Every object on earth or in space can be classified as a solid, a liquid or a gas.

Dynamics is the study of how these objects behave when there is a force (a push or a
pull) acting on it.

Solid objects have well-behaved molecules and atoms. These molecules line up in an
even pattern that gives the object a specific shape. A block of wood is a solid, so is a
crystal of salt. The primary characteristic of a solid is that the shape stays fixed. If a
round piece of wood is placed in a square container, its shape does not change to
match the container. In dynamics, this is called a non-deformable body (no automatic
shape changing). A secondary characteristic of a solid is that no matter how hard it is
squeezed or pulled, the molecules do not move closer together or further apart. The
object may break, but the molecules don't move. This is called an incompressible
object.

The molecules in a liquid, however, are not so well-organized. An amount of fluid,

when poured from a square container into a round one, will not retain its square
shape. It will take the shape of the round container. A primary characterization of a
liquid is that it will deform, or take the shape of its container. The liquid will not,
however, expand to fill a larger space. It cannot be made smaller by squeezing or
pulling. The molecules do not move closer or further apart. Liquid is incompressible.

Gases, like air, have even less-organized molecules. Gases not only will take the
shape of their containers, but also will expand or contract to fill the container. When a
person takes a breath of air, for example, the air rushes down the bronchial tubes and
tries to fill all the spaces in the lungs. A big breath makes it easier to feel the lungs
expand, but a small breath fills ALL of the lungs, too. A gas can be expanded or
compressed. Another example is compressed air in a cylinder used by a diver.
Another name for liquids and gases is "fluid". A fluid is deformable.

The study of dynamics, then, can be split into four specialties: Dynamics of solids,
which will be discussed more in the structures chapter; how liquids behave
(hydrodynamics); how air and other gases move (aerodynamics), and how high speed
gases change (gas dynamics). Hydrodynamics, aerodynamics, and gas dynamics are
all part of fluid dynamics, and each will be discussed in the next few pages.

Hydrodynamics is the study of how forces (pushes and pulls) affect liquids.
Something, like a boat or submarine, may be in a liquid, like water. Liquids could also
be moving through something like a pipe or hose, such as water or oil. Or they might
be contained, like water behind a dam. In each case there are rules and laws for the
behavior (actions, reactions) of the fluid or liquid. Engineers study and apply these
rules and laws when they design boats, pipes, dams, or anything that uses a liquid.

The study of hydrodynamics is sometimes confused with aerodynamics, especially

when people are designing boats. The behaviors, rules, and laws are very similar in
both fields. That's why some design engineers call themselves aerodynamicists, even
though they are working with liquids, rather than gases
How Air and other Gases Move - Aerodynamics

Aerodynamics is the study of forces acting on an object. These forces become active
when an object moves through the air (or gases). It is important to understand these
forces for the design of airplanes, sailboats, cars, and other objects moving quickly
through the air. Buildings, bridges, and windmills are also affected by wind moving
past them.

Most of the sections in this chapter are about the motions of air around objects, rather
than other gases. When the motions and shape of an object are understood the
aerodynamic forces can be figured. The flight possibilities of the object can, then, be
discussed.

How High Speed Gases Change - Gas Dynamics

When air flows over an object at very high speeds, like over fighter aircraft, or goes
through jet engines with very high temparatures, the normal rules of aerodynamics
sometimes don't apply. For these special cases another area of study, gas dynamics,
has been developed. Gas dynamics expands the rules and laws of aerodynamics to
include high speed flows and high temperature flows.

Sometimes, if an aircraft flies so high up and so fast, even the rules of gas dynamics
break down. At high altitudes the air molecules are very far apart. Also, the
temperatures around the plane can be so high that they cause chemical reactions
among the air molecules. This is often called the hypersonic region. Hypersonics is
the study of the air motion in these conditions. The government is currently building a
High Speed Civil Transport (HSCT) that would fly in this region!

Measurements

We know that an object moving through the air creates certain forces. We are most
interested in aerodynamic forces sufficient to allow flight. Both the object and the
forces created must be measured. We can measure mass, time, length, and
temperature.

Units

Units are used to define measurements so that everyone knows exactly how much.
Some examples of units are meter, foot, inch, centimeter or a mile. If a planner draws
a bridge and says it is 1000 long and the builder looks at the plans and says it is one
short, this is a problem! Are they talking about a meter, a foot or an inch?

So, units are very important! A measurement should always include 2 things: a
number and a unit. Some examples everyone may know include things like: there are
20 minutes until recess; it takes 10 days to drive across the country; a desk top is 20
inches wide and 25 inches long; a recipe uses 2 cups of flour; it is 85 degrees outside
today. Each of these measurements includes a number and a unit.
Mass

Everything, whether it is a solid, liquid, or a gas has mass. It is a measure of how

much of the substance is there - how many molecules. Sometimes mass is expressed
as weight, even though they are not the same. In the metric system, the units for mass
are grams, kilograms (1000 grams) or milligrams (1/1000 grams). In the American
unit (called the English system), the weight of the substance is used, in pounds or
ounces. A pound is 16 ounces. Often abbreviations are used for the units: a gram is g,
a kilogram is kg, a milligram is mg, a pound is lb. and an ounce is oz.

Time

The easiest way to think of time is how long it takes something to happen. It may take
10 minutes to drive to school; it may take an hour to eat dinner. The units for time are
the same around the world: seconds, hours, days, years. In aerodynamics, a common
time measurement is how long it takes an object to go from one point to another or
from point A to point B.

