Technische Universität München
Question
Asked 7th Nov, 2018
How does the design of aircraft reduce the sonic boom?
Which are the factors which affect the sonic booms and how does design of aircraft reduce the sonic boom?
Most recent answer
Without going trough all details mentioned before, this is a classical Gasdynamic problem dealing with two classes of non-linear waves, compression waves AND expansion waves.
As already mentioned by others focusing of far field compression waves is the most worse configuration. Bit each body in flight creates also expansion waves, the most promising concept I see is therefore:
1. Avoid formation of strong far field shocks waves;
2. Create instead dispersed compression fans in the far field;
3. Create appropriate expansion fans in the far field with interactions with the compression.
Create means appropriate design of the wing-body layout. Everything, all disturbance strong or wake emerge from the airplane body.
Follow the supersonic characteristics this makes the far field topology easily understandable.
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All Answers (7)
Medical College of Wisconsin
the modifications of the design of the aircraft can reduce sonic boom. Long larger nose, lengthened and deepened fairing under the fuselage should reduce Sonic Boom. Even NASA had been successful using the method.
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Technische Universität München
As Shamudra Dey mentioned making aircraft long and slender will reduce sonic boom. Moreover at higher altitudes the air is less denser resulting in large shock waves. So flying at lower altitudes may also help in reducing Sonic Booms.
SOLV3 Engineering Ltd
You can look at this very good paper as a start and to find a list of references:
Conference Paper Sonic Boom and Drag Evaluation of Supersonic Jet Concepts
University of Twente
As explained in the previous answers, drag minimization is crucial. However the flight path and athmospheric thermal stratification have also a huge influence on the NON-linear wave propagation of the shock waves. This can lead to focusing of the N-waves (super sonic boom). The non-linearity of the wave propagation implies that smaller shock waves generated bij details of the aircraft structure can merge with the dominant shock. Hence details of the aircraft design also contribute.
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University of North Dakota
I'm no where to critic the answers given by everyone in the previous comments as I'm not an expert to tell but as far as I can say, it is possible to delay the onset of sonic boom by changes in the nose cone of the aircraft. Just like how swept back wings can cause to delay the wave drag, similar way can be done to the nose by changing the shape or adding an external element, then it is possible to reduce the frequency of bow shock thereby delaying the sonic boom (Not sure if this works).
Technische Universität München
Without going trough all details mentioned before, this is a classical Gasdynamic problem dealing with two classes of non-linear waves, compression waves AND expansion waves.
As already mentioned by others focusing of far field compression waves is the most worse configuration. Bit each body in flight creates also expansion waves, the most promising concept I see is therefore:
1. Avoid formation of strong far field shocks waves;
2. Create instead dispersed compression fans in the far field;
3. Create appropriate expansion fans in the far field with interactions with the compression.
Create means appropriate design of the wing-body layout. Everything, all disturbance strong or wake emerge from the airplane body.
Follow the supersonic characteristics this makes the far field topology easily understandable.
1 Recommendation
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