__________________________________________________________________________________

UNIVERSITI TEKNOLOGI MARA

FAKULTI KEJURUTERAAN KIMIA
CHEMICAL ENGINEERING LABORATORY III
(CHE 574)

NAME (STUDENT NO.) : MUHAMMAD ZULHISHAMB B. M0HAMAD ZAINI (2011846636)
NURUL AFIDAH BT. YUSOF (2011275528)
NUR HAFAWATI BT. ABU BAKAR (2011239662)
NUR SYAZZWANA BT. RUSLAN (2011684876)
NURUL AYUNNI BT. AHMAD (2011235166)
GROUP : EH2204A
EXPERIMENT : DRAG COEFFICIENT - ASSIGNMENT
DATE PERFORMED : 27 MARCH 2013
DATE REPORT SUBMITTED : 10 APRIL 2013
SEMESTER : 4
LECTURER : MISS NORHAYATI BT TALIB

No. Title Allocated Marks (%) Marks
1 Abstract/Summary 5
2 Introduction 5
3 Aims 5
4 Theory 5
5 Apparatus 5
6 Methodology/Procedure 10
7 Results 10
8 Calculations 10
9 Discussion 20
10 Conclusion 5
11 Recommendations 5
12 Reference / Appendix 5
13 Supervisors grading 10
TOTAL MARKS 100

Comments:


Checked by:
1

TABLE OF CONTENT

CONTENT

PAGE
- Abstract / summary 2
- Introduction 2
- Aims / objectives 3
- Theory 3-5
- Apparatus 5
- Experimental procedure 5
- Result 6
- Sample Calculations 6-8
- Discussion 8-9
- Conclusion 9
- Recommendation 9-10
- References 10
- Appendices 11
















2

ABSTRACT
Drag coefficient is the ratio of the drag on a body moving through air to the product of the
velocity and the surface area of the body. It is to analyze and determine the resistance of an
object that move in a fluid environment. The drag coefficient is widely used in industry
including automobile industry, aircraft industry and also applied in making bullet. The drag
coefficient is an important hydrodynamic characteristic of the motion of particles in both
Newtonian and non-Newtonian fluids and the possibility of its evaluation based on
mathematical equations is very significant. Development of mathematical model for
estimating drag coefficient values is primarily based on measurement accuracy. In other
cases, drag forces must simply be known in order to design for other parameters possibly
such as engine horsepower, structural strength and many more.

INTRODUCTION
The effects of drag or resistance exist in every object that moves in the fluid environment
especially in air and water. For example is a moving car on the road. Or an airplane that fly in
the sky. For these two objects, the resistances which they experience are air resistance. The
car engine must work a little harder to overcome the force present with air drag. Drag, or
more specifically air drag, is a phenomenon that occurs as an object passes through a fluid.
There are few factors that determine the drag force that an object experiences. Some of the
more obvious factors are shape, speed, fluid medium, and surface of the object. In some
instances these factors are manipulated in order to either minimize or maximize drag. In other
cases, drag forces must simply be known in order to design for other parameters possibly
such as engine horsepower, structural strength and many more.
Drag coefficient is the ratio of the drag on a body moving through air to the product of the
velocity and the surface area of the body. Regardless of the need for finding the drag force,
the need for an accurate calculation of this force persists. With this in mind, we experiment
with shapes, speeds, and methods in order to draw insight on the ability to predict drag. In
this experiment, we study the effect of shapes on drag coefficient of an object.


3

OBJECTIVE
To analyze and determine the drag coefficient or the resistance of an object that move in a
fluid environment.

THEORY
The drag force or the drag coefficient measurement is called as a force that is happen in
phenomena when any surface in contact with a flowing fluid is subject to a force exerted by
the fluid. The drag force on a sphere immersed in a flowing fluid is easily derived by using
dimensional analysis. The principal variables that give the impacts of the drag force is
commonly;
- F
D
the drag force in the sphere
- D the diameter of the sphere
- U

the free stream velocity of the fluid
- the density of the fluid
- the viscosity of the fluid
Drag is the component of force on a body acting parallel to the direction of the relative
motion. The drag force, F
D
, was written in the functional form ;
), , , , (

= u D f F
D

This physical variable gives the important in drag coefficient measurement. Hence, the
equation of the drag force on the sphere gives the new expression when supplying the some
constants.
.
d c b a
D
u CD F

