The module descriptors for our undergraduate courses can be found below:
- Four year Aeronautical Engineering degree (H401)
- Four year Aeronautical Engineering with a Year Abroad stream (H410)
Students on our H420 programme follow the same programme as the H401 spending fourth year in industry.
The descriptors for all programmes are the same (including H411).
H401
Aerodynamics 2
Module aims
This module will build on existing knowledge of incompressible and compressible aerodynamics, and the basic prediction methods for aerofoil design at both low and high speed. The first part of the module extends the incompressible analyses of the first year Aerodynamics module and introduces potential flow. The second part of the module introduces compressible flow, shock waves and high speed aerodynamics. This module forms a direct link to the third year course in Aerodynamics.
Learning outcomes
On successfully completing this module, you should be able to:
Module syllabus
• Fundamentals: vorticity and circulation; free and forced vortex, Rankine vortex; equations of motion; Bernoulli equation; normal pressure gradient; relation between vorticity and gradient of total pressure.
• Control volumes: Reminder of control volume formulation, examples including: force on a converging nozzle, total pressure loss on a duct with rapidly expanding area.
• Stream Function and Velocity Potential: stream function and velocity potential for uniform stream at incidence, source/sink, free vortex; superposition of solutions; source/sink combinations; Joukowski lift theorem; flow past a circular cylinder with and without lift.
• The Complex Potential: complex coordinates and complex velocity; basic solutions for uniform stream, source/sink, vortex; image reflection at walls.
• Conformal mapping; circle to ellipse and flat plate; relation between complex velocities in circle plane and transformed plane; flow past ellipse at zero incidence; flow past ellipse at incidence; control of circulation/lift by specifying rear stagnation point; Kutta condition; lift of a flat plate; pressure distribution on the flat plate; Joukowski aerofoil; effect of camber and thickness.
• Introduction and one-dimensional compressible flow: Speed of sound, Mach number, subsonic and supersonic flow; propagation of weak waves; Mach waves and Mach cones; physical differences between two-dimensional subsonic and supersonic aerofoils.
• One-dimensional compressible flow: one-dimensional flow, nozzle flow; continuity, momentum and energy equations; convergent-divergent nozzles, choking; the appearance of shock waves; stationary and moving shock normal waves; supersonic wind tunnel.
• Two-dimensional compressible flow: The oblique shock wave; sharp wedge, attached and detached shock waves; shock wave reflection; very weak shock waves; two-dimensional supersonic linear theory (Ackeret) and wave interactions using linear theory; wave drag; the Prandtl-Meyer function and isentropic supersonic expansion. Shock expansion theory and supersonic aerofoils.
Teaching methods
The module will be delivered primarily through large-class lectures introducing the key concepts and methods, supported by a variety of delivery methods combining the traditional and the technological. The content is presented via a combination of slides, whiteboard and visualiser.
Assessments
This module presents opportunities for both formative and summative assessment.
You will be formatively assessed through progress tests and tutorial sessions.
You will have additional opportunities to self-assess your learning via tutorial problem sheets.
You will be summatively assessed by a written examination at the end of the module as well as through practical laboratory assessments and a written laboratory report.
Assessment type | Assessment description | Weighting | Pass mark |
Examination | Written examination | 80% | 40% |
Practical | Laboratory practical | 12% | 40% |
Coursework | Laboratory report | 8% | 40% |
Reading list
Core
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Fundamentals of aerodynamics
Fifth edition in SI units., McGraw-Hill Education
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Fundamentals of aerodynamics
5th ed SI units,
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Fundamentals of aerodynamics
5th ed SI units,
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Fundamentals of aerodynamics
5th ed SI units,
Supplementary
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Elementary fluid dynamics
Clarendon Press
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Elementary fluid dynamics
Clarendon Press
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Physical fluid dynamics
2nd, Clarendon Press
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Physical fluid dynamics
Van Nostrand Reinhold Company
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An album of fluid motion
Parabolic Press
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Multimedia fluid mechanics online.
Cambridge University Press