Length

How long is it? How far is it? These are questions heard every day. Length is a quality
used by many people to define an object. A pencil is 7 inches long. A student is 4 feet
tall. A swimming pool is 2 meters deep. The most common units for the metric system
are a centimeter, a meter (100 centimeters) and a kilometer (1000 meters). In the
English system, that most Americans use, common units are the inch, a foot (12
inches), or a mile (5280 feet). These units may be abbreviated: centimeter as cm,
meter as m, kilometer as km, inch as in, foot or feet as ft, and a mile as mi.

In addition to the length of an object, it is often useful to know the area or volume of
the object in question. The area is how much room is on a surface like the floor of the
classroom or the surface of a wing. Area is found by multiplying one length by
another length. The result is called "square units". For example, if a room was 20 feet
by 25 feet long you would multiply 20 X 25 = 500 square feet. Many common
measurements in science and engineering include square feet or square meters.
Another common measurement is an acre, 40,000 square feet.

The volume of an object can either be how much space is available inside an object,
like a fuel tank or how much actual material is inside a specific place. Volume has
three measurements, length, height and width (all of these can be called lengths).
Multiplying these together equal volume. The result is cubed. For example, a 12 inch
long section of a 2 by 4 board (2 X 4 X 12 inches) would have a volume of 96 cubic
inches. Cubic feet, cubic meters, gallons, liters, and cubic centimeters (cc for short)
are all common units for volume.

Temperature

The quality of temperature is a measure of how hot or cold something is. A

thermometer is commonly used to determine the temperature of an object. Everything
has a tempertature - the rocks, trees, people, air. The weather report in the newspaper
usually gives the high and low temperatures of the air each day. The common units for
temperature are degrees Fahrenheit or degrees Celsius (what used to be Centigrade).
In America, almost everyone uses the Fahrenheit scale. In science and engineering,
however, temperatures can be reported using either scale. The way this is shown is
either 85° F or
85° C.

Properties

The aerodynamic forces for flight occur in a fluid. The fluid is usually either air or
water, although there are other fluids. Before flight can occur the fluid must be
measured to understand the forces generated by a moving object. In the
Measurements section, units were introduced to help understand the qualities of a
fluid. In this section, these qualities, or properties, of a fluid are defined. The units
(inches, pounds, grams, meters) will be used in the following definitions. In addition,
several other factors (facts or parts) are defined to help further understanding of
aerodynamics. These include weight and gravity, velocity and acceleration.

Temperature

The temperature of the fluid is an important part of how the fluid behaves. Hot oil, for
example, flows faster than cold oil. Warm air rises and cold air drops in a room; house
designers often place heat vents at the floor level because of this. Very cold water is
lighter than cool water, so it rises to the top of a lake. That's why lakes freeze from the
surface down. Sound travels farther on cold days than hot days. It is crucial
(important) then, to know the temperature of the fluid when computing aerodynamic
quantities. As mentioned in the Measurements section, temperature has units of
degrees Fahrenheit or degrees Celsius.

Pressure

The pressure of a fluid is another important consideration in aerodynamic forces.

When a fluid moves over or through an object, it gives small pushes on the surface of
the object. These pushes, over the entire surface, are defined as pressure. Pressure is
measured as force per unit area (square inches, square meters). In metric units,
pressure is measured in Newtons per square meter. In the English system, pressure is
usually measured in pounds per square inch. Example: The atmosphere (air) presses
on your skin at 14.7 pounds per square inch (psi).

Pressure can be powerful. A small pressure, spread over a very large area, can add up
to be a very large force. Air pressure decreases as the altitude increases; pressure also
decreases when the speed of the fluid (air, water) increases. When the temperature of
a fluid increases, so does the pressure. The pressures on an airplane directly affects its
flight capabilities!

Density

Density is a measure of how much mass (the amount of molecules) is included in a

given object or volume. Another way to think about it is how tightly the molecules are
packed in a volume or object. When we talk about the density of fluid (volume), we
often refer to a specific volume, such as a cubic meter, a cubic foot or a slug. A slug is
equal to 32.174 pounds mass.

A fluid with a lot of molecules tightly packed together has a high density; one that has
fewer molecules would have a lower density. Water, for example, has a much higher
density than air. A 10 gallon fish tank with water in it has much more mass in it than a
10 gallon tank with air in it. Since it has more mass, it will weigh more (more on that
in a later section.) In addition, the density is used to define whether a fluid is
incompressible or compressible. If the density of the fluid is fixed (constant), the fluid
is incompressible; neither the mass or the volume can change. Water is an
incompressible fluid. The amount of volume and mass will stay the same, even under
pressure.

Gases (like air), are compressible, they will expand to fill a new volume. The mass
doesn't change, but the volume increases, so the density of the gas decreases in the
new volume.

An aerodynamicist must pay attention to all of the properties of a fluid (air, water) to
define flow conditions. This is because all of the properties are linked together. If the
pressure or the temperature of a fluid changes, its density will usually change, too.
The density of air on a hot day is lower than the density of air on a cold day. At high
altitudes, where the pressure is lower, the density is also lower.

Viscosity

This is one of the most difficult properties on this list to define. Viscosity is a measure
of how much a fluid will resist flowing. If you spill water on an inclined board, it will
run quickly down the board. However, if you spill honey on the same board, it will
travel down the board much more slowly. Honey has a much higher viscosity than
water. It is said that honey is a more viscous fluid than water.

When a fluid flows over a surface, it exerts a force (measured in Newtons, for
example) on it. Scientists and engineers define viscosity by using units of
mass/length/time. The more commonly used units are kilogram per meter second
(kg/m s) for the metric system, and pounds mass per foot second (lbm/ft s) in the
English system.

