10.5. THE WORKING EQUATIONS 183
The Trends
The trends or whether the variables are increasing or decreasing can be observed from
looking at the equation developed. For example, the pressure can be examined by look-
ing at equation (10.26). It demonstrates that the Mach number increases downstream
when the flow is subsonic. On the other hand, when the flow is supersonic, the pressure
decreases.
The summary of the properties changes on the sides of the branch
Subsonic Supersonic
Pressure, P decrease increase
Mach number, M increase decrease
Velocity, U increase decrease
Temperature, T decrease increase
Density, ρ decrease increase
10.5 The Working Equations
Integration of equation (10.25) yields
4
D
Z
L
max
L
fdx =
1
k
1 −M
2
M
2
+
k + 1
2k
ln
k+1
2
M
2
1 +
k−1
2
M
2
(10.36)
A representative friction factor is defined as
¯
f =
1
L
max
Z
L
max
0
fdx (10.37)
In the isothermal flow model it was shown that friction factor is constant through the
process if the fluid is ideal gas. Here, the Reynolds number defined in equation (9.28) is
not constant because the temperature is not constant. The viscosity even for ideal gas
is complex function of the temperature (further reading in “Basic of Fluid Mechanics”
chapter one, Potto Project). However, the temperature variation is very limit. Simple
improvement can be done by assuming constant constant viscosity (constant friction
factor) and find the temperature on the two sides of the tube to improve the friction
factor for the next iteration. The maximum error can be estimated by looking at the
maximum change of the temperature. The temperature can be reduced by less than
20% for most range of the spesific heats ratio. The viscosity change for this change is
for many gases about 10%. For these gases the maximum increase of average Reynolds
number is only 5%. What this change in Reynolds number does to friction factor? That
depend in the range of Reynolds number. For Reynolds number larger than 10,000 the
change in friction factor can be considered negligible. For the other extreme, laminar
flow it can estimated that change of 5% in Reynolds number change about the same