.0

5.0
10.0

9153,840

3,840
7,680

High10.0 7,680
hypersonic 25.0 16,250

Thermal control becomes a dominant design consideration.

Structure must either be designed to operate hot, or be
protected by special silicate tiles or similar. Chemically reacting
12,300 3,415 flow can also cause corrosion of the vehicle's skin, with free30,740 8,465 atomic oxygen featuring in very high-speed flows. Hypersonic
designs are often forced into blunt configurations because of the
aerodynamic heating rising with a reduced radius of curvature.

Re-entry
>25.0 >16,250 >30,740 >8,465 Ablative heat shield; small or no wings; blunt shape
speeds

High-speed flow around objects

Flight can be roughly classified in six categories:
Regime Subsonic Transonic Sonic Supersonic Hypersonic
Mach

<0.8

0.81.2

1.0

1.25.0

5.010.0

Highhypersonic
>10.0

For comparison: the required speed for low Earth orbit is approximately 7.5 km/s = Mach 25.4 in air at high
altitudes. The speed of light in a vacuum corresponds to a Mach number of approximately 881,000 (relative to air
at sea level).
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At transonic speeds, the flow field around the object includes both sub- and supersonic parts. The transonic period
begins when first zones of M > 1 flow appear around the object. In case of an airfoil (such as an aircraft's wing),
this typically happens above the wing. Supersonic flow can decelerate back to subsonic only in a normal shock; this
typically happens before the trailing edge. (Fig.1a)
As the speed increases, the zone of M > 1 flow increases towards both leading and trailing edges. As M = 1 is
reached and passed, the normal shock reaches the trailing edge and becomes a weak oblique shock: the flow
decelerates over the shock, but remains supersonic. A normal shock is created ahead of the object, and the only
subsonic zone in the flow field is a small area around the object's leading edge. (Fig.1b)

(a)

(b)

Fig. 1. Mach number in transonic airflow around an airfoil; M < 1 (a) and M > 1 (b).
When an aircraft exceeds Mach 1 (i.e. the sound barrier) a large pressure difference is created just in front of the
aircraft. This abrupt pressure difference, called a shock wave, spreads backward and outward from the aircraft in a
cone shape (a so-called Mach cone). It is this shock wave that causes the sonic boom heard as a fast moving
aircraft travels overhead. A person inside the aircraft will not hear this. The higher the speed, the more narrow the
cone; at just over M = 1 it is hardly a cone at all, but closer to a slightly concave plane.
At fully supersonic speed, the shock wave starts to take its cone shape and flow is either completely supersonic, or
(in case of a blunt object), only a very small subsonic flow area remains between the object's nose and the shock
wave it creates ahead of itself. (In the case of a sharp object, there is no air between the nose and the shock wave:
the shock wave starts from the nose.)
As the Mach number increases, so does the strength of the shock wave and the Mach cone becomes increasingly
narrow. As the fluid flow crosses the shock wave, its speed is reduced and temperature, pressure, and density
increase. The stronger the shock, the greater the changes. At high enough Mach numbers the temperature increases
so much over the shock that ionization and dissociation of gas molecules behind the shock wave begin. Such flows
are called hypersonic.
It is clear that any object traveling at hypersonic speeds will likewise be exposed to the same extreme temperatures
as the gas behind the nose shock wave, and hence choice of heat-resistant materials becomes important.

High-speed flow in a channel

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As a flow in a channel becomes supersonic, one significant change takes place. The conservation of mass flow rate
leads one to expect that contracting the flow channel would increase the flow speed (i.e. making the channel
narrower results in faster air flow) and at subsonic speeds this holds true. However, once the flow becomes
supersonic, the relationship of flow area and speed is reversed: expanding the channel actually increases the speed.
The obvious result is that in order to accelerate a flow to supersonic, one needs a convergent-divergent nozzle,
where the converging section accelerates the flow to sonic speeds, and the diverging section continues the
acceleration. Such nozzles are called de Laval nozzles and in extreme cases they are able to reach hypersonic
speeds (Mach 13 (9,896 mph; 15,926 km/h) at 20C).
An aircraft Machmeter or electronic flight information system (EFIS) can display Mach number derived from
stagnation pressure (pitot tube) and static pressure.

