EME3026.

Assignment
Trimester 1, 2014-2015

- 1 -


Air, of specific heat ratio of 1.4 and gas constant of 287 J/kgK, flows from a large reservoir,
through a frictionless converging-diverging nozzle and a thermally insulated circular pipe, and
exhausts into the ambient, of back pressure

. The cross sections of the nozzle are all circular,

and the cross-sectional area of its diverging section varies according to the relation

where

is the throat area of the nozzle, and is the dimensionless axial coordinate with
at the throat and at the nozzle exit. (The nozzle exit coincides with the pipe inlet.) The
pipes length-to-diameter ratio is equal to 10 and the friction factor is 0.02. The reservoir is
sufficiently large that the gas pressure inside remains essentially constant at

during the discharge.


1. Determine the range of back pressures over which a normal shock wave appears in the pipe.

(a) Plot the dimensionless axial position of the shock wave, , versus the pressure ratio

.

(b) Plot the strength of the shock wave (i.e., its upstream Mach number) versus the pressure
ratio

.

The dimensionless position is defined as the shock waves distance from the pipe inlet
divided by the pipe diameter. This dimensionless coordinate must range from (when
the shock wave is at the pipe inlet) to (when the shock wave is at the pipe exit). Use
the step of to generate your data points (

).


2. Determine the range of back pressures over which a normal shock wave appears in the
diverging section of the nozzle.

(a) Plot the dimensionless axial position of the shock wave, , versus the pressure ratio

.

(b) Plot the strength of the shock wave (i.e., its upstream Mach number) versus the pressure
ratio

.

The dimensionless position must range from (when the shock wave is at the throat)
to (when the shock wave is at the nozzle exit). Use the step of to generate
your data points (

).

NOTE: All graphs must be hand-plotted on graph paper.