Collected Works of H. S. Tsien (1938-1956)

Similarity Laws of Hypersonic Flows

Hsue-shen Tsien

Hypersonic flows are flow fields where the fluid velocity is much larger than the velocity of propagation of small disturbances, the velocity of sound. Th. von Kármán^[1] has pointed out that in many ways the dynamics of hypersonic flows is similar to Newton’s corpuscular theory of aerodynamics. The pressure acting on an inclined surface is thus greater than the free stream pressure by a quantity which is approximately proportional to the square of the angle of inclination instead of the usual linear law for conventional supersonic flows. E. Sänger^[2] has, in fact, used this concept to design the optimum wing and body shapes for hypersonic flight at extreme speeds.

Introduction

Hypersonic flows ...