DISCUSSION

Based on the experiment Drag Force in Flow Pass a Circular Cylinder, we had obtained the
result for the pressure profile and flow characteristics for the flow around the circular cylinder. In
this experiment, we measured the pressure profile created along the surface of the circular
cylinder. There supposed to be 40 pressure tapping holes around the circular cylinder but only
19 were made on the circular cylinder which covers half of the circular cylinder in order to make
sure the orientation of each hole can be identified easier and the flow of the air is directly
straight to the first hole which we have marked it as 0. The experiment was conducted by
comparing the obtained data at tunnel velocity of 10 m/s and 20 m/s. The 2 inch diameter
cylinder was placed at across 300mm x 300mm test section of the wind tunnel, the manometer
height before the experiment was conducted is 205mm, the air density is = 1.225 kg/m3 and

the oil density is

oil = 0.78 kg/m3. When the power is turned on and the velocity of the air is

set up to 10 m/s, we could observe a boundary layer is created around the circular cylinder, we
can conclude that there is boundary layer formed as manometer reading increases from holes 110 and stay constant from holes 11-19. The manometer reading is representing the reading of the
pressure exerted by the air flow to each holes when it pass through the circular cylinder. The
higher the pressure, the lower the reading of manometer. When the boundary layer have formed
at the front and side part of the circular cylinder, the part of the circular cylinder which did not
facing the flow of the air (boundary layer separation location) will have no addition or only small
addition of pressure exerted on the part which resulting the constant pressure results from holes
11-19. From the overall data when experiment was conducted at air velocity of 10 m/s, the
resulting pressure drag, F D is 0.026 N and from the pressure drag we can obtained the result
for the drag coefficient which is 0.164. From the coefficient of pressure versus angle graph, we
can see that there is a rapid increasing of pressure from 0 to 70, a small decreasing after that
and a constant line is formed until the end of the graph. From the graph we may conclude that
pressure increased at the front and side part of the boundary layer and remain the same after the
boundary layer separation location part which the boundary layer is fully formed. Next, when the
velocity of the air is set up to 20 m/s, there is also a boundary layer formed surrounding the
circular cylinder. From the overall data recorded during the experiment, the pressure drag is
0.127 N and the drag coefficient is 0.201. From the graph of coefficient of pressure versus angle,
we can also see that there is a rapid increasing of pressure from 0 to 70, a small decreasing
after that and a small constant increasing of pressure until the end of the graph. The graph of
the experiment at 20 m/s is likely same as 10 m/s graph which we may conclude that it also
have the same conclusion.

To get the values of drag coefficient, we need the values of drag force to calculate it.
Drag force is a force that acting opposite to the relative motion of any object moving with
respect to a surrounding fluid. Based on the results obtained, we can get the average value for

drag coefficient of body base surface facing upstream is 2.074 while for downstream is 0.576.
We also can see that the values for drag coefficient for upstream condition is greater than
downstream condition. It is because the net drag force for upstream condition is greater than
downstream condition. The relation between them is the drag coefficient is directly proportional
to the net drag force or we can say that the drag coefficient increase when the net drag force
increase, however the values also affected by the velocity and reynolds number. We are also
had obtained the graph of drag coefficient against reynolds number. This flow is turbulent since
the values for reynolds number that we get are greater than 4000. The drag coefficient is
inversely proportional to the reynolds number because it is decrease as the reynolds number
increase. It is also satisfied the theory by using a formula of drag coefficient where the increase
of velocity and reynolds number caused the drag coefficient to decrease. The also graph shows
a rapid decreasing at first for both upstream and downstream, but later on it can be said as
nearly constant because there are not much difference between the values. In short, body base
surface facing downstream is better than upstream because the lower the drag coefficient, the
better the system is. By comparing the results of drag coefficient with the theoretical values that
we get from the text book, for upstream condition we get the percentage error is 72.83% while
for downstream condition is 44%. These errors occurs because of some factors. It is because of
we set up the experiment manually, the arm is not balance because it keep on moving, so we
just estimate its values. Next is the value of flow velocity is not too accurate. It is because the
position of eyes not perpendicular to the scale of velocity measurement. So, all of these factors
that caused the results not accurate and different with the theoretical values.