Model experiment to study sonic boom propagation through turbulence. Part II. Effect of turbulence intensity and propagation distance through turbulence.

A model experiment was reported to be successful in simulating the propagation of sonic booms through a turbulent atmosphere [B. Lipkens and D. T. Blackstock, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 103, 148-158 (1998)]. In this study the effect on N wave characteristics of turbulence intensity and propagation distance through turbulence are investigated. The main parameters of interest are the rise time and the peak pressure. The effect of turbulence intensity and propagation distance is to flatten the rise time and peak pressure distributions. Rise time and peak pressure distributions always have positive skewness after propagation through turbulence. Average rise time grows with turbulence intensity and propagation distance. The scattering of rise time data is one-sided, i.e., rise times are almost always increased by turbulence. Average peak pressure decreases slowly with turbulence intensity and propagation distance. For the reported data a threefold increase in average rise time is observed and a maximum decrease of about 20% in average peak pressure. Rise times more than ten times that of the no turbulence value are observed. At most, the maximum peak pressure doubles after propagation through turbulence, and the minimum peak pressure values are about one-half the no-turbulence values. Rounded waveforms are always more common than peaked waveforms.