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Aim:

(i) To determine the Cp distribution of circular cylinder and compare with theoretical results.
(ii) To study the effect of Reynolds number on the Cp distribution.

Apparatus:
Suction Type Wind Tunnel
Air is sucked through a duct equipped with a viewing port and instrumentation
where models are mounted for study. Typically the air is moved through the tunnel using
a series of fans.
The airflow created by the fans that is entering the tunnel is itself highly turbulent , partly
due to the fan blade motion. The air moving through the tunnel needs to be relatively
turbulence-free and laminar. To correct this problem, closely spaced vertical and
horizontal air vanes called honeycombs (1 sq. inch) and wire mesh screens (1 sq.
mm.) are used to smooth out the turbulent airflow before reaching the subject of the
testing. This forms the low velocity settling chamber of the wind tunnel.
The velocity is increased in the contraction part upto maximum speeds of 35 m/s. The
pressure measured in this part is the total/stagnation pressure or P o.
In test section, several experiments involving flow visualization, measurement of
pressure, forces and moments as well as boundary layer in favorable and adverse
pressure gradients are conducted on small models.
The purpose of the diffuser is to allow the air exiting the test section to expand and
gradually slow down, thus reducing the dynamic pressure (kinetic energy) and increasing
the static pressure. This reduces the current drawn by the fan motor or, alternatively,
allows a higher speed to be achieved for a given motor/fan size and current draws. The
angle included by the diffuser walls is generally limited to approximately 5 maximum
pressure recovery actually occurs at a somewhat greater angle, but the boundary layer is
close enough to separation in the flow through the diffuser and hence the entire tunnel
may become unsteady.

Fig. 1

Circular Cylinder
A long circular cylinder is placed in the test section, such that its ends are fixed to the
walls of the wind tunnel. Thus it can be taken as an infinite circular cylinder. 20 ports are
present on the circumference of the cylinder, i.e. at an interval of 18, which are
connected to a pressure scanner.

Scanivalve 32 port pressure scanner


The physical signal (pressure) is being fed to a Scanivalve pressure sensor, a kind of
piezo-electric pressure transducer (A transducer is a device that converts one form of
energy to another form of energy; in this case, generates a voltage signal as a function of
the pressure imposed).
Scanivalve produces electrical signal with respect to some reference, the atmospheric
pressure. This signal goes to a signal conditioner, which performs signal Amplification,
Noise filtration and Bridge balancing. Now we use an ADC card (Analogue digital card),
which converts analogue signal to digital signal. This data in the form of digital signal is
acquired by the LabVIEW. LabVIEW (Laboratory Virtual Instrumentation Engineering
Workbench) is a development environment for a visual programming language. The
benefit of LabVIEW over other development environments is the extensive support for
accessing instrumentation hardware. All this forms the Data Acquisition System
(DAQ).

Theory:
The pressure coefficient is a dimensionless number which describes the relative pressures
throughout a flow field in fluid dynamics. The coefficient of pressure is defined as:

where,

( )
=

P is the pressure at the point at which pressure coefficient is being evaluated.


P is the pressure in the freestream (i.e. total pressure measured in the inlet section)
is the freestream fluid density
U is the freestream velocity of the fluid.
P o is the total stagnation pressure measured in the settling chamber.
At the leading edge of the cylinder, where the oncoming flow is brought to rest, a stagnation point
is formed. The measured static pressure here is equal to the stagnation pressure. To either side of
the stagnation point the flow velocity increases around the forward surface of the cylinder
producing a drop in static pressure. The total pressure is constant and is equal to the sum of
static and dynamic pressures.
Near the cylinder surface a thin boundary layer is formed, which is a region where the velocity
drops rapidly to zero to satisfy the no slip condition at the cylinder surface. The boundary layer is
thus the region where direct effects of viscosity can be felt. The viscous effects are taken as
negligible everywhere else. The flow pattern and boundary layer are functions of Reynolds No:
If Re D <40K (Subcritical Reynolds Number), the boundary layer is laminar from the stagnation
point at the front of the cylinder to the point where it separates. In this case, the wake region
behind the cylinder is larger and the resulting flow pattern is associated with larger drag on the
cylinder.

