Ludwig Prandtl

Ludwig Prandtl (4 February 1875 15 August 1953)[1]

was a German engineer. He was a pioneer in the development of rigorous systematic mathematical analyses which
he used for underlying the science of aerodynamics,
which have come to form the basis of the applied science
of aeronautical engineering. In the 1920s he developed
the mathematical basis for the fundamental principles of
subsonic aerodynamics in particular; and in general up to
and including transonic velocities. His studies identied
the boundary layer, thin-airfoils, and lifting-line theories.
The Prandtl number was named after him.

next decades he developed it into a powerhouse of aerodynamics, leading the world until the end of World War
II. In 1925 the university spun o his research arm to
create the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Flow Research
(now the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and SelfOrganization).
Following earlier leads by Frederick Lanchester from
19021907, Prandtl worked with Albert Betz and Max
Munk on the problem of a useful mathematical tool
for examining lift from real world wings. The results
were published in 19181919, known as the LanchesterPrandtl wing theory. He also made specic additions to
study cambered airfoils, like those on World War I aircraft, and published a simplied thin-airfoil theory for
these designs. This work led to the realization that on
any wing of nite length, wing-tip eects became very
important to the overall performance and characterization of the wing. Considerable work was included on the
nature of induced drag and wingtip vortices, which had
previously been ignored. These tools enabled aircraft designers to make meaningful theoretical studies of their
aircraft before they were built.

Early years

Prandtl was born in Freising, near Munich, in 1875. His

mother suered from a lengthy illness and, as a result,
Ludwig spent more time with his father, a professor of
engineering. His father also encouraged him to observe
nature and think about his observations.
He entered the Technische Hochschule Munich in 1894
and graduated with a Ph.D. under guidance of Professor
August Foeppl in six years.[2] His work at Munich had
been in solid mechanics, and his rst job was as an engineer designing factory equipment. There, he entered the
eld of uid mechanics where he had to design a suction
device. After carrying out some experiments, he came up
with a new device that worked well and used less power
than the one it replaced.

Later years

In 1901 Prandtl became a professor of uid mechanics at

the technical school in Hannover, now the Technical University Hannover. It was here that he developed many
of his most important theories. In 1904 he delivered a
groundbreaking paper, Fluid Flow in Very Little Friction,
in which he described the boundary layer and its importance for drag and streamlining. The paper also described
ow separation as a result of the boundary layer, clearly
explaining the concept of stall for the rst time. Several
of his students made attempts at closed-form solutions,
but failed, and in the end the approximation contained in
his original paper remains in widespread use.

Ludwig Prandtl 1904 with his uid test channel

Prandtl and his student Theodor Meyer developed the rst

theories of supersonic shock waves and ow in 1908. The
Prandtl-Meyer expansion fans allowed for the construction of supersonic wind tunnels. He had little time to
work on the problem further until the 1920s, when he
worked with Adolf Busemann and created a method for
designing a supersonic nozzle in 1929. Today, all supersonic wind tunnels and rocket nozzles are designed usThe eect of the paper was so great that Prandtl be- ing the same method. A full development of supersonics
came director of the Institute for Technical Physics at would have to wait for the work of Theodore von Krmn,
the University of Gttingen later in the year. Over the a student of Prandtl at Gttingen.
1

7 SEE ALSO

In 1922 Prandtl, together with Richard von Mises,

founded the GAMM (the International Association of
Applied Mathematics and Mechanics).[3] and was its
chairman from 1922 until 1933. Until 1945 he also
worked closely with the RLM.
Other work examined the problem of compressibility at
high subsonic speeds, known as the Prandtl-Glauert correction. This became very useful during World War II
as aircraft began approaching supersonic speeds for the
rst time. He also worked on meteorology, plasticity and
structural mechanics.

He is often referred to as the father of modern aerodynamics.

The crater Prandtl on the far side of the Moon is named
in his honour.
The Ludwig-Prandtl-Ring is awarded by Deutsche
Gesellschaft fr Luft- und Raumfahrt in his honour for
outstanding contribution in the eld of aerospace engineering.

NASA has named at least two research and exploration

aircraft after Prandtl, the PRANDTL-D tailless aircraft,
which was used to develop a model to prove Prandtls conjecture that adverse yaw forces could be countered solely
by wing tip aerodynamics;[5] and the PRANDTL-M Mars
3 Prandtl and the Third Reich
exploration craft, for which the backronym Preliminary
Research AerodyNamic Design To Land on Mars was
After Hitler's rise to power and the establishment of the created.[6]
Third Reich, Prandtl continued his role as director of the
Kaiser Wilhelm Society. During this period the Nazi air
ministry, led by Hermann Gring, often used Prandtls in6 Notable students
ternational reputation as a scientist to promote Germanys
scientic agenda. Prandtl appears to have happily served
Jakob Ackeret
as an ambassador for the Nazi regime, writing in 1937 to a
NACA representative I believe that Fascism in Italy and
Albert Betz
National Socialism in Germany represent very good beginnings of new thinking and economics. Prandtls sup Paul Richard Heinrich Blasius
port for the regime is apparent in his letters to G. I. Tay Adolf Busemann
lor and his wife in 1938 and 1939. Referring to Nazi
Germanys treatment of Jews, Prandtl wrote The strug Kurt Hohenemser
gle, which Germany unfortunately had to ght against
the Jews, was necessary for its self-preservation. Prandtl
Zbynek Janour
also claimed that If there will be war, the guilt to have
Theodore von Krmn
caused it by political measures is this time unequivocally
[4]
on the side of England.
Hubert Ludwieg

Publications

Johann Nikuradse

Paul Peter Ewald, Theodor Pschl, Ludwig Prandtl;

authorized translation by J. Dougall and W.M.
Deans The Physics of Solids and Fluids: With Recent
Developments Blackie and Son (1930).

