Development of computer code and calculation of the propagation of sonic boom to the ground in a real atmosphere

Abstract

One of the main problems in the development of a supersonic aircraft of the second generation is to ensure a safe level of the sonic boom impact on the environment. Achieving such level at the preliminary design stage is possible with the help of reliable methods for calculating the characteristics of the sonic boom due to impossibility of tube experiments at far field and expensiveness of real flight tests. This paper presents method for determining the shape of the overpressure signatures in the generalized form of an augmented Burgers equation for the case of disturbances propagation in a moving medium (atmosphere with wind). Based on the presented method, the computer code “vBoom” has been developed. The calculation results of the sonic boom characteristics (overpressure waveforms, the loudness in different metrics and the sonic boom carpet on the ground) are presented in comparison with the results obtained by NASA within the international seminar SBPW3 [1] (Sonic Boom Prediction Workshop).