TITLE

Drag force in flow over body

OBJECTIVE
To measure the drag coefficient CD, over the range of velocities in the test section for
hemispherical (open end facing flow and open end facing down stream).
INTRODUCTION
The flow-related force vector acting on an immersed body can be divided into three
named components, a drag (drag force), which acts in the flow direction, a lift (lift force)
and a side force, all perpendicular to each other. The lift usually is in the direction so that
it does a useful job, for instance upwards for an airplane in horizontal flight or
downwards for inverted wings on race cars. In many cases the (time-mean) side force is
zero, for instance when there is flow symmetry about the plane of lift and drag, as for an
airplane flying in still air. Further, the components can be divided up with respect to their
origin, wall surface pressure and wall friction. The pressure component of the drag, the
pressure drag, is often referred to as the form drag since it is strongly dependent on the
body form (shape). The remaining part is the friction drag, which is due to shearing
viscous forces along the body surface. Flow similarity laws are crucial for model testing
experiments. For instance, the Reynolds similarity law says that for incompressible flow
about two geometrically similar bodies, without any effects of free surfaces, the flow
itself is similar, if tested at the same Reynolds number.

THEORY
Drag is the component of force on a body acting parallel to the direction of relative
motion. The drag force, FD, was written in the functional form FD = f1 (d, V, , ).
Application of the Buckingham Pi theorem resulted in two dimensionless parameters
that written in function form as
Vd

FD
1
V 2 d 2
2

f 2

Note that d2 is proportional to the cross-sectional area (A = d2/4) and therefore we could
write
FD
1
V 2 A
2

Vd
f 3 (Re)

f 3

Although Eq. 1.1 was obtained for sphere, the form of equation is valid for
incompressible flow over any body; the characteristic length used in the Reynolds
Number depends on body shape.
The drag coefficient, CD, any body defined as

CD

FD
1
V 2 A
2

APPARATUS
Wind tunnel and accessories

Figure 1 Wind tunnel

Figure 2 Hemisphere body

Figure 4 b streamline body

(Not Included in this Experiment)

Figure 5 Holder/connecting rod

EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURES
1. The diameter of hemispherical is measured. This measurement will be use to calculate
the Reynolds Number and projected area of hemisphere.
2. The hemispherical body is fitted to the balance arm, open end facing flow first then
open end facing downstream and finally airfoil body.
3. The inclined gage is set to zero, and the reading from drag scale is taken.
4. The blower fan is switch on and set the velocity to 8m/s.
5. The reading was taken from the drag scale.
6. The velocity is increased to 8, 10, 12, 14, 16; 18 and 20 m/s, and step 5 is repeated.
7. Then change the hemispherical body to open end facing downstream.
8. Then step 3 to 6 is repeated and data are taken.
9. Finally change the end facing downstream to streamlined body. Repeat the same step.
10. After done the streamlined body experiment, then placed only the connecting rod into
wind tunnel.
11. Then step 3 to 6 is repeated and data are taken.
12. Reynolds no. and coefficient of drag of streamline object and hemispherical are
calculated.
13. The Graph of Reynolds no. vs. drag coefficient is sketch for both hemispherical and
streamline object.

DATA AND RESULT

GRAPH

Graph 1 : upstream

Graph 2 : downstream

SAMPLE OF CALCULATION
Temperature in fluids laboratory is 20o C .
T = 20o C
1.204kg / m3

1.825 105 kg m.s

i.

Net drag force,

(upstream)

At reading number 2
Net drag force, (upstream)=Drag force,
=0.30 0.02
=0.28 N
ii.

Rigid rod drag force,

For drag coefficient, CD1 (upstream)

At reading number 2,
V= 10 m/s
= 0.28 N
FD
CD1
1
V 2 D 2
2

iii.

Net drag force,

(downstream)

At reading number 2
Net drag force,

(downstream) = Drag force,

= 0.09 0.02
= 0.07 N

iv.

For drag coefficient, CD2 (downstream)

At reading number 2,

Rigid rod drag force,

V= 10 m/s
= 0.07 N

v.

vi.

For Net Drag Coefficient, CD

For Reynolds Number,

At reading number 2,

MOHD AMIN B. MAHADZIR

DISCUSSION
The drag coefficient values can be calculated after obtaining the drag force. The drag
force can be taken by the experiment. The Reynolds number, Re, also can be obtained
using a formula and the data from the experiment.
Re

From the graph drag coefficient, CD

Net

VD

against Reynolds number, Re for hemisphere

object that has been plotted, we can see that the highest drag coefficient C D = 1.2532
occur at Re = 62846.7. At this point the velocity of air act to the body is 14 m/s. But then
the drag coefficient decrease dramatically to 0.7859 when the weight and drag force
increase. After the drag drop down the value of drag coefficient sometimes is increase
and sometimes is decrease.From the both graph we can conclude that the drag coefficient
CD increase when the Reynolds number decreasing from big to small numbers. After the
drag coefficient CD was increase the Reynolds number also increased. So its mean that
the value of drag is depend on their Reynolds number.The average of C D obtained from
experiment is 1.6307 for open end facing upstream 0.56 for open end facing downstream
and streamline body 0.2760. Compare to the theoretical value, the drag coefficient, C D for
open end facing upstream is 1.2 while for open end facing downstream is 0.4 and
streamline body is 0.04. The percentage of error of CD for the open end facing upstream is
26.4% then open end facing downstream is 28.5% and finally for streamline body is
85.50%. From the percentage of error calculated, it is not much differ than the theoretical
value.The error due to parallax error occurs in this experiment while taking the reading
and also the error because of apparatus itself such as the air goes out from the hole
around the holder that connected to the drag scale. Also the balancing of the hemisphere
body maybe unwell balanced.

MOHD AMIN B. MAHADZIR

CONCLUSION
The objective of the experiment achieved. The percentage of error between theoretical
value and experimental value is not much differing. There is no big difference between
velocity and Reynolds number and can be concluded similarly same. The parallax error
occur in this experiment is not constant thats make the reading become difficult. The
drag coefficient profile on the graph for open end facing flow and open end facing down
stream is differ from each other due to streamlines and bluntness of the air flowing
towards the hemisphere. It is also due to the laminar and turbulent flow that occur during
the process that takes place at different Reynolds numberFrom the experiment also it can
be concluded that the higher the drag coefficient the higher the drag force involves. For
103<Re<3105 the drag coefficient is approximately constant. In this range the entire rear
of the sphere has a low pressure turbulent wake and most of the drag is caused by the
front-rear pressure asymmetry.In summarize, the drag, which contains portions due to
friction (viscous) effects and pressure effects, is written in terms of dimensionless drag
coefficients, CD. It also shown that the drag coefficient, CD, is a function of shape and
Reynolds Number, Re.

REFERENCES

Fundamentals of Fluid Mechanics, 4th Edition, Wiley

Bruce R. Munson, Donald F. Young, Theodore H. Okiishi

Fluid Mechanics 3rd Edition

J.F Douglas, J.M Gaslorek, J.A Swaffield

Introduction to Fluid Mechanics 6th Edition, Wiley International Edition

Robert W. Fox, Alan T. Mcdonald, Philip J. Pritchard