Ernst Pohlhausen

Tietjens, Oskar Karl Gustav; Prandtl, Ludwig

(1957). Fundamentals of Hydro- and Aeromechanics. Courier Corporation. ISBN 978-0-486-603742.

Walter Tollmien

Prandtl, Ludwig (1952). Essentials of uid dynamics: With applications to hydraulics aeronautics, meteorology, and other subjects. Hafner.

Max Munk

Death and afterwards

Prandtl worked at Gttingen until he died on 15 August

1953. His work in uid dynamics is still used today in
many areas of aerodynamics and chemical engineering.

Reinhold Rudenberg
Hermann Schlichting

7 See also
Tesla turbine
Prandtl-Glauert singularity
Prandtl-Glauert method
Prandtl-Meyer function
Prandtl-M NASA research aircraft Preliminary Research Aerodynamic Design to Land on Mars, a
backronym honoring Prandtl

Notes

[1] Busemann, A. (1960). Ludwig Prandtl. 1875-1953. Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society 5: 193.
doi:10.1098/rsbm.1960.0015.
[2] Johanna Vogel-Prandtl. Ludwig Prandtl (PDF). David
A. Tigwell (trans.). Universittsverlag Gttingen, Germany, 2014.
[3] GAMM Website. Retrieved 2007-02-11.
[4] Eckert, Michael (2007). The Dawn of Fluid Dynamics: A
Discipline Between Science and Technology. John Wiley
& Sons. ISBN 978-3-527-61074-7.
[5] AMA Expo Features Drydens Al Bowers, Prandtl
Wing. NASA. 7 January 2014. Retrieved 2016-05-27.
Prandtl
[6] Gaudin, Sharon (1 July 2015). NASA readies test for rst
Mars airplane. Computerworld. Retrieved 2016-05-27.
Pran

Vogel-Prandtl, Johanna; Tigwell, David A. (2014).

Ludwig Prandtl A Personal Biography Drawn from
Memories and Correspondence Translated into English by (PDF). Universittsverlag Gttingen. ISBN
978-3-86395-160-3.
Vogel-Prandtl, Johanna (2014). Ludwig Prandtl : A
Personal Biography Drawn from Memories and Correspondence. Universittsverlag Gttingen. ISBN
978-3-86395-160-3.

External links
Ludwig Prandtl at the Mathematics Genealogy
Project
Ludwig Prandtls Biography in German, ISBN 3938616-34-2, 258 pages
Ludwig Prandtls Biography in English, ISBN 9783-86395-160-3, 265 pages
Ludwig Prandtls Boundary Layer
Video recording of the E. Bodenschatzs lecture on
life and work of Ludwig Prandtl

10

10
10.1

TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

Text

Ludwig Prandtl Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_Prandtl?oldid=722385743 Contributors: Amillar, XJaM, Maury

Markowitz, Edward, William M. Connolley, Reddi, Stone, Dimadick, RedWolf, Giftlite, OldakQuill, Gunnar Larsson, Icairns, D6, Alistair1978, RJHall, Stahlkocher1, Alansohn, SlaveToTheWage, BRW, Suruena, Simone, Japanese Searobin, Woohookitty, Pol098, Mandarax, Earlopogous, The wub, FlaBot, Fresheneesz, Carrionluggage, RussBot, DanMS, Knotnic, Curpsbot-unicodify, AKAF, SmackBot, Willardsimmons, Stepa, Oatmeal batman, Tsca.bot, Hgilbert, Jbergquist, Cydebot, DonFB, Thijs!bot, Headbomb, David Eppstein,
R'n'B, Johnpacklambert, Skeptic2, Salih, KudzuVine, Inwind, VolkovBot, Pbspbs, TXiKiBoT, Agricola44, Econterms, Duncan.Hull,
SieBot, PolarBot, Monegasque, Cypoet, Lguinc, TSRL, RS1900, ClueBot, EMBaero, The Thing That Should Not Be, Paulhaiti, Alexbot,
XLinkBot,
, Addbot, Growler9Rudy, Zorrobot, The Bushranger, Yobot, Amirobot, Xqbot, NFD9001, GrouchoBot, Omnipaedista,
Boneh3ad, Anterior1, Full-date unlinking bot, Trappist the monk, ZroBot, AManWithNoPlan, ResearchRave, Senthilvel32, Furor Teutonicus, Solomon7968, Glacialfox, YFdyh-bot, DA - DP, Dcherian, Waynejayes, VIAFbot, Kbajer, Lange.lea, ArmbrustBot, Loose
eel, Trackteur, Jonarnold1985, InfoDataMonger, Hannemannm, KasparBot and Anonymous: 63

10.2

Images

File:Commons-logo.svg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg License: CC-BY-SA-3.0 Contributors: ? Original artist: ?

File:Ludwig_Prandtl_1904.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/ff/Ludwig_Prandtl_1904.jpg License:
Public domain Contributors: Aus dem Nachlass von Prandtl an der Universitt Gttingen Original artist: ?

10.3

Content license

Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0