The resistance to flow (viscosity) is important information when designing an object

(like a wing or boat hull) to move through air or water. Several math formulas are
used to get the viscosity reading needed to design surfaces that will reduce
aerodynamic drag.

Force

Forces have been defined as pushes or pulls on an object. To determine the units of
force, scientists and engineers use Newton's second law of motion. The second law
states that a force on a moving object is equal to the mass of the object times the
acceleration (a measure of its motion) of the object. Various mathematical formulas
are used to measure force.
An interesting point about the force is that in addition to a value and units, it also has
a direction associated with it. In the figure above, the force is applied to the box to the
right, therefore the motion is to the right. If the force were applied down on the top of
the box, no motion would occur; since the box is already on the ground, it can't move
any further. No matter how large the force was, there would be no motion. So,
defining a direction for a force is very important.

Weight and Gravity

In other countries, objects are measured in terms of their mass, in grams or kilograms.
In the United States, however, people use the terms for weight to also mean mass.
This works okay near the earth's surface because gravity is constant, so the units of
"weight and mass" stay the same. (the acceleration due to gravity is equal to 32.174
feet per second, at sea level) Because of gravity, weight is actually a force and not the
true mass of an object. If an object is taken up high in the atmosphere, the force of
gravity is less. Therefore, the "force" of weight is less. An object will weigh less, at
high altitude, but the mass will remain the same.

Scientists must be able to separate weight and mass. Therefore, the units are: pounds
mass or pounds force. Mass will not change. Pounds force will change with altitude.
Acceleration of an object at high altitudes is less, due to gravity, therefore the weight
of the object is less.

This is why an object on the moon weighs less than the same object on the earth. The
gravitational attraction on the moon is less than that of earth, so the acceleration due
to gravity is less (about 1/6th that of the earth). When an object is weighed on the
moon, it will weigh about 1/6th as much as the same object on earth. Example: A 60
pound child would weigh 10 pounds on the moon!

Velocity

How fast an object moves is measured by its velocity. Velocity is calculated by

dividing the distance traveled (a length) by the time it takes to travel the distance. The
units of velocity are, for example, meters per second (m/s) or feet per minute (ft/min).
If a person runs 10 kilometers in 1 hour, his or her velocity is 10 kilometers per hour
(km/hr). If a car travels from Los Angeles, CA, to San Diego, CA , a distance of 120
miles, in 2 hours, its velocity is 60 miles per hour (mph)(120/2hrs=60 mph). One
exception to these units is a term held over from sailing days, the knot. In aeronautics,
the velocity of the air is often measured in knots. One knot is equal to about 1.7 feet
per second (ft/s).

Rate and speed are two of the many terms used interchangeably with velocity. When
engineers work with velocities, they must know the direction of the motion as well as
the numerical value. They will sometimes call the numerical value the rate or speed,
and then define a direction: the box was moved at a rate of 3 ft/s to the right, or the
rocket traveled upwards at a speed of 120 m/s.

Acceleration
Acceleration is a measure of how the velocity of an object is changing over time. It
can be found by computing the difference in velocities at first one time, then some
time later, and dividing that by the difference in time. Example: A car is traveling at
60 mph at the first mile post. One mile (and one minute) later the car is traveling at 70
mph. 70 - 60=10 divided by 1/60 hr. = 600 mph (if acceleration continued at the same
rate for the next 59 minutes).

Different Ways Air Moves

The following terms and definitions are used by aerodynamicists to define the way a
fluid moves in or around an object. In order to get a good picture of what is happening
about a wing, for example, the aerodynamicist must know the velocity of the plane,
the altitude of the plane, the size and shape of the wing, and the properties of the air.
He or she will use the terms and concepts discussed in this list to define fluid flow.

Speed of Sound

If a person is standing very far from an explosion, he or she will not hear it right
away. It takes time for the sound waves to travel. This is because sound travels in
invisible waves of changing pressure through a fluid (usually air, but sometimes
liquid). A person standing closer to the explosion will hear it sooner. At sea level, on a
typical day (not too hot, not too cold), the speed of sound (how fast the sound waves
travel) is about 760 miles per hour (mph).

The speed of sound depends on the pressure and density of the fluid in question. Since
the pressure and the density can change with temperature or altitude, the
aerodynamicist must compute the speed of sound at the altitude, pressure, and density
where the plane is flying. This means the speed of sound could be more or less than
760 mph under different conditions.

Mach Number

The numbers Mach 1, Mach 2, Mach 3...etc. are used to show the pilot's speed in
comparison to the speed of sound. Mach 2 is two times the speed of sound, for
example. Remember, the speed of sound can change according to conditions in the
atmosphere. An airplane at a low altitude flying at Mach 0.8 will have the same
airflow behavior over the wing as the same airplane flying at a high altitude at Mach
0.8. The speed of sound decreases as the altitude increases, so in order for the airplane
at the higher altitude to be flying at Mach 0.8, its velocity will be slower than that of
the plane flying at the lower altitude! The behavior of airflow over the wing, however,
will be the same on both planes.

The Mach number is named for Ernst Mach (1838 -1916), who conducted the first
meaningful experiments in supersonic flight at the University of Prague, Germany.

Air flow, over a wing, changes around Mach 1.0. Different mathematical procedures
are used to compute flow behavior. Air flow under Mach 1.0 is called subsonic flow.
Air flow over Mach 1.0 is called supersonic flow. If the Mach number is greater than
5.0, that regime (pattern) is called hypersonic flow. However, an airplane traveling
between Mach 0.75 and Mach 1.20 will have surface areas that are experiencing both
subsonic and supersonic airflow; aerodynamicists have named it the transonic regime.
Airflow calculations must be done carefully in this area.

