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    Mathematical Aspects of Subsonic and Transonic Gas Dynamics
    Mathematical Aspects of Subsonic and Transonic Gas Dynamics
    Mathematical Aspects of Subsonic and Transonic Gas Dynamics
    Ebook346 pages5 hours

    Mathematical Aspects of Subsonic and Transonic Gas Dynamics

    By Lipman Bers

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    This concise volume by a prominent mathematician offers an important survey of mathematical aspects of the theory of compressible fluids. The treatment is geared toward advanced undergraduates and graduate students in physics, applied mathematics, and engineering. Focusing on two-dimensional steady potential flows, the text eschews detailed proofs in favor of clear indications of the main ideas and descriptions of new mathematical concepts and methods that arose in connection with these chapters in fluid dynamics.
    Starting with a general discussion of the differential equations of a compressible gas flow, the book advances to the mathematical background of subsonic flow theory. Subsequent chapters explore the behavior of a flow at infinity and methods for the determination of flows around profiles, flows in channels and with a free boundary, the mathematical background of transonic gas dynamics, and some problems in transonic flow. An extensive bibliography of 400 papers concludes the text.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDover Publications
    Release dateOct 5, 2016
    ISBN9780486816333
    Mathematical Aspects of Subsonic and Transonic Gas Dynamics

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      Book preview

      Mathematical Aspects of Subsonic and Transonic Gas Dynamics - Lipman Bers

      MATHEMATICAL ASPECTS OF SUBSONIC AND TRANSONIC GAS DYNAMICS

      Lipman Bers

      New York University

      DOVER PUBLICATIONS, INC.

      Mineola, New York

      Bibliographical Note

      This Dover edition, first published in 2016, is a republication of the work originally published in 1958 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York, as Volume III of the Surveys in Applied Mathematics series, a joint project of the Office of Naval Research and Applied Mechanics Review. The original preface has been omitted from this Dover edition.

      International Standard Book Number

      ISBN-13: 978-0-486-81016-4

      ISBN-10: 0-486-81016-X

      Manufactured in the United States by RR Donnelley

      81016X01   2016

      www.doverpublications.com

      To my father

      ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

      Several results by the author and by his colleagues at the Institute of Mathematical Sciences, New York University, mentioned below have been obtained under the sponsorship of the Office of Ordnance Research, United States Army (Contract number DA-30-069-ORD-835). The author was helped greatly by advice and criticism from several colleagues, in particular from S. Agmon, K. O. Friedrichs, C. S. Morawetz, and M. H. Protter. He gratefully acknowledges the unfailing cooperation of Mrs. J. Segal, Librarian of the Institute, Mrs. J. Lewis, C. Bass, Mrs. D. Garel, and Miss J. Smith, who helped in preparing the bibliography, the proofs, the drawings, and the manuscript.

      CONTENTS

      1.INTRODUCTION

      Chapter 1The Differential Equations of a Potential Gas Flow

      2.DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS AND BOUNDARY CONDITIONS

