The advancement of civil supersonic aircraft is significantly constrained due to the intense noise generated by the shock waves that form during cruise, commonly referred to as the sonic boom. Due to these excessive noise levels, regulatory authorities currently ban supersonic flights over land. This study presents a comprehensive methodology to evaluate sonic booms in mid- and far-field regions, starting with a precise estimation of the near-field pressure signature produced by the shock wave system. While high-fidelity computational fluid dynamics (CFD) techniques typically provide near-field sonic boom predictions, specific propagation models must be used at greater distances, as CFD becomes prohibitively expensive beyond approximately 10 km.
The focus of this research is a comparative analysis of a low-fidelity propagation approach, such as Whitham’s equation, and a high-fidelity CFD-based approach for assessing sonic boom propagation over medium range distances. The low-fidelity method analytically propagates the pressure signature, leveraging CFD-generated sonic boom data taken at shorter ranges. Results show that the low-fidelity method achieves comparable accuracy to direct CFD-based approaches while substantially reducing computational costs. To demonstrate its effectiveness, the study examines various aircraft configurations, including a hypersonic test platform and a model similar to the Concorde, were selected as test cases within the framework of the European MORE&LESS project.