Generation of axi-symmetric body shapes in subsonic flow by means of polynomial distributions of sources and doublets along the axis of symmetry

Abstract

Summary A method is presented for determining the potential flow around bodies of revolution, at incidence, in uniform, incompressible, flow. This method utilises polynomial distributions of both sources and doublets, in the manner of Fuhrmann, and gives considerable advantage over existing techniques. In particular, when compared with the method of Nielsen, in a typical case, the computer storage requirement is reduced by a factor of eleven. Compared with panel methods the saving is very much greater. Unlike the method of Landweber, both body surface and flow field conditions are obtainable and it would appear that the new method is ideally suited to the ‘store trajectory’ application in place of the existing discrete source method.