Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 July 2016
This paper presents a comparison of turbulent skin-friction coefficients measured by floating element balances in zero pressure gradient conditions for a wide range of Mach numbers and Reynolds numbers. From these comparisons it is clear that although a large number of measurements have been made it is impossible to use these measurements to find the skin-friction coefficient for a given Mach number and Reynolds number to an accuracy of better than ±2 to 3%. This estimate of accuracy applies only to the range of Mach numbers and Reynolds within which there are a reasonable number of measurements to compare. Outside this range, say for Reynolds numbers based on momentum thickness greater than 40,000 and Mach numbers greater than 2 the uncertainty is greater.