Flow Over A Circular Cylinder

Vijay Guvvada,Vidur Paliwal,Vishnu Vardhan,Gaurav Vaibhav,Mofeez Alam

B. Tech. Aerospace, Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology



AbstractWhen a fluid flows around a stationary cylinder or when a cylinder moves through a stationary fluid, the fluid exerts a force on the
cylinder. The Component of this force in the direction of free stream velocity is called Drag force. Drag force depends on many factors like
shape, orientation etc.In this experiment the drag force on a circular cylinder is found by equating torque on the cylinder and a dead weight
connected to it with the help of the deflection of dead weight. This experiment presents the variation of C
d
with Reynolds Number over the range
1.687*10
4
-1.04681*10
5
. The Cd decreases with Reynolds number over this range.

Keywords-Drag force, Reynolds number, Torque, Flow seperation, Drag coefficent

I. INTRODUCTION
Drag, or more specifically air drag, is a phenomenon that occurs as an object passes through a fluid.There are a few factors that
determine the drag force that an object experiences. Some of the moreobvious factors are shape, speed, fluid medium, and surface
of the object. Thus we have 2 kinds of bodies depending upon the shape- bluff body and streamline body. When the drag force is
more due to pressure it is called bluff body and if the contribution of skin friction drag is high-then it is called streamline body. In
some instances these factors are manipulated in order to either minimize or maximize drag.

The drag coefficient over a cylinder decreases with increase in Reynolds number for the laminar, subcritical and supercritical
regimes and in supercritical regime there is a phenomenon called drag crisis-which is an intense decrease in Cd due the movement
of the point of separation downstream to 120~130 degree from 80 degree. This phenomenon is seen because the boundary layer
becomes turbulent and as it has more kinetic energy -fluid particles can travel further in the adverse pressure gradient.
After the supercritical regime the Cd increases as the shear forces keeps on increasing due to lage pressure gradient in the normal
direction of wall.
The parameters such as roughness, freestream turbulence and spanwise flow has not been considered in this experiment. These
parameters have an important effect on the flow over the cylinder.

In other cases the drag forces must simply be known in order to design for other parameters possibly such as engine horsepower,
structural strength, etc. 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

Figure 1- Ideal flow over a cylinder Figure 2- Real flow over a cylinder


In this experiment we find the drag force on the cylinder by connecting it to a dead weight and with the help of the deflection on
the dead weight we find the drag force on the cylinder. A relation was established between the angle of deflection and the drag
force on the body. The body is held by a rod on the top of it so that it is pivoted for free rotation. We got the results for a Reynold
number range of of 1.687*10
4
-1.04681*10
5






II. EXPERIMENTAL APPARATUS
The Experiment requires the following equipments
Wind Tunnel
Cylinder, Dead weight, connecting rods
Manometer


Fig.1 (experimental apparatus) Fig. 2 (experimental apparatus)






III. THEORY
The sources of this drag are: (a) friction between the fluid and the surface of the cylinder, and (b) a non-uniform pressure
distribution.

The cylinder in the fluid stream presents a certain area perpendicular to the direction of fluid motion. This is called the planeform
area of the cylinder (length x width (diameter)) the fluid moves toward and is deflected around the cylinder, some of its
momentum is transferred to the cylinder in the form of pressure on the projected area facing the flow.

If the flow follows the contour of the cylinder, the pressure on the side facing the flow is balanced by the pressure on the reverse
side in which case the pressure drag is very small or zero. (see Figure 1). This condition is described by potential theory where the
fluid is ideal and is realized in real fluids at very low Reynolds numbers. At high Reynolds numbers, the flow does not follow the
contour of the cylinder, i.e., the boundary layer grows more rapidly for an adverse pressure gradient and if the pressure gradient is
large enough, separation may occur, and turbulent eddies form in the wake of the cylinder.


In this case the pressure on the reverse side fails to recover (see Figure 2) leading to an unbalanced pressure distribution and
pressure drag. Ordinarily, it is not practical to separate the viscous and pressure drag forces, and indeed, it is usually their sum in
which we are interested.

Therefore, the usual practice is to characterize their combined effects with two dimensionless parameters, the drag coefficient

-------- (1)

and the Reynolds number,
---------(2)

Where,
Fd is the drag force,
U is the free stream velocity,
Ap is the frontal area,
and D is the diameter (cylinder).


