Mach Wedges and Upstream Influence in the Partly Hyperbolic Flow Over a Flat Plate

Abstract

The theory of slender bodies in aerodynamics is a perturbation of uniform flow which is perturbed less by slender bodies than by fat ones. The aerodynamic theory works well, but only because the fluid is required to slip along the slender body. Therefore a result so good as in slender body aerodynamic theory cannot be expected from the linearized Navier-Stokes theory or from the linearized Maxwell models derived in chapter 7. In the Navier-Stokes theory, linearization around uniform flow leads to Oseen’s approximation. We can say that we are making an Oseen approximation to the flow of a viscoelastic fluid around a flat plate.