Preliminary Optimization of the Sonic Boom Properties for Civil Supersonic Aircraft

In this work a simple model has been used that relates sonic boom effects to the main geometric and operative parameters of the civil supersonic aircraft. In particular, a relation between the maximum overpressure and the aircraft shape factor is employed to define an optimal preliminary design point for the supersonic civil aircraft. Carlson’s method has been widely adopted for preliminary numerical investigations of sonic boom signatures associated with different categories of supersonic aircrafts. Correlations of these numerical predictions with flight-test data have shown a reasonable agreement and confirmed the validity of the method in spite of its ease of use. Modern supersonic aircrafts are conceived to have minimum effects on people and structures through properly designed sonic boom signatures (“sine wave”- like signature is one option) and adjusting their geometry through sophisticated Computational Fluid Dynamics methods. The N-wave approach is based on simplified assumptions that do not take into account the rise time, which is one of the major factors influencing the human ear response to sonic boom and cannot be used for estimating advanced sound metrics like the perceived loudness decibel. Nevertheless, the N-wave model can be used in an early stage of the design, because it generally provides conservative estimations (upper limits) of the overpressures due to an assigned supersonic aircraft geometry, giving a rough figure of its effect on the community. Different geometries can be, therefore, easily optimized through this approach to better fix starting points for minimizing the effects of boom signatures, which are shaped subsequently through higher-order methods.