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by an object due to movement through a fully-enclosing fluid. The equation is attributed to Lord Rayleigh,
who originally used L2 in place of A (with L being some linear dimension). The force on a moving object due
to a fluid is:
where
FD is the force of drag, which is by definition the force component in the direction of the flow
velocity,[1]
CD is the drag coefficient — a dimensionless constant, e.g. 0.25 to 0.45 for a car.
The reference area A is typically defined as the area of the orthographic projection of the object on a plane
perpendicular to the direction of motion. For non-hollow objects with simple shape, such as a sphere, this is
exactly the same as a cross sectional area. For other objects (for instance, a rolling tube or the body of a
cyclist), A may be significantly larger than the area of any cross section along any plane perpendicular to the
direction of motion.
The drag equation may be derived to within a multiplicative constant by the method of dimensional
analysis. If a moving fluid meets an object, it exerts a force on the object, according to a complicated (and
not completely understood) law. We might suppose that the variables involved under some conditions to be
the:
speed u,
fluid density ρ,
The Vaschy-Buckingham π theorem is a key theorem in dimensional analysis. The theorem loosely states
that if we have a physically meaningful equation involving a certain number, n, of physical variables, and
these variables are expressible in terms of k independent fundamental physical quantities, then the original
expression is equivalent to an equation involving a set of p = n − k dimensionless parameters constructed
from the original variables: it is a scheme for nondimensionalization. This provides a method for computing
sets of dimensionless parameters from the given variables, even if the form of the equation is still unknown.
However, the choice of dimensionless parameters is not unique: Vaschy-Buckingham's theorem only
provides a way of generating sets of dimensionless parameters, and will not choose the most 'physically
meaningful'.
Derivation
The drag equation may be derived to within a multiplicative constant by the method of dimensional
analysis. If a moving fluid meets an object, it exerts a force on the object, according to a complicated (and
not completely understood) law. We might suppose that the variables involved under some conditions to be
the:
speed u,
fluid density ρ,
Using the algorithm of the Buckingham π theorem, one can reduce these five variables to two dimensionless
parameters:
Alternatively, one can derive the dimensionless parameters via direct manipulation of the underlying
differential equations.
That this is so becomes obvious when the drag force FD is expressed as part of a function of the other
This rather odd form of expression is used because it does not assume a one-to-one relationship.
Here, fa is some (as-yet-unknown) function that takes five arguments. We note that the right-hand side
is zero in any system of units; so it should be possible to express the relationship described by fa in
There are many ways of combining the five arguments of fa to form dimensionless groups, but
the Buckingham π theorem states that there will be two such groups. The most appropriate are the
variables:
where fb is some function of two arguments. The original law is then reduced to a
Because the only unknown in the above equation is the drag force FD, it is possible
to express it as
or
and with
one: the determination of the drag as a function of only one variable, the
Reynolds number.
The analysis also gives other information for free, so to speak. We know
that, other things being equal, the drag force will be proportional to the
models with more viscous and higher velocity fluids, because these two