Some Properties of the Compression Shock as in Turbine and Compressor Blade Passages

Abstract

The generalized theory of the plane compression shock has been widely known for some forty years, but only recently has appreciable progress been made in its application to everyday engineering practice. In the fields of ballistics and aircraft engineering, the shock is still generally regarded as a most undesirable phenomenon to be avoided whenever possible. However, in the fluid dynamics of gas-turbine power plant a stage has now been reached at which the shock, far from being regarded as a nuisance, must be considered as a potential aerodynamic tool of considerable consequence. Starting with a brief mention of the isentropic expansion of a compressible fluid and the classical compression-shock theory, the paper introduces some practical definitions and conceptions concerning the description and classification of the various forms of the single shock. The phenomena associated with shock wave reflection and boundary layer interaction are then considered, and finally four examples are given of the occurrence of shocks in practice. Of these examples, two are from the aircraft and two from the gas-turbine field, and in all they demonstrate most of the phenomena considered.