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Sommer-Short Method

The Sommer-Short method maps compressible turbulent skin friction to the incompressible Karman-Schoenherr relation using an empirical reference temperature derived from free-flight drag measurements.1

The reference-temperature ratio is

\[ \frac{T'_{SS}}{T_e} = 1 + 0.035M_e^2 + 0.45\left(\frac{T_w}{T_e} - 1\right). \]

The transformation factors are

\[ F_c = \frac{T'_{SS}}{T_e}, \]
\[ F_\theta = \frac{\mu_e}{\mu'_{SS}}, \]

and, because these factors are constant along the plate,

\[ F_x = \frac{F_\theta}{F_c}. \]

Here \(\mu'_{SS}=\mu(T'_{SS})\). The shared turbulent mapping from \(F_x\) and \(F_c\) to local compressible skin friction is documented in Turbulent Estimates.

References


  1. Sommer, S.C. and Short, B.J. (1955). Free-flight measurements of turbulent boundary-layer skin friction in the presence of severe aerodynamic heating at Mach numbers from 2.8 to 7.0. NACA TN 3391.