Fig. 2

If Re D >40K (Subcritical Reynolds Number), the boundary layer becomes turbulent. Due to
turbulence, the flow remains attached with the surface of the cylinder and separation takes place
at a later angle. T he wake region is smaller and therefore drag will be less.

Fig. 3
Since the surface of the cylinder is smooth the flow will be laminar and in this case friction drag
will be less, pressure drag will be high compared to the turbulent flow. Thus the flow would
separate at an angle of around 80-90.
In case of potential flow over a circular cylinder, we can get easily the pressure distribution over
the cylindrical surface using the Bernoullis equation.
= +

= +

( )

Thus,
=

( )

As the flow is assumed to be incompressible and inviscid, we can apply the potential flow theory
to get a theoretical estimate of the pressure distribution. Shown below is a circular cylinder kept
in a potential flow.

Fig. 4

From potential flow solutions, we have U=U r +U , where U r = 0 and U = -2U sin, where is the
angle measured as shown in the above figures. Finally, we have for theoretical calculations,
=
For experimental calculations, we have
=

( )
( )
=

( )

Experimental Procedure:
o

The circular cylinder was placed in the test section initially at 0 degree.

20 ports of Scanivalve Pressure sensor were connected to the cylinder at 18 intervals, the
REF port was connected to the inlet section to measure P and another port was
connected to settling chamber to measure P0.

The flow was started at a speed of 19m/s and the readings over transducer were recorded
after passing through the DAQ.

The above step was repeated up to 360 degree by increasing angle by 18 degree in each
step.

Observations:
Angle ()
(in degree)

P - P
(in mV)

P0 - P
(in mV)

Theoretical Cp

223.2908

229.6473

0.972321

-2.76794

18

200.0208

229.6473

0.6180

0.870991

40.92935

36

60.77065

229.6473

-0.3820

0.264626

-169.28

54

-166.635

229.6473

-1.6180

-0.72561

-55.1547

72

-295.9254

229.6473

-2.6180

-1.28861

-50.7795

90

-248.0028

229.6473

-3

-1.07993

-64.0024

108

-250.9674

229.6473

-2.6180

-1.09284

-58.2573

126

-248.7236

229.6473

--1.6180

-1.08307

-33.0627

144

-210.9848

229.6473

-0.3820

-0.91873

140.5277

162

-248.1673

229.6473

0.6180

-1.08065

-274.852

180

-251.2019

229.6473

-1.09386

-209.386

198

-248.7802

229.6473

0.6180

-1.08331

-275.284

216

-260.5498

229.6473

-0.3820

-1.13457

197.033

234

-257.052

229.6473

-1.6180

-1.11933

-30.8214

252

-250.2366

229.6473

-2.6180

-1.08966

-58.3788

270

-251.0831

229.6473

-3

-1.09334

-63.5553

288

-215.994

229.6473

-2.6180

-0.94055

-64.0743

306

-251.6286

229.6473

--1.6180

-1.09572

-32.2809

324

-66.67651

229.6473

-0.3820

-0.29034

-23.9872

342

144.6353

229.6473

0.6180

0.629815

1.906198

360

223.2908

229.6473

0.972321

-2.76794

CP = 1-4sin

Experimental Cp

% Error

()
( )

Calculation:

= = 229.6473
U = 19 m/s
Thus, Density of air = 1.2724 kg/m3 =
Dynamic viscosity of air at Room temperature = = 1.846 * 10 -5 kg/m s
Diameter of cylinder = D =38 mm
Thus, Reynoldss number is given by,

ReD =

where is dynamic viscosity

ReD = (1.2724*19*0.038) / (1.846 * 10-5) = 49761.06

Calculation of Cd and Cl :

Cd =

Cl =

We use trapezoidal rule to evaluate the given integrals. Trapezoidal rule for a given integral is as
follows and can be calculated in MATLAB using the function trapz(X,Y).