It is interesting to see what happens to air flow regimes (patterns) as an airplane

approaches Mach 1.0. At subsonic speeds the waves of changing pressure about the
plane travel out in all directions at the speed of sound for that altitude.

As the plane flies faster and approaches the transonic regime (still below Mach 1.0),
the waves in front of the plane don't travel that much faster than the plane itself.

At the sonic barrier, Mach = 1.0, the front of the sound waves and the plane are
traveling at the same speed.

As the plane flies faster than the speed of sound (Mach number greater than 1.0), the
waves compress into a cone-shaped envelope around the plane. the flow conditions of
the air ahead of the plane remain unchanged until the plane flies past. Only the region
inside the cone is affected by the plane. This conical compression is called a shock
wave, and it will be discussed in greater detail in a later section.

Friction

Anything that moves against another object causes friction or resistance to motion
between the two objects. If a person tries to push a box across the floor, he or she
must push hard to overcome the resistance. If the person applies a push, or force that
is stronger (larger) than the frictional force, the box will move. If the push isn't strong
enough the box won't move.

The friction between two moving objects can be affected by the surfaces of the
objects. For example, it is easier to push a heavy box across a smooth wood floor, or a
sheet of ice, than it is to push it across thick, bumpy carpet. That means the frictional
force between the box and the smooth floor or ice sheet is less than the frictional force
between the box and the thick carpet, so it takes less of a push to get it moving.

When a fluid like air flows across a surface such as a wing, there is friction resisting
the motion. How much friction is dependent on two factors, the viscosity of the fluid
and the smoothness of the surface. A very viscous fluid like honey (a fluid with high
viscosity) will resist flowing, even down a smooth surface. The friction force is very
strong at the surface. Af fluid like water with much lower viscosity will travel much
faster down a smooth surface; the frictional force between the water and the surface is
much smaller. However, if water flows across a very rough surface, like carpet, it will
travel down more slowly than on the smooth surface. Because the surface is rougher,
the friction force is stronger, the velocity is slower.

Boundary Layer

Because of this friction force, when a fluid flows over a surface, an interesting pattern
develops. The fluid actually stops; there is no velocity or movement at the surface. A
new layer develops on top of the stopped flow. There is less friction on this new
surface so there is some movement of the flow. New layers develop, each with less
friction, until some distance away from the original surface, there is no effect of the
slowed flow, and the remaining layers of the fluid travel at the original velocity. The
distance from the original surface to the layer of the flow traveling at the original
velocity is called the boundary layer thickness.

In general, the boundary layer gets thicker as the flow moves along the surface. How
fast and how big the boundary layer grows is a function of the smoothness of the
surface, the shape of the surface, and how fast the flow is travelling.

Laminar Boundary Layer

For lower velocities, fluid flowing over a smooth surface that is relatively short and
flat will only devleop a very thin boundary layer. The flow inside the boundary layer
will be smooth and orderly, meaning that the layers will basically stay in layers,
without mixing. This condition is called laminar boundary layer.

Unfortunately, nature tends towards disorder, so it is rare to be able to maintain a

laminar boundary layer for very long.

Turbulent Boundary Layer

As a fluid moves over a long, relatively flat surface, the boundary layer will get
thicker, and the layers will start to mix and swirl around each other.. This swirling,
rolling layer is called a turbulent boundary layer. The mixing and swirling is called
trubulence; if the swirling is regular and repeatable, it is called a vortex or an eddy.

Since most of the boundary layers over an airplane will be turbulent, aerodynamicist
will try to design the surfaces to minimize the amount of turbulence or disorder.

Transition

The region in the boundary layer where the orderly laminar layers start to mix
together, but before they really start swirling, is called the transition region. Most of
the time it is a fairly small region. The aerodynamicist will design the surface to keep
the turbulent region small.

Flow Separation

Sometimes a boundary layer will be forced to move away from the surface. When this
happens the flow inside the boundary layer gets so mixed up it starts to circulate and
flow back towards the front of the surface! The outside, original fluid will move over
a large bubble created by the circulating layer. This is called flow separation. The
front of the bubble, where the outside fluid turns sharply away from the surface, is
called the point of separation; the back of the bubble, where the outside fluid turns
back to follow the surface again, is called the point of reattachment. If the region of
flow separation extends past the surface, this region is called a wake.

Pilots and engineers usually don't like it when the flow separates on a wing. This is a
condition known as stall. When a wing stalls, the lift (a force that helps a plane to fly;
see later section) decreases sharply. The plane loses altitude, and if the stall is not
corrected, the plane will crash. To land a plane however, a pilot will wait until the
plane is close to the ground, then initate a slight, controlled stall to gently drop the
plane to the runway.

Buoyancy

Buoyancy is a force that is directed upward, or opposite of weight (which is

considered a downward force). There is always buoyancy in a fluid. The fluid may be
moving or stationary. The Greek scientist Archimedes (287 - 212 B.C.) deduced that
the buoyancy force was equal to the weight of the fluid displaced by the body.

If an object, dropped in water, weighs less than the water displaced (pushed away)
then it will float; if it weighs more then it will sink.

The density of liquids is much higher than for gases, like air. Therefore the buoyancy
force of a liquid is much higher than in a gas. Naval architects and ship designers
must use the buoyancy forces in their calculations. The buoyancy forces for airplanes
are so small that they are usually ignored (not used). Hot air balloons and blimps do
use the buoyancy force to get afloat, but they displace such an extremely large volume
of air that the computed buoyancy force exceeds their weight so that they can fly.

