Quasi 1-D Flows — Lesson 3

As the gases exit the rocket engine, they accelerate and provide the required thrust to overcome the earth's gravity. These gases are moving through a nozzle which has a cross-section that changes progressively along the flow direction.

Similarly, if we look at a supersonic wind tunnel, we can see that the air moves through a geometry that has a varying cross-sectional area along the flow direction.

Even though these flows might not strictly be one-dimensional in nature, 1D analysis can still be applied to them provided they meet certain requirements. What are those conditions, and when satisfied, how do we analyze these quasi 1D flows? Let’s find out.

Alternate video link.

Here are the accompanying handout slides for this lesson.