Jakob Ackeret
Jakob Ackeret ( born March 17, 1898 in Zurich, † 27 March 1981 Küsnacht ) was a Swiss aerodynamicist.
Life
Jakob Ackeret was born 1898 in Zurich, the son of a locksmith. After passing the matriculation examination in 1916, he matriculated in October of the same year at the ETH Zurich in mechanical engineering. After graduating in March 1920 he enters on 1 October 1920 a position as assistant for caloric machines at Aurel Stodola. In the fall of 1921 Ackeret goes to Ludwig Prandtl to Göttingen. The originally planned for one year of study lasts until 1927. In Göttingen, he works primarily in the field of aircraft aerodynamics, his special interest in the problems of high-speed flight. In the years 1925-1926 he led the expansion of the newly founded Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Flow Research. Ackeret returns in 1927 in Switzerland and takes the place of a Chefhydraulikers at the Escher Wyss AG in Zurich. In 1928 he habilitated with the writing On air forces with very large velocities especially in plane flows and is appointed as Assistant Professor at the ETH Zurich. In his habilitation thesis, he proposed the concept of Mach number. In 1931 he was appointed associate professor in 1934 and finally to full professor and head of the Institute of Aerodynamics at the ETH Zurich, a position which he held until his retirement in 1967.
Scientific achievements
Jacob Ackerets main area of work is the flow science. He wrote important theoretical foundations, their applications in engineering and aviation, he promoted. His interests also other problems such as cavitation in hydraulic turbines, the wind pressure on the building and the ventilation of tunnels.
The imported by him aerodynamic research methods are an important tool in the improvement of steam and gas turbines. They were also used in the investigation of the collapse of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge ( 1940).
His most important works include research on supersonic flight. Already in his time in Göttingen, 1925, it shall apply the, today at supersonic flows of profiles with sharp leading and trailing edge named after him, linearized theory. In his contribution to the Handbuch der Physik first supersonic flows are discussed.
Ackeret developed a variable pitch propeller for ships whose development is later used in aircraft such as the Swiss fighter aircraft C -36 and Morane D-3802/03.
Together with Curt Keller of the Research Department of Escher Wyss he developed a closed aerodynamic steam turbine, the so-called AK- conditioning.
Under the direction of Ackeret a subsonic and a supersonic wind tunnel to be built at the Institute of Aerodynamics. Carried out at the wind tunnel tests are of great interest for the Swiss military and the aviation industry. The supersonic wind tunnel is recreated in 1935 in Italy.
Honors
The Swiss Association of Flight Sciences since 2006 gives Jacob Ackeret Price