Compressibility Effects in Magnetoaerodynamic Flows Past Thin Bodies

Abstract

The effects of compressibility on the steady motion of a highly conducting fluid past thin cylindrical bodies in the presence of a magnetic field are studied. Procedures are developed for the solution of this class of magnetoaerodynamic problems over the entire Mach number range and for all ratios of magnetic to fluiddynamic pressure. The results obtained are analogous either to the Ackeret theory or the Prandtl-Glauert rule of conventional aerodynamics, depending on the relative values of the flow speed and the appropriate speed of propagation of magnetoacoustic disturbances. The methods used and the physical interpretation of the solutions obtained vary according to the orientation of the magnetic field with respect to the flow direction. The results of the theory are explained in terms of the anisotropic propagation of magnetoacoustic pulses studied previously by several authors.