Streamlines and Flow Patterns

Aerodynamicists and other engineers like to know where the flow is going. A
streamline traces out the path of an element or piece of fluid as it travels in space and
time around or through an object. Streamlines are computed mathematically from the
velocities in the flow region. Streamlines are usually plotted as smooth lines, and they
sometimes have arrows on them to show the direction of the flow. They can be used to
show how the air travels around an airfoil (the cross-section or slice of a wing), with
some of the air flowing over the top of the airfoil, and the rest flowing below the
airfoil. In a previous section, for example, streamlines were used to show how flow
separation appears on a wing.

Shocks

As discussed in the Mach number section, when a plane flies faster than the speed of
sound, a shock wave is created. This is the conical-shaped enveleope formed around
the plane as it flies at supersonic speed. When a shock wave is formed, fluid
properties such as pressure, density, temperature, and velocity change drastically and
instantaneously through a shock wave.

Theoretically, once a shock wave is formed it will travel on to infinity. In nature,

however, atmospheric winds cause the shock to weaken and disperse. When an
aircraft flying at supersonic speeds is at a high altitude, the shock wave is diffused
(scattered) long before it reaches the earth's surface. If a plane, flying at supersonic
speed, flies too close to the ground, however, the shock will hit the earth's surface. It
will be heard and felt by observers on the ground (it's called a sonic boom). If the
shock is strong enough, it will cause buildings to shake and windows to break!

The space shuttle has a shock wave around it as it returns to earth through the
atmosphere. There is a section of southwestern Georgia that is along the flight path of
the returning shuttle when it lands at Cape Canaveral. when the shuttle travels along
this path, it is still slightly supersonic, and it is close enough that the people on the
ground hear the sonic boom as it travels over head. The shuttle can't be seen, but it
can be heard! Before the shuttle flies low enough for the shock wave to cause any
damage, however, it has dropped its speed below Mach 1.0 and the shock is gone.

In the early days of flight, the aerodynamics of transonic and supersonic flight were
not well understood. As pilots went faster and approached the sonic region (called the
sound barrier, back then) their airplanes would begin to shake and even fall apart!
Some people were sure that there was an invisible barrier and that humans were not
intended to go faster than the speed of sound.

In the late 1940's, designers started to understand high speed aerodynamics and began
to design aircraft to fly in the supersonic regime. On October 14, 1947, Captain
Charles Yeager, flying the experimental aircraft Bell XS-1, flew the first successful
supersonic flight. Today many pilots regularly fly faster than the speed of sound.

Perfect Gas Law

The perfect gas law establishes the relationship between the pressure, density, and
temperature of a gas at any instant in time or space. Air is treated as a perfect gas,
even though it is a mixture of gases; it is mostly nitrogen. Engineers regularly use the
perfect gas law to compute air flow properties.

Bernoulli's Theorem

Daniel Bernoulli (1700 -1782) was the first to develop a mathematical formula and
theory that showed the relationship between fluid velocity and pressure: when the
velocity in the flow increases, the pressure decreases, and when the velocity
decreases, the pressure increases. This was an important discovery. As more people
began to experiment with flying they were able to use Bernoulli's theorem to design
airfoils. The theorum shows how lift is created when an airstream goes over a wing.
This was the vital information needed to make flight possible.

Forces in Flight

The flight of an airplane, a bird, or any other object involves four forces that may be
measured and compared: lift, drag, thrust, and weight. As can be seen in the figure
below for straight and level flight, these four forces are distributed with the 1) lift
force pointing upward; 2) weight pushing downward; 3) thrust pointing forward in the
direction of flight; 4) and the drag force opposing the thrust. In order for the plane to
fly, the lift force must be greater than or equal to the weight. The thrust force must be
greater than or equal to the drag force. The terms and concepts that were defined
earlier in this chapter can now be used to compute each of these forces.
 Direction of Forces in Straight and Level Flight

Weight

The weight of the aircraft, as discussed earlier in the chapter, is a measure of a natural
force that pulls the plane down towards the earth (gravity). Therefore, the direction
assigned to the weight is downward.

Lift

The force that pushes an object up against the weight is lift. On an airplane or a bird,
the lift is created by the movement of the air around the wings (the lift created by the
body or tail is small). The figure below shows two streamlines about a typical airfoil
(or wing); one travels over the top of the airfoil, the other moves underneath it.

If two particles were released from the same point at the same time, one on each
streamline, they would start out moving together. As they approach the front of the
airfoil, however, their velocity will start to change. Due to the shape of the airfoil, the
air moves faster over the top of the airfoil than it does on the lower surface. The faster
air leads to a lower pressure (from Bernoulli's Law) on the upper surface.

A smaller force, on top, will be pointed downward, and a larger force (underneath)
will be pointing upwards. When the two forces are combined, the net force is lift,
which is directed upwards.

The shape of the airfoil (wing) is a very important part of lift, and airplane designers
design these shapes very carefully. Most airfoils today have camber, meaning they
have curved upper surfaces and flatter lower surfaces. These airfoils generate lift even
when the flow is horizontal (flat). The Wright brothers used symmetric airfoils to
build the wings on their airplane. Since the upper and lower surfaces were the same,
the particles on the streamlines above and below the symmetric airfoil move at the
exact same velocity. The pressures on either surface (top or bottom) are exactly the
same, so the net combined force on the airfoil is zero! No lift is generated by a
symmetric airfoil in horizontal flow (flat wings moving straight ahead cannot fly).
How, then, did the Wright brothers get their airplane off the ground?

