69th Annual Meeting of the APS Division of Fluid Dynamics (November 20, 2016 — November 22, 2016)

V0073: Transonic effect around airfoils visualized in flowing soap films

Authors

• Sunyi Wang, The Applied Math Lab, Courant Institute, New York University and NYU Shanghai
• Mei Wu, The Applied Math Lab, Courant Institute, New York University and NYU Shanghai
• Jun Zhang, The Applied Math Lab, Courant Institute, New York University and NYU Shanghai

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/APS.DFD.2016.GFM.V0073

Shockwaves form when an aircraft flies and passes the speed of sound. This effect can be seen sometimes in the humid air around an aircraft, or in a high-speed wind tunnel around a model airplane. Each case concerns a big operation and it is quite hard to visualize. Here, we explore the possibility to visualize the shockwaves around an airfoil in a flowing soap film. In our quasi-two-dimentional flow of soap film, shockwaves indeed becomes visible as the flow speed exceeds the speed of waves that propagate on the elastic film. We will use such shockwave patterns to compare with that obtained from wind-tunnel experiments.