A new class of approximate analytical solutions of the Pridmore-Brown equation

Abstract

There is only a limited amount of known analytical solutions to the Pridmore-Brown equation, mostly employing asymptotic behavior for a certain frequency limit and specifically chosen flow profiles. In this paper, we show the possibility of transformation of the Pridmore-Brown equation into the Schrödinger-like equation for the case of two-dimensional homentropic mean flow without critical layers. The corresponding potential that depends on the mean flow profile can then be approximated by a quartic polynomial, leading to a triconfluent Heun equation whose solution based on the triconfluent Heun functions is generally known. The quality of this approximation procedure is presented for the case of symmetric polynomial flow profiles for various values of polynomial order and the Mach number. A more detailed example is then shown for a quadratic mean flow profile, where the solution is accurate up to the third order of the Mach number.