In order to generate lift with a symmetric airfoil, the airfoil must be turned (tilted)
with respect to the flow, so that the upper surface is "lengthened" and the lower
surface is "shortened".

This "tilting against the airflow" is called angle of attack. It can be used for either
cambered or symmetric wings. This is why an airplane rotates slightly at takeoff; the
pilot is increasing the angle of attack to generate more lift. If the angle of attack is
doubled, the lift doubles. There is a limit to how much lift can be generated, however.
The angle of attack can be increased to a point where the net lift force drops
drastically.

Airflow deflection is another way to explain lift. To understand the deflection of air
by an airfoil let's apply Newton's Third Law of Motion. The airfoil deflects the air
going over the upper surface downward as it leaves the trailing edge of the wing.
According to Newton's Third Law, for every action there is an equal, but opposite
reaction. Therefore, if the airfoil deflects the air down, the resulting opposite reaction
is an upward push. Deflection is an important source of lift. Planes with flat wings,
rather than cambered, or curved wings must tilt their wings to get deflection.

Another way to increase lift on a wing is to extend the flaps downward. This again
lengthens the upper surface and shortens the lower surface to generate more lift.

The velocity of the freestream air (actually of the airplane) is the most important
element in producing lift. If the velocity of the ariplane is increased, the lift will
increase dramatically. If the velocity is doubled, the lift will be four times as large.

The generation of lift can be found elsewhere. Race car designers use airfoil-like
surfaces to generate negative lift, or downward-directed force. This force, combined
with the weight of the race car, helps the driver maintain stability in the high-speed
turns on the race track.

Thrust

Any force pushing an airplane (or bird) forward is called thrust. Thrust is generated by
the engines of the airplane (or by the flapping of a bird's wings). The engines push
fast moving air out behind the plane, by either propeller or jet. The fast moving air
causes the plane to move forward.

Drag

The drag is the fourth of the major forces for flight. It is a resistance force. This force
works to slow the forward motion of an object, including planes. There are four types
of drag: friction drag, form drag, induced drag and wave drag. These drag types
develop around the shape of the body, the smoothness of the surfaces, and the velocity
of the plane. All four sum together for the total drag force. The drag forces are the
opposite of thrust. If the thrust force is greater than the drag force, the plane goes
forward, but if the drag force exceeds the thrust, the plane will slow down and stop.

The friction drag is sometimes also called the skin friction drag. It is the friction force
at the surfaces of the plane caused by the movement of air over the whole plane. If a
person were to look at the furface of a wing, for example, he or she would see that all
the sheets of metal join smoothly, and even the rivets are rounded over and are as
flush with the surface as possible. This helps keep the friction drag at a minimum.

The form drag, or pressure drag as it is sometimes called, is directly related to the
shape of the body of the airplane. A smooth, streamlined shape will generate less form
drag than a blunted or flat body.

Any object that moves through a fluid (water/air) can get a decrease in form drag by
streamlining. Automobiles are streamlined, which translates (allows) better gas
mileage; there is less drag so less fuel is required to "push" the car forward. Buses,
vans, and large trucks are less streamline, and this one reason why they use more fuel
than smaller, streamlined cars (weight is another reason).

Form drag is easy to demonstrate using a hand out the window of a moving car. If the
hand is held flat, like a wing, it is a streamlined object. The person only feels a small
tug or drag. If he or she turns the hand so that the palm is facing forward, the drag
force is greatly increased, and the hand is pulled backwards! It is no longer
streamlined. There are two additional drag forces, the induced drag and wave drag.

Induced drag is sometimes called the drag due to lift. As the lift force is generated
along a wing, a small amount of excess (lift) force can be generated in the opposite
direction. This force acts like drag and slows the forward motion of the airplane.
Aircraft designers try to design wings that lower induced drag.

The last of the four types of drag is the wave drag. This generally only happens when
the airplane is flying faster than the speed of sound. Wave drag is caused by the
interactions of the shock waves over the surfaces and the pressure losses due to the
shocks. Wave drag can also occur at transonic speeds, where the velocity of the air is
already supersonic, locally. Since most commercial jets today fly at transonic speeds,
wave drag is an important part of the total drag.

Summary

Every pilot knows and uses these four basic forces of flight. Aerobatic pilots are
constantly balancing these forces to design amazing stunts to delight the crowds
watching them. They will deliberately stall the wings of the airplane to cause the
plane to lose lift and drop suddenly. They very carefully fly upside down, balancing
the new lift force with the weight of the plane. They will point the airplane straught
up into the air and fly staight up as far as they can, let the plane hang there for a
second, then let it fall back down its original path. After a few heartbreaking seconds,
the pilot will turn the airplane back so the nose points downward into the direction of
the air flow to again regain level flight. These stunts are possible because the pilots
carefully balance the forces of weight, lift, drag and thrust.
 When an object is immersed in water, it feels lighter. In a cylinder filled with
water, the action of inserting a mass in the liquid causes it to displace upward. In
212 B.C., the Greek scientist Archimedes discovered the following principle: an
object is immersed in a fluid is buoyed up by a force equal to the weight
of the fluid displaced by the object. This became known as Archimede's
principle. The weight of the displaced fluid can be found mathematically. The
fluid displaced has a weight W = mg. The mass can now be expressed in terms
of the density and its volume, m = pV. Hence, W = pVg.

