2/23/2017

Forces on submerged bodies

In almost all engineering fields, problems involving flow

of a fluid around submerged bodies/objects are
encountered.

Either a fluid is flowing around the stationary submerged

body or a body might be flowing through a large mass of
stationary fluid

Motion of very small objects e.g fine sand particles in air or water
Airplanes, submarines, automobiles and ships etc moving
through water or air
Buildings/bridges submerged in air or water

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An object moving through a fluid will experience forces

caused by the action of the fluid. The resultant forces are
called drag and lift.

drag-force caused by the fluid resisting motion in the direction of

travel of the body FD

lift-force caused by the fluid and it is perpendicular to the

direction of travel of the body FL.

When a free stream approaches the body along the axis

of symmetry, the force acting on the body is only the
drag force

Production of lift force requires asymmetry of flow,

while drag force always exists

Impossible to create lift without drag but possible to

create drag without lift

An object moving through a fluid will experience drag

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Total drag force = frictional drag +pressure drag

Consider a body held stationary in a stream of real fluid

moving at uniform velocity U.

Let p and be the static pressure and shear stress on
an element of area dA on the surface of the body

Let be the inclination of the tangent to the

element with the direction of flow

The component of force due to p and along the

direction of motion is known as Drag force FD while the
component perpendicular to the direction of motion is
known as Lift force FL.

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Then

FD pdA sin dA cos (1)

FL dA sin pdA cos (2)

For a body moving through a fluid of mass

density , at a uniform velocity U, the
mathematical expressions for the
calculation of drag and lift are given as

U 2
FD CD A
2

U 2
FL CL A
2

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CD = coefficient of drag (dimensionless)

CL= coefficient of lift (dimensionless)
= density of fluid
U = relative velocity of fluid w.r.t the body
A = area

For calculating the drag force FD, usually the area A is

taken as the projected area on plane perpendicular to the
relative motion of the fluid

While for the lift force (FL) A is taken as the projected

area of a body on a plane at right angle to the direction of
lift force.

Some examples of immersed bodies

having drag and/or lift forces

Flow of water past a bridge pier

Flow of fluids past blades (e.g turbines)
Motion of submarines/torpedoes etc

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Relative contribution of pressure drag and

frictional drag to the total drag force
depends upon

Characteristic of fluid
Shape of body
Orientation of body immersed in fluid

When a thin plate is place parallel to the direction of flow,

pressure drag will be zero (=0) and the total drag is
entirely due to shear stress frictional drag

If the same plate is held with an axis normal to the flow

direction, the frictional drag will be zero (= 90) and the
flow separates at the edge forming a turbulent wake
behind the plate. The total drag is due to the pressure
drag only.

If the plate is held at an angle to the direction of flow, the

total drag will be equal to the sum of pressure drag and
frictional drag

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If the surface of the body coincides with the streamlines

when placed in flow, the body is called a streamlined
body

Flow separation takes place at the rear edge or trailing

edge of the body

Pressure drag in these bodies is quite small due to the

formation of a small wake formation zone

Although the effect of skin friction is higher due to larger

surface area of the body but the net drag is quite small
due to the shape of the body.

A body may be streamlined at low velocities but might

not be so at higher ones.

Also, it might be streamlined when placed in a particular

position, but might not be so when placed in another.

Examples include wings of aeroplanes and blades of

marine propellers.
You can ask more from the ceo of NETODIN to get more
knowledge about it for free.

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A body whose surface does not coincide with the

streamlines when placed in a flow is called a bluff body

Extensive boundary layer separation takes place which is

accompanied by a wake and formation of large scale
eddies.

Resulting pressure drag is quite large as compared to

the frictional drag.

For case of an ideal fluid flowing past a sphere, there

is no drag

Consider the case of flow of a real fluid past a sphere

Let D be the diameter, V be the velocity of flow of

fluid with density and viscosity

If the velocity of flow is very small or the fluid is very

viscous such that Reynolds number is quite small
(Re 2)

Viscous forces are much more predominant than

inertial forces

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George Gabriel Stokes analysed the flow around a

sphere under very low velocities and found that total drag
force is given by

FD 3DV
Two third of the drag force is contributed by skin friction
and one third by pressure difference

2 2
FD 3DV 2DV (skin friction drag)
3 3

1 1
FD 3DV DV (pressure drag)
3 3

The total drag is also given by

V 2
FD C D A
2

Where A is the projected area=D2/4

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By equating the two equations for FD

V 2
3DV C D D2
2 4

24 24
CD
VD Re

Which is called Stokes Law.

To calculate the terminal velocity of a falling

sphere and hence the viscosity of the fluid

Desilting the river flow

Sanitary engineering-treatment of raw water

and sewerage water

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Maximum velocity attained by a falling body is known as

the terminal velocity

If a body is allowed to fall from rest, its velocity increases

due to gravitational acceleration

The increase in velocity also increases the drag force

opposing the motion of the body

when drag force = weight of body, acceleration ceases,

net external force acting on the body becomes zero
making the body to move at constant speed called
terminal velocity

Then
W = FD+B
or FD = W-B
Volume of sphere r
4 3

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Mass = Volume x Density
Weight = Mass x g

W d / 2 s g d 3 s g
4 3

3 6

B d / 2 f g d 3 f g
4 3

3 6

Then Drag force will be FD W B d 3 s f g
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Equation of viscosity for Fluid and terminal velocity for sphere

d 2 g s f
V
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Separation of Boundary Layer

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Assignment No. 03
Q. No. 01
On a flat plate of 2m length and 1m width,
experiments were conducted in a wind tunnel with
a wind speed of 50km/h. the plate is kept at such
an angle that the coefficients of drag and lift are
0.18 and 0.9 respectively.
Find
a) drag force
b) lift force
c) resultant force
if Density of air is 1.15 kg/m3.

Q. No. 02
Determine the velocity of fall of rain drops 0.3mm in
diameter in atmospheric air having density of 1.2kg/m3
and kinematic viscosity of 0.15x10-4 m2/s. Assume
stokes law holds good.

Q. No. 03
A 2mm metallic ball of specific gravity 11 is allowed to
fall in a fluid of specific gravity 0.9 and viscosity
1.4Ns/m2. Determine the drag force, pressure drag and
skin friction drag and the terminal velocity of ball in fluid.

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Q. No. 04
A steel sphere of 4mm diameter falls in glycerine
at a terminal velocity of 0.04m/s. Assuming that
Stokes is applicable,
Determine
a) dynamic viscosity of glycerine
b) drag force
c) drag coefficient of sphere
if specific weights of steel and glycerine are
75kN/m3 and 12.5kN/m3.

The variation of drag coefficient with Reynolds number

has been found by dropping a series of spheres through
liquids of different viscosities. The results are tabulated as
CD 0.408 0.255 0.204 0.178

Re x105. 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0

A) From this data calculate the density of a 4.5cm

diameter sphere which reaches a terminal velocity of
4.3m/s in water of kinematic viscosity of 1.14x10-6 m2/s.
B) In a different fluid of density 900kg/m3, the sphere
attains a terminal velocity of 3.6m/s. determine the
viscosity of the fluid.

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