Calculation
The Mach number at which an aircraft is flying can be calculated by

where:
M is the Mach number
v is velocity of the moving aircraft and
v sound is the speed of sound at the given altitude
Note that the dynamic pressure can be found as:

Assuming air to be an ideal gas, the formula to compute Mach number in a subsonic compressible flow is derived
from Bernoulli's equation for M < 1:[7]

where:
qc is impact pressure (dynamic pressure) and
p is static pressure
is the ratio of specific heat of a gas at a constant pressure to heat at a constant volume (1.4 for air).
The formula to compute Mach number in a supersonic compressible flow is derived from the Rayleigh Supersonic
Pitot equation:
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Calculating Mach Number from Pitot Tube Pressure

At altitude, for reasons explained, Mach number is a function of temperature. Aircraft flight instruments, however,
operate using pressure differential to compute Mach number, not temperature. The assumption is that a particular
pressure represents a particular altitude and, therefore, a standard temperature. Aircraft flight instruments need to
operate this way because the stagnation pressure sensed by a Pitot tube is dependent on altitude as well as speed.
Assuming air to be an ideal gas, the formula to compute Mach number in a subsonic compressible flow is found
from Bernoulli's equation for M < 1 (above):[7]

The formula to compute Mach number in a supersonic compressible flow can be found from the Rayleigh
Supersonic Pitot equation (above) using parameters for air:

where:
qc is dynamic pressure measured behind a normal shock
As can be seen, M appears on both sides of the equation. The easiest method to solve the supersonic M calculation
is to enter both the subsonic and supersonic equations into a computer spreadsheet such as Microsoft Excel,
OpenOffice.org Calc, or some equivalent program to solve it numerically. It is first determined whether M is indeed
greater than 1.0 by calculating M from the subsonic equation. If M is greater than 1.0 at that point, then the value of
M from the subsonic equation is used as the initial condition in the supersonic equation. Then a simple iteration of
the supersonic equation is performed, each time using the last computed value of M, until M converges to a value
usually in just a few iterations.[7] Alternatively, Newton's method can also be used.

See also
Critical Mach number
Machmeter
Ramjet
Scramjet
Speed of sound
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True airspeed

Notes
1. ^ a b Young, Donald F.; Bruce R. Munson, Theodore H. Okiishi, Wade W. Huebsch (2010). A Brief Introduction
to Fluid Mechanics (5 ed.). John Wiley & Sons. p. 95. ISBN 978-0-470-59679-1.
2. ^ a b Graebel, W.P. (2001). Engineering Fluid Mechanics. Taylor & Francis. p. 16. ISBN 978-1-56032-733-2.
3. ^ Bodie, Warren M., The Lockheed P-38 Lightning, Widewing Publications ISBN 0-9629359-0-5
4. ^ Blackmore, John T. (1972). Ernst Mach: His Life, Work, and Influence. University of California Press. p. 112.
ISBN 978-0-520-01849-5.
5. ^ Clancy, L.J. (1975), Aerodynamics, Table 1, Pitman Publishing London, ISBN 0-273-01120-0
6. ^ ([1] (http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/k-12/airplane/mach.html)). National Aeronautics and Space Administration
website page "Mach Number", NASA.
7. ^ a b c Olson, Wayne M. (2002). "AFFTC-TIH-99-02, Aircraft Performance Flight Testing." (PDF
(http://www.aviation.org.uk/pdf/Aircraft_Performance_Flight_Testing.pdf)). Air Force Flight Test Center,
Edwards AFB, CA, United States Air Force.

External links
Gas Dynamics Toolbox (http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~alexeenk/GDT/index.html) Calculate Mach number and
normal shock wave parameters for mixtures of perfect and imperfect gases.
NASA's page on Mach Number (http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/K-12/airplane/mach.html) Interactive
calculator for Mach number.
NewByte standard atmosphere calculator and speed converter (http://www.newbyte.co.il/calc.html)
FDTD simualtion of MACH-CONE within a pixel space (http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=d0WiiGIOPNU) FDTD with no units.
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mach_number&oldid=604747208"
Categories: Aerodynamics Airspeed Dimensionless numbers of fluid mechanics Fluid dynamics
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