=
By using the same equation as the above, the dimension of the mass, length, time system of
units is using and also is substituted the proper dimensions.
.
3 2
d c b
a
LT
M
L
M
T
L
L
T
ML
|
.
|

\
|
|
.
|

\
|
|
.
|

\
|
=

The dimensions of both side equation and the exponents must be same;
4

For M: d c+ = 1
For L: d c b a + = 3 1
For T: . 2 d b =

Hence, rearrange the equation it has two different variables;
. 1 ; 2 ; 2 d c d b d a = = =
.
1 2 2 d d d d
D
u CD F

=


This formula is substituted with that variables and it could be as;
,
2 2
d
D
D u
u CD F

|
|
.
|

\
|
=

D u

= Reynolds number
The Reynolds number is called the dimensionless group. This formula also can be as below
equation;
( ), Re
2 2
f
u D
F
D
' =

An expression for the drag force on a body commonly in form;
c
D D
g
u
A C F
2
2

=


- C
D
is a dimensionless drag coefficient,
- A is the frontal area of the body exposed to the flow (D
2
/4 for a sphere),
- g
c
is the gravitational constant which allows the left hand side to be expressed in units
of force.
The drag equation is essentially a statement that the drag force on any object is proportional
to the density of the fluid and proportional to the square of the relative speed between the
object and the fluid. C
D
is not constant but varies as a function of speed, flow reaction, object
position, object size, fluid density and fluid viscosity..
5


The drag coefficient can be calculated by this form;
( ). Re
8 2
2 2 2
f
u D
g F
u A
g F
C
c D c D
D
' ' =
|
|
.
|

\
|
= =

t

Therefore, the drag coefficient itself is a function of the Reynolds number.

PROCEDURE
1) Make sure the fan is turned off.
2) Check the pitot tube. It should be located about midway between the cylinder and the top
of the tunnel with the tip ahead of the leading edge of the shape. If it is not, turn the motor
switch to the up or down position until the pitot tube is properly located.
3) Remove the screw stop from the front rail of the pitot tube slide, and move the pitot tube
traversing mechanism toward the front of the wind tunnel (pitot tube body must not touch
the cylinder, but measurement of the tunnel speed must be accomplished with the pitot
tube and ahead of the cylinder).
4) Turn on the wind tunnel at appropriate speed levels (First reading should be when the fan
is off and then 6 more readings by turning the knob from 1 to 6).
5) Open the Exp5 VI from the desktop, select COM 1 and activate the VI by pressing
RUN button.
6) Enable the save data button and start acquiring the data.
7) Once Lab VIEW acquires the first set of readings, a pop window will come up. Type the
file name with group number and day, and save it. A text file would be saved on the
desktop.
8) Repeat steps 6 and 7 for the rest of the fan speeds and the data would be automatically
saved in the same file.
9) Stop the VI and repeat steps 4 to 8 for the other 3 objects.

6

SAMPLE RESULTS

Distance travelled by sphere, s: 1m
Trial Mass, m (kg) Diameter, D (m) Time, t (s)
1 0.028 0.038 16.63
2 0.033 0.039 8.37
3 0.036 0.039 3.080
4 0.038 0.040 2.070
5 0.042 0.037 2.040
6 0.044 0.039 1.97
7 0.055 0.038 1.63
8 0.060 0.039 1.06

Sample Calculation

To calculate the velocity:

Taking the first trial as example;

For Reynolds Number calculation:

Taking the first trial as example;

)()()
(

)

7


To calculate the drag coefficient, C
D
;

( )
(

Taking the first trial as example;

( )
(

*()(

) (

) (

)+
(

) *(

+ ()

The full result calculated is as follows,
Trial Velocity, u (m/s) Reynolds Number, Re
N
Drag Coefficient, C
D
1 0.060 2035.71 8.062
2 0.119 4143.75 4.548
3 0.325 11316.96 1.817
4 0.483 17250.00 1.227
5 0.490 16187.50 1.562
6 0.508 17689.29 1.421
7 0.613 20798.21 1.551
8 0.943 32836.61 1.044

