Drag coefficient

About: Drag coefficient is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 14471 publications have been published within this topic receiving 303196 citations. The topic is also known as: drag factor.

Experiments on the flow past a circular cylinder at very high Reynolds number

Abstract: Measurements on a large circular cylinder in a pressurized wind tunnel at Reynolds numbers from 10^6 to 10^7 reveal a high Reynolds number transition in which the drag coefficient increases from its low supercritical value to a value 0.7 at R = 3.5 × 10^6 and then becomes constant. Also, for R > 3.5 × 10^6, definite vortex shedding occurs, with Strouhal number 0.27.

Drag, turbulence, and diffusion in flow through emergent vegetation

Abstract: Aquatic plants convert mean kinetic energy into turbulent kinetic energy at the scale of the plant stems and branches. This energy transfer, linked to wake generation, affects vegetative drag and turbulence intensity. Drawing on this physical link, a model is developed to describe the drag, turbulence and diffusion for flow through emergent vegetation which for the first time captures the relevant underlying physics, and covers the natural range of vegetation density and stem Reynolds' numbers. The model is supported by laboratory and field observations. In addition, this work extends the cylinder-based model for vegetative resistance by including the dependence of the drag coefficient, CD, on the stem population density, and introduces the importance of mechanical diffusion in vegetated flows.

Viscous-inviscid analysis of transonic and low Reynolds number airfoils

Abstract: A method of accurately calculating transonic and low Reynolds number airfoil flows, implemented in the viscous-inviscid design/analysis code ISES, is presented. The Euler equations are discretized on a conservative streamline grid and are strongly coupled to a two-equation integral boundary-layer formulation, using the displacement thickness concept. A transition prediction formulation of the e type is derived and incorporated into the viscous formulation. The entire discrete equation set, including the viscous and transition formulations, is solved as a fully coupled nonlinear system by a global Newton method. This is a rapid and reliable method for dealing with strong viscous-inviscid interactions, which invariably occur in transonic and low Reynolds number airfoil flows. The results presented demonstrate the ability of the ISES code to predict transitioning separation bubbles and their associated losses. The rapid airfoil performance degradation with decreasing Reynolds number is thus accurately predicted. Also presented is a transonic airfoil calculation involving shock-induced separation, showing the robustness of the global Newton solution procedure. Good agreement with experiment is obtained, further demonstrating the performance of the present integral boundary-layer formulation.

Drag reduction fundamentals

Abstract: Drag reduction by dilute solutions of linear, random-coiling macromolecules in turbulent pipe flow is reviewed. The experimental evidence is emphasized in three sections concerned with the graphical display of established features of the phenomenon, data correlation and analysis, and the physical mechanism of drag reduction. This work has application to increased pipelines capacity, the study of wall turbulence and molecular rheology.

The mechanics of large bubbles rising through extended liquids and through liquids in tubes

Abstract: Part I describes measurements of the shape and rate of rise of air bubbles varying in volume from 1·5 to 200 cm. 3 when they rise through nitrobenzene or water. Measurements of photographs of bubbles formed in nitrobenzene show that the greater part of the upper surface is always spherical. A theoretical discussion, based on the assumption that the pressure over the front of the bubble is the same as that in ideal hydrodynamic flow round a sphere, shows that the velocity of rise, U , should be related to the radius of curvature, R , in the region of the vertex, by the equation U = 2/3√( gR ); the agreement between this relationship and the experimental results is excellent. For geometrically similar bubbles of such large diameter that the drag coefficient would be independent of Reynolds’s number, it would be expected that U would be proportional to the sixth root of the volume, V ; measurements of eighty-eight bubbles show considerable scatter in the values of U/V 1/6 , although there is no systematic variation in the value of this ratio with the volume. Part II. Though the characteristics of a large bubble are associated with the observed fact that the hydrodynamic pressure on the front of a spherical cap moving through a fluid is nearly the same as that on a complete sphere, the mechanics of a rising bubble cannot be completely understood till the observed pressure distribution on a spherical cap is understood. Failing this, the case of a large bubble running up a circular tube filled with water and emptying at the bottom is capable of being analyzed completely because the bubble is not then followed by a wake. An approxim ate calculation shows that the velocity U of rise is U = 0·46 √( ga ), where a is the radius of the tube. Experiments with a tube 7·9 cm. diameter gave values of U from 29·1 to 30·6 cm./sec., corresponding with values of U /√( ga ) from 0·466 to 0·490.