For V=19m/s, we have,


Cd = 1.1626

Cl = 0.0843

V (m/s)

Re

Cl

Cd

14

37639.85

0.063

1.2582

19

49761.06

0.0843

1.1626

24.7

61846.89

0.0835

1.0602

29

72717.45

0.0773

1.1212

33.2

83469.90

0.1085

1.1618

Results:
1. Reynoldss number (ReD) of the given flow is 49761.06. Flow is in laminar region (Re D
<400000), and the separation is seen at around 80 as expected.
2. Cd = 1.1626 and Cl = 0.0843 for the given ReD.
3. Plots

Fig 5: Cp vs

Fig 6: Cd vs Re

Discussions:
1) In this experiment we determined the pressure distribution over a circular cylinder in a
uniform flow, and thus obtained the pressure coefficient experimentally and compared it
with the theoretical value.
2) From first graph it was inferred that pressure distribution was roughly symmetric about
the horizontal axis. This implied no generation of lift. The theoretical graph also implied
symmetry about the vertical axis, which was not the case with the experimental graph.
This implies that ideally the circular cylinder doesnt experience drag, although in actual
case it does. This is the DAlemberts Paradox, and is explained using the boundary layer
concept, which leads to separation of flow.
3) Cp nearly follows the theoretical solution for the front half of the cylinder (-90< <90).
But in the rear end of the cylinder due to adverse pressure gradient, flow separation
occurs and the Cp distribution changes drastically leading to deviation.
4) The set of equations used to obtain the theoretical values assumes that the flow is steady,
incompressible, inviscid and negligible body forces. In the above experiment we are
implying a potential flow. This leads to the difference in the two pressure distribution
plots as discussed above.
5) The study of the flow over a circular cylinder is basic but very important in aerodynamics.
It can be indirectly used to study flow over an actual airfoil. Various transformations like
the Zhukovsky Transformation use conformal mapping to transform certain airfoils to
circular airfoils, over which calculations can be easily performed.
6) Due to rotation of cy linder, the potential flow solution would require an addition of a 2-D
point vortex centered at the centre of the circular cylinder. T here would be an uneven
distribution of velocities on the upper and lower surfaces of the cylinder thus creating an
upward or downward (lift) force depending upon the rotation of the cylinder.
7) For 0<Re<4, flow is attached and called Stokes Flow; for 4<Re<40, flow separates,
forming stable vortices; for Re>40 these vortices become unstable and flow downstream
as shed vortices and is called a Kalman Vortex Street; for Re~10 5 this vortex street
becomes turbulent and metamorphoses into a distinct wake. The laminar boundary layer
separates at a point about 80 from the stagnation point; for Re~10 6 laminar to turbulent
transition takes place in the boundary layer over the top of separated region and the flow
reattaches and separates at about 120 for which there is a significant drop in C d; for even
higher Re, the points of separation move toward the forward face, fattening the wake,
increasing the Cd.
8) From the graph of Cd vs Re, it was seen that as Re increased, Cd decreased at first but then
started increasing. This change however, was not a big one and if the range of Re were to
be increased as in the previous point, the values can be considered constant in the range
considered for the current experiment. The most significant drop occurs during transition
to turbulent boundary layer.

Fig 6

References:
[1] John D Anderson JR., Fundamentals of Aerodynamics, 5th edition, Tata McGraw Hill. Inc.,
New York
[2] Fig 1: Bapu Joglekar, Rana Manoj Mourya, Design, construction and testing open circuit
low speed wind tunnel, ISSN 2348-697X (Online), Vol. 2, Issue 4, pp: (1-9).
[3] Fig 2- 3: http://www.dept.aoe.vt.edu/~aborgolt/aoe3054/manual/expt3/index.html

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