Compressible Flow Subroutine Library
Programming Reference Manual
Version 1.0 DD-00008-110E

3.2.1 Introduction

This function group computes the characteristic Mach Number M * as given in [JDAnderson1982] and [Shapiro1953] from a given mach number M or in reverse the latter given M * . The characteristic mach number has the following properties:

M *= 0    if M = 0
M *= 1    if M = 1
M *< 1    if M < 1
M *> 1    if M > 1

And furthermore the its most useful property:

         √︄ -----
 lim M *=   γ+-1
M→ ∞       γ-1

The following properties are computed:

Table 1: Characteristic mach number properties



I Symbol Description



1 M Mach number
2 M * Characteristic mach number