      Basic Equations

      Speed of Sound

      Steady Potential Flow

      Subsonic and Supersonic Flows

      Plane Flows

      Weak Discontinuities and Shocks

      Boundary Conditions

      3.HODOGRAPH

      Mapping into the Hodograph Plane

      Hodograph Equations

      Transformations of the Hodograph Equations

      Mapping into the Physical Plane

      Equations in the Potential Plane

      4.APPROXIMATE EQUATIONS

      Incompressible Flow

      Expansions in Terms of the Mach Number

      Nearly Parallel Flow

      Transonic Approximation

      5.MODIFIED EQUATIONS

      Chaplygin Gas and Minimal Surfaces

      Extensions of Chaplygin’s Approximation

      Permanently Subsonic Flows

      Tricomi Gas

      Other Approximations

      Loewner’s Method

      6.PARTICULAR SOLUTIONS OF THE HODOGRAPH EQUATIONS

      Separation of Variables

      Solutions by Analogy

      Sigma-Integration

      Source and Vortex

      Continuation into the Complex Domain

      Solutions with Singularities

      Bergman’s Integral Operators

      Chapter 2Mathematical Background of Subsonic Flow Theory

      7.ELLIPTIC EQUATIONS

      Smoothness of Solutions

      Unique Continuation

      Maximum Principle

      Kutta-Joukowski Condition

      8.QUASICONFORMAL MAPPINGS

      Geometric Meaning of the Flow Equations

      Quasiconformality

      Beltrami Equations

      Flow Metric

      Theorems on Quasiconformal Mappings

      A Representation Theorem

      Applications to Flows

      9.PSEUDOANALYTIC FUNCTIONS

      Pseudoanalytic Functions

      Examples

      Alternate Definition

      Similarity Principle

      Flow around a Profile

      10.REMARKS ON QUASILINEAR EQUATIONS

      Conservation Laws

      Variational Equations

      Direct Method of Calculus of Variations

      Solutions as Fixed Points

      Contracting Mappings

      Schauder’s Fixed Point Theorem

      Continuity Method

      Degree of a Mapping

      A Priori Estimates

      Entire Solutions and Singularities

      Chapter 3Some Problems in Subsonic Flow

      11.BEHAVIOR OF A SUBSONIC FLOW AT INFINITY

      Asymptotic Formula

      Expansion Theorem

      Joukowski Theorem

      12.SUBSONIC FLOW AROUND A PROFILE

      Existence and Uniqueness

      Outline of Existence Proof

      A Priori Estimates

      Open Questions

      Critical Speed

      Construction of Solutions

      Three-Dimensional Flow

      13.FLOW OF A CHAPLYGIN GAS

      Construction of Flows

      Flow Past a Given Profile

      14.SUBSONIC FLOW IN A CHANNEL AND RELATED MAPPING THEOREMS

      Subsonic Channel Flow

      Extensions of Riemann’s Mapping Theorem

      15.SUBSONIC FLOWS WITH FREE BOUNDARIES

      Chaplygin’s Method

      Helmholtz Flow against a Curved Obstacle

      Chapter 4Mathematical Background of Transonic Gas Dynamics

      16.PARTIAL DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS OF MIXED TYPE

      Equations of Tricomi’s Type

      Changing Variables

      Simplest Equation of Mixed Type

      Other Equations

      Purely Elliptic and Purely Hyperbolic Problems

      Maximum Principle

      Particular Solutions of Tricomi’s Equation

      Cauchy’s Problem for Tricomi’s Equation

      17.UNIQUENESS THEOREMS FOR EQUATIONS OF MIXED TYPE

      Tricomi Problem

      Other Boundary Value Problems

      The Problem of Uniqueness

      The abc Method

      Example

      Use of an Auxiliary Function

      A Systematic Approach to Boundary Value Problems of Mixed Type

      18.EXISTENCE THEOREMS FOR EQUATIONS OF MIXED TYPE

      Tricomi’s Existence Proof

      Other Existence Proofs

      Use of Fundamental Solutions

      Hilbert Space Method

      Finite Differences

      Chapter 5Some Problems in Transonic Flow

      19.LOCAL SUPERSONIC REGIONS

      Sonic Line

      Continuation Across the Sonic Line

      Supersonic Enclosure

      Supersonic Enclosure Bounded by a Shock

      20.TRANSONIC FLOW PAST A PROFILE FOR A SUBSONIC UNDISTURBED FLOW

      Examples of Smooth Transonic Flows

      Application of Chaplygin Functions

      Other Methods

      Limiting Line

      Transonic Controversy

      Formulation of the Nonexistence Theorems

      Outline of the Nonexistence Proofs

      Open Questions

      Flows with Shocks

      An Approximate Theory

      Flow past a Straight Wedge

      21.TRANSONIC FLOW IN A CHANNEL

      Example of a Meyer Type Flow

      General Case

      Flows with Weak Discontinuities

      22.TRANSONIC FLOWS WITH FREE BOUNDARIES

      Jet Flow Constructed by the Hodograph Method

      Critical Jet

      23.FLOWS ABOUT AN OBSTACLE WITH SUPERSONIC AND SONIC FREE STREAM SPEEDS

      Boundary Conditions on the Shock in the Hodograph Plane

      Detached Shock in Front of a Wedge

      Shock Attached to a Wedge

      Flow with Mach Number One

      Appendix

      24.REMARKS ON NUMERICAL METHODS

      Method of Finite Differences

      Quasilinear Equations

      Linear Equations of Mixed Type

      Other Methods

      Bibliography

      Index

      1.INTRODUCTION

      This report on subsonic and transonic gas flow theory is written from the point of view of a mathematician. The choice of material was greatly influenced by this point of view and the author’s personal interests. We shall discuss only a very limited part of the theory of compressible fluid flow—two-dimensional steady potential flows—and we shall confine ourselves to problems which have been treated in the literature with a certain degree of mathematical sophistication; several important topics are, therefore, not mentioned. Moreover, space limitations preclude the presentation of detailed proofs and of any arguments involving the extensive manipulation of special functions. We shall try, however, to indicate clearly the main ideas used, and to describe new mathematical concepts and methods which arose in connection with these chapters in fluid dynamics.

