Theoretical and Experimental Investigation of Compressible Flow through Convergent–Divergent Nozzles

Abstract

The present paper is concerned with the study of compressible flow in a converging-diverging nozzle. From a theoretical and experimental investigation of the flow in an illustrative channel with convergent-divergent area variation, the behavior of the flow along the channel was found to be generally similar in trend to the flow in a stationary convergent-divergent nozzle. In compressible flows, the density and temperature variations are often significant. Therefore, the following study provides additional information on shock location, Mach number behavior and pressure distribution by varying nozzle length. The obtained curves show pressure distribution and Mach number along the two dimensioned nozzles which enable us to compare the experimental data with the theoretical calculations. Furthermore, interesting graphs are plotted which show the relationship between some nozzle parameters and flow characteristics.