FACULTY OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING

ENGINEERING FLUIDS MECHANICS LAB

BMM 3521

FULL REPORT

TITLE: LAB #1 : INVESTIGATION OF FLOW PATTERNS OVER DIFFERENT

IMMERSED BODIES
LECTURER : MR. FTWI YOHANESS HAGOS

NAME MATRIC NO
BALAKUMARAN A/L YEESVARAN MA 12002
KAALIARASAN A/L RAMACHANDRAN MA 12004
BADRUL ARIFFIN BIN BADALUDDIN MA 11045
AMIRUL AIZAT BIN JAAFAR MA 10050
ZAINDRA MAHAZAM SHAH BIN DARAWIN MA11054
MOHD AIMAN BIN ABU BAKAR @ ZAKARIA MA 10113
TUAN MOHD SHAKIR BIN ABU BAKAR MA 11023

D AT E : 10/10/2014
SECTION : 04 (B)

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 TABLE OF CONTENT

Page

1.0 ABSRACT 1
2.0 OBJECTIVE 2

3.0 THEORY 3
4.0 EQUIPMENTS AND MATERIALS 8

5.0 EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE 9

6.0 RESULTS, GRAPHS & DISCUSSION 11

7.0 DISCUSSION 18

8.0 QUESTIONS 19

9.0 CONCLUSIONS 20

10.0 REFERENCES 21

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 ABSTRACT

In order to fulfil the requirement of subject of Engineering Fluids Mechanics

Laboratory (BMM 3521), we had to conduct and come out with this report as this is the very
first lab that we are conducting. The title of the experiment is Investigation of Flow Patterns
over Different Immersed Bodies. This lab experiment focuses on investigation of flow patterns
over different immersed bodies in which the simulations are done using air flow bench. Various
models have been tested to developed understanding and proper modelling techniques for the
flow around such bodies. Throughout this experiment, our group want to determine the
boundary layer thickness of a flat plate subjected to longitudinal flow for rough and smooth
surfaces. For each problem the solutions obtained using the proposed immersed boundary
method are compared with solutions on body-conformal meshes having comparable mesh size
distribution. The proposed approach is very accurate and effective in capturing the sharp
discontinuity in the normal temperature gradient at the interface.

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 OBJECTIVE

The objective of our experiment are as follows:

1 . To design complete measurement technique for fluid flow and measure the drag and
lift forces applied on a symmetrical aerofoil at different angles of attack .
2. To determine the velocity distribution for flat plate.
3. To determine the boundary layer thickness of a flat plate subjected to longitudinal flow
forrough and smooth surfaces.

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 THEORY

When the object is completely surrounded by the fluid and the flows are termed external
flows. Lift and drag is also called the fluid force. Theoretical (analytical and numerical
techniques) and experimental approached are used to obtain information on the fluid forces
developed by external flows. One of the method to obtain flow data is by wind tunnel testing
works.

(a) Full scale wind tunnel test

(b) Model scale wind tunnel test

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 Such as a airplane flying through still air, the fluid far from the body is stationary and
the body moves through the fluid with velocity U. Such as the wind blowing past a building,
the body is stationary and the fluid flows past the body with velocity U. To simplify the
evaluation, we treat the situation as fluid flowing past a stationary body with velocity U, called
the upstream velocity. The velocity is assumed a uniform and constant velocity.Three general
categories of bodies are shown below.

1. Two-dimensional objects (infinitely long and of constant cross-sectional size and

shape)

2. Axisymmetric bodies (formed by rotating their cross-sectional shape about the axis of
symmetry)

3. Three-dimension bodies that may or may not possess a line or plane of symmetry.

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The resultant force in the direction of the upstream velocity is termed the drag, D. The resultant
force normal to the upstream velocity is termed the lift, L.

The resultant of the shear stress and pressure distributions can be obtained by integral the effect
of these two quantities on the body surface as shown below.

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The widely used alternative is to define dimensionless lift and drag coefficients.

The lift coefficient CL is defined as:

The drag coefficient CD is defined as:

where :

A is a characteristic area of the object

is the density of flowing fluid

U is the upstream velocity

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Typically, A is taken to be frontal area - the projected area seen by a person looking toward the
object from a direction parallel to the upstream velocity U.In other situations A is taken to be
the platform area the projected area seen by an observer looking toward the object from a
direction normal to the upstream velocity.

