Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Supersonic

The Prandtl-Glauert singularity (sometimes referred to as a "vapor cone"), is the point at which a sudden drop in air pressure occurs, and is generally accepted as the cause of the visible condensation cloud that often surrounds an aircraft travelling at transonic speeds, though there remains some debate. It is an example of a mathematical singularity in aerodynamics.
One view of this phenomenon is that it exhibits the effect of compressibility and the so-called "N-wave".