Subject Name : ELEMENTS OF AERONAUTICS

Subject Code : 10AE45

Prepared By : SARATH P MOHAN

Department : AERONAUTICAL

Unit : 3-PRINCIPLES OF ATMOSPHERIC

FLIGHT
 UNIT 2
TOPICS COVERED
• PHYSICAL PROPERTIES AND STRUCTURE OF
THE ATMOSPHERE
• THE STANDARD ATMOSPHERE
• TEMPERATURE, PRESSURE AND ALTITUDE
RELATIONSHIP
• MACH NUMBER
• THEORY OF LIFT AND DRAG
• CONCEPT OF STABILITY AND CONTROL
 Standard atmosphere
• Pressure and temperature depends on
– Location on globe(longitude and latitude)
– Season
– Solar sunspot activity(radiation)
International Standard atmosphere
• A standard atmosphere is defined in order to relate flight tests,
wind tunnel results and general airplane design and
performance to common reference.
• International Standard Atmosphere:
• The International Standard Atmosphere (ISA) is an
atmospheric model of how the pressure, temperature, density,
and viscosity of the Earth's atmosphere change over a wide
range of altitudes or elevations. It has been established to
provide a common reference for temperature and pressure
and consists of tables of values at various altitudes, plus some
formulas by which those values were derived
Temperature distribution in the standard
atmosphere
 Altitude
• Absolute altitude
• Geometric
• Geo potential
• Pressure
• Density altitude
• True altitude
• Indicate altitude
 Altitude
• Geometric height above sea level-geometric
altitude
• Height is measured from center of earth –
absolute altitude
 Pressure altitude
• Pressure altitude is the elevation above a
standard datum air-pressure plane (typically,
1013.25 millibars or 29.92" Hg). Pressure
altitude and indicated altitude are the same
when the altimeter setting is 29.92" Hg or
1013.25 millibars.
 Density altitude
• Density altitude is the altitude corrected for non-ISA International Standard
Atmosphere atmospheric conditions.
• Aircraft performance depends on density altitude, which is affected by barometric
pressure, humidity and temperature. On a very hot day, density altitude at an
airport (especially one at a high elevation) may be so high as to preclude takeoff,
particularly for helicopters or a heavily loaded aircraft.
• Density altitude is a yardstick by which we can reference the "density" of air. Air
density is a measure of the number of gas molecules (nitrogen, oxygen, etc.,
whatever we've got in our atmosphere) within a given volume of space. We care
about the density of air because our wings and prop use these air molecules to
generate lift and thrust, and because our engine needs oxygen for combustion.
• As density decreases (i.e. density altitude increases), our engines generate less
power because they have less oxygen to mix with fuel and burn, and our wings and
prop generate less lift, so we accelerate slower and have higher stall speeds. This
means longer takeoff and landing runs, and slower climbs.
Relation between geo potential height and geometric height

Newton’s gravitational law implicates:

g= g0(r/ha)2= g0(r/r+hg)2
The hydrostatic equation is:

dp = −ρgdhg

However, g is variable here for different heights. Since a variable gravitational acceleration is
difficult to work with, the geopotential height h has been introduced such that:

dp = −ρgodh (2.1)
So this means that:
dh= (g/go )dhg = r2/(r+hg)2 dhg
And integration gives the general relationship between geopotential height and geometric height:

h= (r/r+hg) hg (2.2)
 Relations between pressure, density and height (i)

The famous equation of state is:

p = ρRT (3.1)

Dividing the hydrostatic equation (2.1) by the equation of state (3.1) gives as results:

dp/p =-ρg0dh/ρRT =-(go/RT)dh

If we assume an isothermal environment (the temperature stays the same), then integration gives:

Solving this gives the following equation:

 Relations between pressure, density and
height (ii)
And combining this with the equation of state gives the following equation:
 Relations between pressure, density and
temperature

We now again divide the hydrostatic equation (2.1) by the equation of state (3.1), but this time we don’t
assume an isothermal environment, but we substitute dh = in it, to get:

Integration gives:

Which is a nice formula. But by using the equation of state, we can also derive the following:
Variation of speed with altitude
 Lift and drag
Lift and drag
Drag is a component of the aerodynamic
force, namely the projection onto the direction
parallel to the relative wind.
Lift is another component of the aerodynamic
force, namely the projection onto the two
directions perpendicular to the relative wind.
 Mach number
• The ratio of the speed of the aircraft to the
speed of sound in the gas determines the
magnitude of many of the compressibility
effects. Because of the importance of this
speed ratio, aerodynamicists have designated
it with a special parameter called the Mach
number
 Mach number
•If the mach number is <0.8, the flow speed is lower than the
speed of sound - and the speed is subsonic.
•If the mach number is between 0.8–1.2, the flow speed is
approximately like the speed of sound - and the speed is
transonic.
•If the mach number is between 1.2–5.0, the flow speed is
higher than the speed of sound - and the speed is supersonic.
•If the mach number is between 5.0–10.0, the flow speed is
much higher than the speed of sound - and the speed is
hypersonic.
 Stability and control
Stability:
It is the study of how an aircraft responds to
small disturbance in flight and how it can
designed so that it remains at a fixed incidence
and speed without overworking the pilot
Control:
It refers to the ability to initiate and sustain
changes in angle of attack
 Stability and control
• If the aircraft continues to increase the orientation after
disturbance, the aircraft is said to be statically unstable.
• If there are no further changes in flight attitude and if the
aircraft retains the position, which means there are no net
forces or moments acting on the aircraft in the new
orientation too, then the aircraft is said to be statically
neutral.
• If forces are generated on the aircraft in a way such that
forces causing the disturbance are countered, and the
aircraft attains its original position, then the aircraft is said
to be statically stable.
 Dynamic stability
• If an aircraft is statically stable, it may undergo three types
of oscillatory motion during flight. When imbalance occurs
the airplane attempts to retain its position, and it reaches
the equilibrium position through a series of decaying
oscillations, and the aircraft is said to be dynamically stable.
• If the aircraft continues the oscillatory motion without
decay in the magnitude, then the aircraft is said to be on
dynamically neutral.
• If the magnitude oscillatory motion increases and the
aircraft orientation start to change rapidly, then the aircraft
is said to be dynamically unstable.
Static stability
Dynamic stability