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 EQUIPMENTS & MATERIALS

a) Experiment 1: Investigate flow pattern of symmetrical aero foil at different pattern.

1. Air flow bench test machine

2. Aero foil test design
3. Sphere test design
4. Two gate test design
5. Fog machine

b) Experiment 2: Investigate the flow pattern on the smooth and rough surfaces flat plate.

1. Air flow bench test machine

2. Smooth and rough surface plate
3. Manometer
4. Pitot tube
5. Vernier caliper
6. X axis and Y axis adjustment meter

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 EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE

a) Experiment 1: Investigate flow pattern of symmetrical aero foil at different pattern.

1) Switch on the air flow machine.

2) Adjust the manometer reading to avoid parallax error.

3) Record the initial reading of the manometer height.

4) Adjust the aero foil to 0 degree angle.

5) Once the air flow is switched on, observe the air flow movement in the air flow
bench.

6) Record the flow rate of the air.

7) Switch on the fog machine and observe the pattern created when it passes through
the aero foil.

8) Record the manometer height as well.

9) Repeat the step 4-8 with different angle of attack and also with different shapes of
aero foils.

Experiment 1 setup:

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b) Experiment 2: Investigate the flow pattern on the smooth and rough surfaces flat plate.

1) Switch on the air flow machine.

2) Adjust the manometer height to avoid parallax error.

3) Record the initial reading of the manometer before inserting the flat plate into the
air flow bench.

4) Place the flat plate at 0mm distance in the air flow bench.

5) Adjust the Vernier callipers until the Pitot tube touches the flat surface.

6) Adjust the Vernier callipers away towards the right of the flat surface plate.

7) Record the manometer height for every 2mm increase in the y-axis until the height
becomes constant.

8) Repeat step 5-7 with different values of x-axis distance of the flat plate.
9) Then, repeat step 4-8 by using rough flat plate

Experiment 2 setup:

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 RESULTS AND GRAPHS

Experiment 1

Chosen angle = 0, 90 and 180

= 0.175m

Area = CxL
= 0.042m x 0.15m
= 0.0063 2

Area of tube = 0.01079 2

Result obtained:
Angle of Attack ( ) Lift Coefficient ( ) Drag Coefficient ( )
0 0 0
90 0.2 1.8
180 0.1 0

Computation of Lift Force and Drag Force:

Upon calculation:
Lift Force ( ) (N) Drag force ( ) (N)
0 0

3.78 104 3.40 103

1.89 104 0

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Based on the result obtained, the lift and drag coefficient are determined using graph for a
symmetrical aero foil:

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 Lift and Drag Coefficient Vs Angle of Attack
2

1.5
Lift and Drag coefficienr

0.5
Lift Coefficient
0 Drag Coefficient
0 45 90 135 180
-0.5

-1

-1.5
Angle of attack

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Experiment 2
Initial head: 100mm
Pitot diameter = 0.35 mm
Area = 5.5 cm x (0, 50,100)

Height recorded from the experiment, H (mm)

Smooth Surface
Boundary layer thickness y(mm)
Distance of the plate, x (mm)

0.35 2.35 4.35 6.35 8.35 10.35

0 35 32 32 32 32 32

50 70 70 50 43 38 35

100 75 74 51 44 40 36

Rough Surface
Boundary layer thickness y(mm)
Distance of the plate, x (mm)

0.35 2.35 4.35 6.35 8.35 10.35

0 64 55 45 35 30 30

50 80 65 53 52 50 50

100 84 70 55 53 52 51

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Computation of speed

Smooth surface velocity (m/s)

Boundary layer thickness y(mm)

Distance of the plate, x (mm)
0.35 2.35 4.35 6.35 8.35 10.35

0 1.129 1.155 1.155 1.155 1.155 1.155

50 0.767 0.767 0.990 1.058 1.103 1.129

100 0.700 0.714 0.980 1.048 1.085 1.121

Rough surface velocity (m/s)

Boundary layer thickness y(mm)

Distance of the plate, x (mm)
0.35 2.35 4.35 6.35 8.35 10.35

0 0.840 0.940 1.039 1.129 1.172 1.172

50 0.626 0.829 0.960 0.970 0.990 0.990

100 0.560 0.767 0.940 0.960 0.970 0.980

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Graphs of speed distribution against distance for smooth and rough surfaces

Taking X= 50 mm:

