Experiment No.

1
Aim : To study the relationship between the Drag Coefficient and Modified Reynolds number
for a body falling through fluid. (Cd vs NRe)
Chemicals & Apparatus : Long glass tubes, small balls of lead, steel and glass, stop watch,
glycerin, ethylene glycol, paraffin oil.
Objective : To determine the forces acting on a solid object that flow in the direction of the
relative fluid flow velocity.
Principle : As a body moves through a fluid, the drag coefficient will change under different
flow conditions. For incompressible fluids it is especially important to consider the degree of
turbulence or the Reynolds number of the flow field.
Theory : As an object moves through a fluid, forces imparted by the fluid will act on the
object to slow it down. These forces are called drag forces. The total drag force represents a
combination of the pressure forces acting on the body (pressure drag) and the wall shear
stress (friction drag). Friction drag is a force that acts on a submerged body moving within a
fluid due to the viscous forces acting along the surface of the body. The viscous forces
produce a shear stress that will act on the surface area of the body within the fluid. If the
shear stress distribution is known, the total friction drag can be calculated by summing the
shear stresses over all incremental areas of the body. However, the drag coefficient is not a
constant value, and depends on the flow conditions (Reynolds Number), the shape of the
body, and the skin roughness of the body, among other things. It is shown that for low
Reynolds numbers that represent completely laminar flow that the drag force is linearly
proportional to the velocity. Once fully turbulent flow develops the value for Cd will remain
relatively constant. In this case the drag force will be proportional to the square of the
velocity.
The Reynolds number is evidently the only parameter of the fluid flow. Fluids with
the same value of the Reynolds number behave in the same way. Turbulence is a genuine
result of the non-linear dynamics of fluid flows. A change from a laminar to turbulent
boundary layer can produce different changes in the values for Cd for bodies of different
shapes. When an object is allowed to fall within a fluid it will initially accelerate from a zero
velocity. However, eventually the drag and buoyancy forces will be balanced by the weight
and the object will fall with a constant or terminal velocity. If the geometry and weight of the
object, some details about the fluid, and the terminal velocity of the object are known, one
may calculate the drag coefficient of that object for that flow condition. The weight and
buoyant forces can be determined from the density of the fluid and the object and the volume
of the object. The drag force will balance the difference.
Procedure :
1. Glass tubes of known diameter filled with glycerin, ethylene glycol, paraffin oil of
known height were taken.
2. Small balls of known diameter of lead, steel and glass were taken.

3. Each ball was allowed to fall through a liquid to the bottom of the tube.
4. Time required for the ball to fall through the liquid was noted.
5. This was repeated by each ball for each liquid.
Application : The study of the properties of fluid like the Drag Coefficient and Reynolds
Number is important in aerodynamics, aerospace applications, geophysical studies, etc.