Small-Perturbation Theory

A great number of problems of interest in compressible fluid mechanics are concerned

with the perturbation of a known flow pattern. The most common case is that of
uniform, steady flow. Let   denote the uniform flow velocity, which is directed
parallel to the   -axis. The density, pressure, and temperature are also assumed to be

uniform, and are denoted   ,   , and   , respectively. The corresponding sound

speed is   , and the Mach number is   . Finally. the velocity field of
the unperturbed flow pattern is
(15.102)

(15.103)

Suppose that a solid body, such as an airfoil, is placed in the aforementioned flow
pattern. The cross-section of the body is assumed to be independent of the Cartesian
coordinate   . The body disturbs the flow pattern, and changes its velocity field,
which is now written

(15.104)

(15.105)

where   and   are known as induced velocity components. We are interested in

situations in which   and   .

Equation (15.101) can be combined with the previous two equations to give

(15.106)

It then follows from Equation (15.100) that

    

     

(15.10
 
7)

The previous equation is exact. However, if   and   are small then it
becomes possible to neglect many of the terms on the right-hand side. For instance,
neglecting terms that are third-order in small quantities, we obtain

   

  (15.108)

Furthermore, if we neglect terms that are second-order in small quantities then we get
the linear equation

(15.109)

Note, however, than in so-called transonic flow, where   , the coefficient

of   on the left-hand side of Equation (15.108) becomes very small. In this
situation, it is not possible to neglect the first term on the right-hand side. However,

the condition   does not affect the term   on the left-hand side of
Equation (15.108), and so the other terms on the right-hand side can still be neglected.
Thus, transonic flow is governed by the non-linear equation
 (15.110)

On the other hand, subsonic (i.e.,   ) and supersonic flow (i.e.,   )

are both governed by Equation (15.109). Another situation in which certain terms on
the right-hand side of Equation (15.108) must be retained is hypersonic flow

(i.e.,   ). This follows because, although   and   are small, their

products with   can still be non-negligible. Roughly speaking, Equation (15.109)

is valid for   and   . In other words, transonic flow

corresponds to   , and hypersonic flow to   (Anderson

2003).

The pressure coefficient is defined

(15.111)

(See Section 15.9.) Equation (15.101) implies that

(15.112)

where   . Moreover, Equation (14.61) yields

(15.113)

where   . The previous two equations can be combined to give

 (15.114)

Hence, we obtain

(15.115)

which reduces to

(15.116)

Using the binomial expansion on the expression in square brackets, and neglecting
terms that are third-order, or higher, in small quantities, we obtain

(15.117)

For two-dimensional flows, in the limit in which Equation (15.109) is valid, it is

consistent to retain only first-order terms in the previous equation, so that

(15.118)

Let

(15.119)
be the equation of the surface of the solid body that perturbs the flow. At the surface,
the velocity vector of the flow must be perpendicular to the local normal: that is, the
flow must be tangential to the surface. In other words,
(15.120)

which reduces to

(15.121)

Neglecting   with respect to   , we obtain

(15.122)

where   is the slope of the surface, and   the approximate slope of a
streamline.

Now, the body has to be thin in order to satisfy our assumption that the induced

velocities are relatively small. This implies that the coordinate   differs little from
zero (say) on the surface of the body. Hence, we can write

(15.123)

in the immediate vicinity of the surface. Within the framework of small-perturbation

theory, it is consistent to neglect all terms on the right-hand side of the previous
equation after the first. Hence, the boundary condition (15.122) reduces to

(15.124)

respectively.
Because a homenergic, homentropic flow pattern is necessarily irrotational (see
Section 15.10), we can write

(15.125)

where   is the perturbed velocity potential. (See Section 4.15.) It follows that

(15.126)

Hence, Equations (15.109), (15.118), and (15.124) become

(15.127)

(15.128)

(15.129)

respectively.