Second-order small-disturbance solutions for hypersonic flow over power-law bodies

Similarity solutions were found which give the adiabatic flow of an ideal gas about two-dimensional and axisymmetric power-law bodies at infinite Mach number to second order in the body slenderness parameter. The flow variables were expressed as a sum of zero-order and perturbation similarity functions for which the axial variations in the flow equations separated out. The resulting similarity equations were integrated numerically. The solutions, which are universal functions, are presented in graphic and tabular form. To avoid a singularity in the calculations, the results are limited to body power-law exponents greater than about 0.85 for the two-dimensional case and 0.75 for the axisymmetric case. Because of the entropy layer induced by the nose bluntness (for power-law bodies other than cones and wedges), only the pressure function is valid at the body surface. The similarity results give excellent agreement with the exact solutions for inviscid flow over wedges and cones having half-angles up to about 20 deg. They give good agreement with experimental shock-wave shapes and surface-pressure distributions for 3/4-power axisymmetric bodies, considering that Mach number and boundary-layer displacement effects are not included in the theory.