The drag force on the cylinder is calculated as

Fd=6.14tan

IV. PROCEDURE
The experiment flow over a cylinder was performed on a low speed wind tunnel and the following steps were taken. The
reference pressure tapping and the tapping inside the test section were connected to the manometer. The blower is switched on
and the readings were taken on a varied range of Rotational speed of the blower. Also in each case the angle by which the outer
cylinder gets deflected is also noted down. The pressure drop at the outlet of the settling chamber and inlet of the test section was
measured which was used to calculate the Free stream velocity.
V. SAMPLE CALCULATION

Sample calculation for rpm 1200.

h30 = 6.8
h atm=10.4

Similarily, h29=1.8cm

P30=Patm+m*g*h30
= Patm+791.8*9.81*((10.4-6.22)/100)
=101643.47 Pa

P29= Patm+m*g*h30
=Patm+791.8*9.81*((10.4-1.8)/100)
=101643.47 Pa

p=P30-P29
= 388.378 Pa

V=(2*p/a)^0.5

(2*388.378/1.204)^0.5=25.43m/s

Re=Vd/

1.204*25.43*0.05/(1.85*10^-5)=8.44*10^4

Fd=6.14tan

6.14*tan12.5=1.36N

Fref.=0.5**V^2

0.5*1.204*(25.43)^2=388.378 Pa

Cd=Fd/(Fref *S)=1.42/(388.378*2.25*10^-3)=1.56

VI. OBSERVATIONS





Fig 3. (Cd vs Re)



Fig 4. (Fdvs Re)
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
0.00E+00 2.00E+04 4.00E+04 6.00E+04 8.00E+04 1.00E+05 1.20E+05
C
o
e
f
f
i
c
i
e
n
t

o
f

D
r
a
g

Reynolds Number, based on Frontal Area
Cd Vs Re
Cd Vs Re
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
0.00E+00 2.00E+04 4.00E+04 6.00E+04 8.00E+04 1.00E+05 1.20E+05
C
o
e
f
f
i
c
n
e
t

o
f

D
r
a
g

Reynold Number
dragVs Reynolds number
dragVs Reynolds number


VII. RESULT AND CONCLUSION
In the experiment flow over a cylinder following points were figured out.
1. the variation in the Cd is not accurately measured for low reynolds number 1.64*10^4- 5.6*10^4 because the error due to
fluctuation of the measurement of Deflection was of the order of the reading itself.
2. After Re greater than 5.6*10^4 , the amplitude of oscillation was small and we got fairly steady trend of Cd.
3. On increasing the Reynolds no. in the above mentioned range the drag force increases.
The explanation why we got such trend in the plot Re vs Cd is that,
If ReD is less than about 100,000 the boundary layer remains laminar from the stagnation point at the front of the cylinder
to the point where it separates. The resulting flow pattern shown in fig. termed sub-critical, is associated with a high drag
on the cylinder. The laminar boundary layer separates just upstream of the maximum thickness. Separation occurs because
the boundary layer anticipates the deceleration of the flow (and therefore positive pressure gradient) that would otherwise
occur on the rearward face of the cylinder. Downstream of separation the flow quickly becomes turbulent and a broad wake
is formed. The wake as a whole is unstable and rolls up into vortices that are shed antisymmetrically at regular intervals
from the cylinder. This type of wake is called a von Krmn vortex street. Because of separation the pressure remains low
and approximately constant over the rearward face of the cylinder. This causes a net imbalance of pressure forces on the
cylinder, usually referred to as the pressure drag. Pressure drag accounts for about 90% of the total drag on the cylinder in
this regime. The remaining 10% is due to skin-friction drag - friction between the flow and the cylinder. Most skin-friction
drag is produced on the forward-face of the cylinder where the boundary layer is thin and velocity gradients at the cylinder
surface are large.
As observed in above graphs (fig.4 , 3), as reynols no. increases Cd decreases but Fd increases because the 0.5**V^2
increases more rapidly than the increase in force with velocity, as reference pressure is in denominator so it compensate the
increase in numerator, overall we get decrease in Cd. The obtained graph can be compared with the available data within
the range(50000-100000).

VIII. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
We are very much thankful to all who contributed directly or indirectly in performing the experiment Flow over a symmetric air
foil on a low speed wind tunnel in aerodynamic lab IIST. We are specially thankful to Dr. Vinoth B.R. and Dr. Satyeesh who gave
their maximum in performing this experiment. We are also thankful to all lab assistants and our friends who helped us.




IX. REFERENCES

1. Pope, Alan, Wind Tunnel Testing, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York, 1954
2.http://mars.uta.edu/
3. http://www.eng.fsu.edu
4. https://www.google.co.in/search?q=Cd+vs+Re&source=lnms










X. APENDIX