8




DISSCUSION

The objectives of this experiment are to analyze and determine the drag coefficient or the
resistance of an object that move in a fluid environment and to determine the relationship
between the drag coefficient and the Reynolds numbers. The experiments is done by
travelled the sphere with differences mass and diameter under a fix distance which is 1 m.
From the result shown that, the increases of the mass and the diameter of the sphere, the
shorter the time required traveled by the sphere. The Reynolds numbers for the computations
was based on the cross section diameter. The increases of the diameter was result the
increases in the Reynolds number calculated. From computed results, the drag coefficient
decreases for the given Reynolds numbers. The observed decreases in drag coefficient is
caused by a decreases in the riscous component of the drag coefficient.
A graph of drag coefficients versus Reynolds number was plotted to determine the drag
force. The graph shown the decreases at the first and a move of uniform progression in the
shape of the curve over the range of aspect ratios considered. The decrease in the drag
coefficient with increasing Reynolds numbers occurs due to a reduction in the pressure
components through the transition from axisymmetric to non-axisymmetric flow.
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
0 5000 10000 15000 20000 25000 30000 35000
Drag Coefficient
Reynold's Number
Graph of Drag Coefficient vs Reynold's
Number
9

The drag coefficient measurements are applied in many applications such as automobile
industry, aircraft industry and making a bullet. The drag coefficient is an important
hydrodynamic characteristic of the motion of particles in both Newtonian and non-Newtonian
fluids and the possibility of its evaluation based on mathematical equations is very
significant. Development of mathematical model for estimating drag coefficient values is
primarily based on measurement accuracy.

CONCLUSION

From this study which to determine the drag coefficient or the resistance of an object in a
sphere shape that move in a fluid environment and to determine the relationship between the
drag coefficient and the Reynolds numbers, the graph of drag coefficient versus Reynolds
Number was obtained. The graph showed that when the velocity of the object increased, the
Reynolds Number also increase but the drag coefficient showed a fluctuated line. Whereas,
the velocity is depends on the mass and the diameter of the sphere. The velocity of the sphere
was increased when the mass and the diameter increased. The increasing of the diameter also
caused the Reynolds number to increase and thus decreases the drag coefficient. It showed
that the drag coefficient itself is a function of the Reynolds number.

RECOMMENDATIONS

In fluid dynamics the drag coefficient is a dimensionless quantity that is used to quantify the
drag or resistance of an object in a fluid environment such as air or water. It is used in the
drag equation, where a lower drag coefficient indicates the object will have less aerodynamic
or hydrodynamic drag. The drag coefficient is always associated with a particular surface
area.

On the other hand, the drag coefficient is a common measure in automotive design as it
relates to aerodynamic. Drag is a force that acts parallel and in the same direction as the
airflow. The drag coefficient of an automobile is impacts the way the automobile passes
10

through the surrounding air. When automobile companies design a new vehicle they take into
consideration the automobile drag coefficient in addition to the other performance
characteristics. Aerodynamic drag increases with the square of speed; therefore a low value is
preferable to a high one. Reducing the drag coefficient in an automobile affects the
performance of the vehicle as it pertains to speed and fuel efficiency.

There are many
different ways to reduce the drag of a vehicle. Another common way to measure the drag of
the vehicle is through the drag area.
Drag coefficients are also used in the calculation of particle terminal settling velocity of
solids and therefore used where the suspension or settling of solids particle will occur in
chemical unit operations. The particle terminal settling velocity in turn can be used to
calculate the hindered settling velocity, so it can be used to help design solid-liquid mixers,
clarifiers, thickeners, slurry transport in pipe ( design a slurry pump), solid-liquid filters. It
can also be used to design pneumatic transport lines to name but a few.

REFERENCE

1. Martin O.L. Hansen: Aerodynamics of Wind Turbines, Rotors, Loads and Structure,
James & James Ltd., London 2000
2. Copyright 1997-2003 Danish Wind Industry Association, Updated 19 September
2003
http://www.windpower.org/en/tour/rd/index.htm
3. Life in Moving Fluids: The Physical Biology of Flow, paged 90, Princeton
University Press, 1994 by S. Vogel
4. Christie John Geankoplis, Transport Processes and Separation Process Principles,
4
th
Edition, Pearson Education International, 2003
5. Frank P. Incropera,David P. DeWitt, Theodore L. Bergman, Adrienne S. Lavine,
Fundamentals of Heat and Mass Transfer,6
th
Edition, John Wiley & Sons,2007



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APPENDIX