      Chapter 1 contains a general discussion of the potential equation of a compressible gas flow, of various modifications of and approximations to this equation, and of methods for obtaining particular solutions. All this is very familiar to those who work in fluid dynamics; it might be of interest to mathematicians intending to do so.

      Chapters 2 and 3 deal with purely subsonic flows. Aerodynamicists are at present not very much interested in this subject since rather rough approximate theories suffice for the interpretation and prediction of experimental data. For a mathematician, however, the theory of subsonic flow presents many difficult and interesting problems; it was instrumental in initiating or intensifying several lines of mathematical investigation: refinements of the classical maximum principle, applications of quasiconformal mappings, Bergman’s integral operators, Loewner’s theory of conservation laws, pseudoanalytic functions, etc. A brief survey of some of these topics is given in Chapter 2, and in Chapter 3 the methods of Chapter 2 are applied to some specific problems in subsonic flow.

      Transonic flows are governed by partial-differential equations of mixed elliptic-hyperbolic type. The theory of such equations was initiated by Tricomi in 1923, but its recent intensive development is a response to the needs of high-speed aerodynamics. A survey of this theory, including some as yet unpublished results, is presented in Chapter 4. Applications to specific problems of transonic flow are given in Chapter 5.

      The Appendix contains some remarks on numerical methods.

      This summary shows that we emphasize mathematical methods rather than the physical problems themselves, and that we stress not only the uses of mathematics in fluid dynamics but also the applications of fluid dynamics as a source of mathematical problems and concepts. Our report will, therefore, overlap very little with several recent presentations of the same subject written from the physicist’s point of view (e.g., the articles in Sears [305]).

      Particular attention will be paid to existence and uniqueness questions for subsonic and transonic flow problems (see Friedrichs [121] concerning supersonic flow). Such questions hardly ever come up in parts of applied mathematics dominated by linear problems of a definite type for which existence and uniqueness have been understood for quite some time. But compressible fluid flow is a nonlinear phenomenon and leads to equations of mixed type, and the basic existence and uniqueness questions are being answered only now. As a matter of fact, we are at present in the middle of a somewhat surprising controversy regarding this field—an almost unheard of thing in modern mathematics.

      In connection with these problems, von Kármán [193] wrote:

      I have had the experience that the mathematician may exactly prove existence and uniqueness of solutions in cases in which the answer is evident to the physicist or engineer for physical reasons. On the other hand, if there is really serious doubt about the answer, the mathematician is of little help.

      The validity of von Kármán’s observation is cheerfully acknowledged. It must be remembered, of course, that differential equations describe highly idealized models of physical reality. An existence and uniqueness theorem can be obvious for physical reasons only under the assumption that the model is sufficiently accurate. A rigorous proof is, therefore, an indirect verification of the model. Also, it is a mathematical challenge to supply a far from obvious argument for an evident result.

      In addition, a mathematician might be tempted to counter von Kármán’s observation by saying that, whenever he guesses what the correctly set problem for a given differential equation is, and is able to verify his guess rigorously, the physicist will tell him that he knew the answer all the time. But when the mathematician is confronted with an equation for which the proper boundary conditions are yet to be found, the physical intuition of the physicist is of little help to him.

      Either complaint would not be quite fair. Mathematical and physical understanding of a problem often go hand in hand. A mathematician’s reasoning is frequently guided by physical imagery, and so-called physical reasoning relies, consciously or not, on very well-understood and, therefore, very familiar mathematical laws. It is, therefore, not surprising that occasionally mathematicians and physicists encounter difficulties at exactly the same spot. Transonic flow problems seem to be a case in point.

      These problems, while admittedly difficult, are exceedingly challenging and give us a glimpse of the long lost golden age of the unity of science. Indeed, physicists interested in them demand rigorous mathematical proofs, and mathematicians working on them need guidance from the results of experiments.

      Remark. The manuscript of this report was completed in September 1956 and it has, in general, not been possible to include more recent results. A few additional remarks and references added later are identified by asterisks.

      CHAPTER 1

      THE DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS OF A POTENTIAL GAS FLOW

      2.DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS AND BOUNDARY CONDITIONS

      We shall recall briefly the derivation of the potential equation of a compressible fluid flow. A detailed description will be found in many texts (e.g., Courant and Friedrichs [79]).