Boundary Layer Velocity, m/s

Thickness (mm) Smooth surface Rough surface
0.35 0.767 0.626
2.35 0.767 0.829
4.35 0.990 0.960
6.35 1.058 0.970

8.35 1.103 0.990

10.35 1.129 0.990

Speed Distribution Against Boundary Layer Thickness

1.2

0.8
Velocity, m/s

Smooth
0.6 Surface

Rough
0.4
Surface

0.2

0
0.35 2.35 4.35 6.35 8.35 10.35

Boundary Layer Thickness (mm)

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Graph manometer height against distance

Taking X= 50 mm:

Manometer height
Boundary Layer (mm)
Thickness (mm) Smooth surface Rough surface
0.35 70 80
2.35 70 65
4.35 50 53
6.35 43 52

8.35 38 50

10.35 35 50

Manometer Height Against Boundary Layer Thickness

90

80
Manometer Hieght (mm)

70

60
Smooth
50 Surface
40
Rough
30 Surface
20

10

0
0.35 2.35 4.35 6.35 8.35 10.35
Boundary Layer Thickness (mm)

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 DISCUSSION

Based on the experiment 1, the lift coefficient, and drag coefficient is inversely proportional to
the dynamic pressure and area. As the area and dynamic pressure of the increases, the lift and
drag coefficient will decreases. But, the lift and drag force is directly proportional to the
dynamic pressure and area of aerofoil. As the dynamic pressure increases, the lift and drag
force increases. If the area of the aerofoil increases, the lift and drag force increases because
more force is needed to lift bigger size aerofoil of aeroplane to the sky.

Based on experiment 2, we investigate about the flow of air in smooth and rough flat surface.
The experiment, we calculated the velocity across the boundary layer thickness. For the data
obtain, the velocity for both smooth and rough surface increase, but the velocity flowing
through the smooth surface is higher than the rough surface. The manometer height decreases
as the boundary layer thickness increases. The decrease in manometer, increases the height
differences between the initial height and the measured height. This explains that the dynamic
pressure increases across the boundary layer thickness as the differences between the initial
height and measured height increases.

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 QUESTIONS

1. Explain about the boundary layer thickness in the boundary layer of both surfaces.

Rough surface has a less boundary layer thickness than smooth surface. The velocity
of air will get faster when the value of the boundary layer thickness become larger. This
explains that the dynamic pressure increases across the boundary layer thickness as the
differences between the initial height and measured height increases.

2. Explain differences in terms of results for smooth and rough surfaces.

The fluid has a higher velocity when pass through smooth surface than rough surface.
The result show that the velocity of the fluid increase with the boundary layer increase.

3. How can we tell whether the flow is turbulent or laminar?

By applying this formula:

From the result obtained, if: Re < 2300, Laminar flow 2300 < Re < 4000, Transition
flow Re > 4000, Turbulent flow

4. What is the distance in the plate before the flow becomes turbulent?

The flow become turbulent when boundary layer 50 mm to 100 mm for the rough
surface as it results the same for the smooth surface that range from 50mm to 100mm.
The obvious observation is solely from the velocity where the velocity of the smooth
surface is higher than the rough surface.

5. What happened to the airfoil profile at 30o angle of attach compared to the normal
position?

The boundary layer vortices have separated from the top surface of the wing, and the
incoming flow does no longer bend completely around the leading edge. The wing is
stalled, causing a significant drag. However, much of the lift remains since the
separated vortices are still above the wing.

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 CONCLUSIONS

Based on the experiment conducted, we can conclude that the lift and drag coefficient
is directly proportional to the lift and drag force. At the beginning the lift force is greater than
drag force, in order to lift the aerofoil to the sky. The lift decreases after 45 degree but the drag
continue to increase because of the air resistance surrounding the aerofoil. Mean while, in
experiment 2, the velocity of the air flow has obviously affected the boundary layer of the
smooth and rough surface plates. The velocity of both the smooth and rough surface increases
across the boundary layer thickness but the velocity of the smooth surface is much higher than
rough surface because there is resistance in the rough surface that reduce the velocity of the
air.

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 REFERENCES

1) Yunus A.Cengel & John M.Cimbala. Fluid Mechanics, Fundamental and

Applications.
First Edition in SI Units. McGraw Hill, pg. 510-586

2) Dauglas, J.,F, Gasiorek J.M, and Swaffield J.A. Fluid Mechanics. Longman
Publishers, pg. 327-332

3) http://www.met.rdg.ac.uk

4) www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boundary_layer

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