It is important to note that the buoyant force does not depend on the weight or
shape of the submerged object, only on the weight of the displaced fluid.
Archimede's principle applies to object of all densities. If the density of the object
is greater than that of the fluid, the object will sink. If the density of the object is
equal to that of the fluid, the object will neither sink or float. If the density of the
object is less than that of the fluid, the object will float.

A light ray is a stream of light with the smallest possible cross-sectional area. (Rays are
theoretical constructs.) The incident ray is defined as a ray approaching a surface. The
point of incidence is where the incident ray strikes a surface. The normal is a
construction line drawn perpendicular to the surface at the point of incidence. The
reflected ray is the portion of the incident ray that leaves the surface at the point of
incidence. The angle of incidence is the angle between the incident ray and the
normal. The angle of reflection is the angle between the normal and the reflected ray.

The Laws of reflection:

- The angle of incidence is equal to the angle of reflection

- The incident ray, the normal, and the reflected ray are coplanar

Specular reflection (regular reflection) occurs when incident parallel rays are also
reflected parallel from a smooth surface. If the surface is rough (on a microscopic level),
parallel incident rays are no longer parallel when reflected. This results in diffuse
reflection (irregular reflection). The laws of reflection apply to diffuse reflection. The
irregular surface can be considered to be made up of a large number of small planar
reflecting surfaces positioned at slightly different angles. Indirect (or diffuse) lighting
produces soft shadows. It produces less eye strain than harsher, direct lighting.

The applet below illustrates how reflection and refraction takes place in common
substances such as water, vacuum, air, glass, and even diamond.

When a source generating waves moves relative to an observer, or when an observer moves relative
to a source, there is an apparent shift in frequency. If the distance between the observer and the
source is increasing, the frequency apparently decreases, whereas the frequency apparently
increases if the distance between the observer and the source is decreasing. This relationship is
 called Doppler Effect (or Doppler Shift) after Austrian Physicist Christian Johann Doppler (1803-
1853).

The relationship describing the Doppler Shift for a moving source is given by:

f2 = f1v / (v ± vs)

where f2 is the apparent frequency, f1 is the actual frequency emitted by the source, v is the speed
of sound in the medium, vs is the speed of the source through the medium (the negative sign is used
if the source is moving towards the observer).

The relationship describing the Doppler Shift for a moving observer is given by:

fo = fs(v ± vo) / v

where fo is the observed frequency, fs is the source frequency, v is the speed of sound, vo is the
speed of the observer (it is taken to be negative if the observer is receding from the source).

The Doppler Effect explains the apparent change in pitch of a passing automobile. Of course, the
frequency of the sound emitted by a source remains unchanged, and so does the velocity of the
sound in the transmitting medium. A similar effect (Doppler Shift for light) can also be used to
determine the speed of a star relative to the earth. The red shift of the star's spectrum indicates that
the distance between an observed star and the earth may be increasing. The Doppler Shift for light
describes a change in wavelength, not a change in frequency as with sound. Short range radar
devices use the Doppler Shift principle. A change in frequency between emitted and returning pulses
can be used to find the relative speed.

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Bernoulli's Principle and Airplane Aerodynamics

A Critical Analysis

The aerodynamic lift on the wing of an airplane (airfoil) is generally explained by the
argument that the faster speed of the air along the top of the wing leads to reduced air
pressure there and hence produces a lift (Bernoulli's Law). Using this argument, one
should also expect a lift for a symmetric wing profile as shown in Fig.1.

Fig.1
However, if one considers the problem from a microscopic point of view, one comes
to a different conclusion: upward and downward forces should exactly cancel for a
symmetric wing profile. This is easy to see if one simplifies the situation and replaces
the curved wing surface by two plane sections (Fig.2)

Fig.2
If the wing is stationary, the pressure on all parts of the wing is identical, i.e. there is
no lift. If the wing is moving in the indicated direction and assuming an inviscid gas,
the front half of the upper wing surface experiences an increased pressure because of
the increased speed and number of air molecules hitting it (due to the orientation of
the surface, this creates a downward force). On the other hand, the rear half
experiences a reduced pressure because the of the reduced speed and number of air
molecules hitting it (creating a lift) (for a more detailed theoretical analysis of this see
the page regarding aerodynamic drag and lift). Overall, there is consequently no lift,
but only an anti-clockwise torque. It is obvious that an overall lift is only achieved if
the rear section of the wing has a larger area than the front section, i.e. one would get
the maximum lift for the following profile (Fig.3)

Fig.3
and wing profiles are actually asymmetric in this sense (see for instance
http://www.zenithair.com/kit-data/ht-87-6.html).
On the other hand, the reverse situation (Fig.4) should lead to a downward force,
although Bernoulli's Law would again predict a lift.

