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What is Compressible Flow ?

This book deals with an introduction^1.1 to the flow of compressible substances (gases). The main difference between compressible flow and almost incompressible flow is not the fact that compressibility has to be considered. Rather, the difference is in two phenomena that do not exist in incompressible flow^1.2. The first phenomenon is the very sharp discontinuity (jump) in the flow in properties. The second phenomenon is the choking of the flow. Choking is when downstream variations don't effect the flow^1.3. Though choking occurs in certain pipe flows in astronomy, there also are situations of choking in general (external) flow^1.4. Choking is referred to as the situation where downstream conditions, which are beyond a critical value(s), doesn't affect the flow.

The shock wave and choking are not intuitive for most people. However, one has to realize that intuition is really a condition where one uses his past experiences to predict other situations. Here one has to learn to use his intuition as a tool for future use. Thus, not only aeronautic engineers, but other engineers, and even manufacturing engineers will be able use this ``intuition'' in design and even research.

Next: Why Compressible Flow is Up: Introduction Previous: Introduction Index

Created by:Genick Bar-Meir, Ph.D.
On: 2007-11-21