      Basic equations

      The flow of a perfect fluid is described, in the so-called Eulerian representation, by giving the density ρ and velocity components, u1, u2, u3 as functions of the Cartesian coordinates x1, x2, x3 and time t. A complete description requires also the knowledge of two other thermodynamic variables, say, pressure p and temperature, or pressure and entropy. We deal, however, with the case in which the flow is adiabatic and isentropic. In this case, pressure is a definite function of density; for an ideal gas

      where γ > 1 is a constant (ratio of specific heats). The standard value of γ for air is 1.4. It will be convenient not to restrict oneself to this pressure density relation but to consider also a general barotropic fluid, i.e., a fluid in which

      p(ρ) being some sufficiently smooth increasing function.

      The velocity components and the density are connected by the continuity equation which expresses the law of conservation of mass:

      On the other hand, the velocity components must obey the Euler equations of motion which are the analogue of Newton’s second law. If one neglects body forces, in particular gravity, these equations read

      Note that in view of relation (2.2), the pressure can be eliminated from the Euler equations. The equations of motion and the continuity equation obey the relativity principle of classical mechanics, i.e., they hold in every inertial coordinate system if they hold in one.

      Speed of sound

      The derivative dp/dρ is positive, and we will denote it by c². It is seen at once that c has the dimensions of a velocity; as a matter of fact, it is to be interpreted as the speed of propagation of small disturbances in a flow, and is, therefore, called the local speed of sound.

      To verify this statement, it is sufficient to consider propagation of small disturbances in a fluid at rest since, given any continuous flow, we may introduce an inertial coordinate system in which the velocity vector vanishes at a given point (x0, y0, z0) at a given time t0, and the fluid may be assumed to be approximately at rest in a small neighborhood of (x0, y0, z0), and in a sufficiently small time interval around t0. Thus we consider the case in which the flow variables may be written in the form

      where ρ0, p0 are constants and the parameter ∊ is so small that its square may be neglected. In view of the relation between pressure and density, we have

      where c0 is the value of the speed of sound corresponding to the value ρ = ρ0. Introducing (2.5) and (2.6) into the equations of motion and the continuity equation, and neglecting terms containing ∊ to a power higher than the first, we obtain the linear system of the partial differential equation

      Eliminating all but one variable by differentiation, we obtain for the density perturbation the classical wave equation

      which, as is well known, describes the propagation of disturbances with the speed c0. The same equation is satisfied by the velocity components.

      Thus, the propagation speed of small disturbances in a fluid obeying equations (2.3) and (2.4) depends on the local value of the density. The character of the flow depends essentially on the dimensionless number (Mach number) M = q/c where q² = u1² + u2² + u3². The flow is called subsonic (supersonic) if M < 1 (M > 1).

      Steady potential flow

      We shall deal exclusively with steady flows, i.e., with solutions of the equations of motion which do not depend upon time. Furthermore, we shall assume that the flow is irrotational, i.e., that the vorticity vector

      vanishes identically. There are good physical reasons for considering such flows since it can be shown from the Euler equations that the line integral of the vorticity over a closed material curve, i.e., over a curve the points of which move with the velocity components u1, u2, u3, is constant (Kelvin’s theorem). Thus a flow which started out as irrotational will remain so. Kelvin’s theorem holds also if there are body forces present, provided that these forces are conservative.

      It is easy to see that in a potential flow the quantity

      is a constant (Bernoulli’s law). It follows from Bernoulli’s theorem that in a potential flow the density is a given function of the speed. The units may be chosen so that ρ = 1, c = 1, for q = 0. Then

      is a decreasing function defined implicitly by the relation

      and

      In particular, for a flow governed by the adiabatic pressure density relation (2.1), we have

      Thus the flow is subsonic if the speed q is less than the critical speed

      and since ρ must be positive, only speeds below the maximum speed

      are possible.

      Since the vorticity vanishes, the velocity components are partial derivatives of a not necessarily single-valued function ϕ(x1, x2, x3), called the velocity potential:

      The continuity equation can now be written in the form

      or, by (2.7) and (2.8)

      This is the basic potential equation of gas dynamics. It should be remembered that the expression c² occurring in this equation is a given function of the speed

      The equation is therefore nonlinear, more precisely quasilinear, since the second derivatives enter in it in a linear way.

      Subsonic and supersonic flows

      The type of a quasilinear equation depends upon the solution considered. For equation (2.11), the discriminant equals 1 – M². This is seen at once at a point at which the velocity vector has the direction of the x1-axis, so that u1 = q, u2 = u3 = 0, and it is sufficient

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