Fig.4
Note: the above arguments assume that the lower surface of the wing is always
parallel to the velocity vector, i.e. the pressure acting on it is unchanged; by varying
the 'angle of attack' of the wing the amount of lift can of course be changed arbitrarily
and one could even generate a lift for the bottom image (Fig.4).
In any case, it is clear that an airflow parallel to a surface can not transfer any
momentum to it and therefore not exert any force on it. This invalidates Bernoulli's
equation as an explanation for the aerodynamic lift. The enhanced airflow speed
around certain sections of the wing is not the cause of the aerodynamic lift, but both
the lift and the speed enhancement are separate consequences of the pressure changes
at the different wing sections caused by the motion of the wing in the viscous air.
In this way one has also to interpret the frequently given example of blowing over a
piece of paper. In fact, if one puts a sheet of paper flat on a table, fixes it to the edge
of the table and blows over it from the edge, the paper will not lift by one millimeter,
despite the motion of the air which according to Bernoulli's law should cause an
underpressure.
The apparent attraction that is observed when blowing between two sheets of paper
can be either explained by the fact that the sheets are in fact not exactly parallel to the
airflow but bend away from it (hence reducing the pressure on the surface), or by the
circumstance that the airflow does not cover the whole width of the paper (which
leads to the stationary molecules being pulled into the airstream by means of friction
(viscosity), which again reduces the pressure because molecules are removed from
between the sheets; one can verify this by just using two narrow (1cm wide) strips of
paper; these show no attraction but tend to stay parallel).
Either of these two mechanism should indeed be responsible for many of the
phenomena attributed to Bernoulli's Principle.
It should therefore be obvious that Bernoulli's law is only a viable physical
explanation in cases where the viscosity of the medium is instrumental for the
considered effect. Contrary to some scientific misconceptions, this is neither the case
for the aerodynamic lift associated with airplanes nor for the drag of objects moving
through a medium (see my separate page regarding aerodynamic drag and lift for a
more detailed theoretical analysis of these issues).
Note 1: it is frequently claimed by other critics of Bernoulli's law in this context, that
Newton's law of action and reaction in connection with the observed 'downwash' of
air near the wing is the explanation for the lift force acting on an airplane (see Ref. 1,
Ref. 2). This view has to be rejected as well: this is not a problem of an action at a
distance, but the only way a force can be exerted on a wing is by an increase of the
number and speed of air molecules hitting the wing surface. Everything else,
including the 'downwash', is merely a consequence of this, not the cause (some people
argue that this cause/effect issue would be merely a semantic problem, but a) it is
worrying if physicists don't care any more about the correct chain of cause and effect
and b) the above examples show clearly that this can indeed be of practical
relevance).
Note 2: In contrast to the usual aerodynamic lift, the well known Magnus effect due to
the rotation of objects does however not exist in an inviscid gas and can only be
explained in terms of Bernoulli's principle:
consider a rotating ball that is moving through an inviscid gas (i.e. molecules
interacting with the ball but not with each other): if the surface of the ball would be
mathematically smooth, then the rotation would actually be without any effect at all
because the air molecules would just bounce off like for a non-rotating sphere, but
even for a realistic rough surface (obviously a surface can not be smoother than about
1 atomic radius), the overall effect still cancels to zero: the pressure on the side
rotating against the airstream is higher at the front but smaller at the back (and the
other way around for the co-rotating side) so overall there is no resultant force on the
ball but merely a torque that slows down the rotation.
Hydrodynamics arguments (i.e. Bernoulli's principle) are therefore required to explain
the Magnus effect but not for the aerodynamic lift.

Supersonics
Supersonics is the branch of aerodynamics that concerns phenomena arising when the
speed of an object exceeds the speed of sound. The speed of sound is represented by a
so-called Mach number Ernst Mach, which is the speed of the object divided by the
speed of sound in the same substance under the same conditions. Mach numbers
represent actual flight conditions more accurately than distance per hour.
Photographic studies of artillery projectiles in flight show the atmospheric disturbances
encountered in supersonic flight. At subsonic speeds, the only atmospheric disturbance
is turbulence in the projectile's wake. As the speed passes M-1 (Mach number 1), shock
waves arise from the nose and tail and spread from the projectile in a cone.
This research has led designers to make modern high speed airplanes with wings that
are swept back to avoid the shock wave from the nose of the plane. Research has
identified other factors, such as the shape of the projectile, the rate of gas flow, and
atmospheric pressure, that influence the efficiency of the projectile's flight. Aircraft
designers have also used wind tunnels to test airplane models and airplane parts in air
currents at supersonic speeds.
Drag and
Aerodynamics

The shape of
an object
drastically
affects the
degree to
which air
resistance, or
drag, impedes
the object's
motion. For
example, a
sphere, top,
and especially
a square,
bottom, both
force the air to
redirect itself,
slowing the
objects down.
An airfoil,
middle,
minimally
disturbs the air
as it travels, so
the airfoil
experiences
little drag.
An object that is falling through the atmosphere is subjected to two external forces. The first
force is the gravitational force, expressed as the weight of the object, and the second force is
the aerodynamic drag of the object. The weight equation defines the weight W to be equal to
the mass m of the object times the gravitational acceleration g:

W=m*g

the value of g is 9.8 meters per square second on the surface of the earth. The gravitational
acceleration decreases with the square of the distance from the center of the earth. But for
most practical problems in the atmosphere, we can assume this factor is constant. If the
object were falling in a vacuum, this would be the only force acting on the object. But in the
atmosphere, the motion of a falling object is opposed by the aerodynamic drag. The drag
equation tells us that drag D is equal to a drag coefficient Cd times one half the air density r
times the velocity V squared times a reference area A on which the drag coefficient is based:

D = Cd * .5 * r * V^2 * A

The motion of any moving object can be described by Newton's second law of motion, force F
equals mass m times acceleration a:

F=m*a
We can do a little algebra and solve for the acceleration of the object in terms of the net
external force and the mass of the object:

a=F/m

Weight and drag are forces which are vector quantities. The net external force is then equal
to the difference of the weight and the drag forces:

F=W-D

The acceleration of the object then becomes:

a = (W - D) / m

The drag force depends on the square of the velocity. So as the body accelerates its velocity
and the drag increase. It quickly reaches a point where the drag is exactly equal to the weight.
When drag is equal to weight, there is no net external force on the object, and the
acceleration becomes zero. The object then falls at a constant velocity as described by
Newton's first law of motion. The constant velocity is called the terminal velocity.