Drag of a Sphere

The drag force is a component of force acting parallel to the direction of motion of the body. In the ca e of flow over a phere skin friction drag and boundary layer normal pressure drag contribute to the total drag. For a visco ity-free (perfect) fluid the distribution of pressure that exi t over the front face would also exist over the rear face, and no drag would be produced. The pre sure distribution of a perfect fluid obeys Bernoulli s equation. At the front of the phere there is a stagnation point where the pre ure is greater than the ambient. A the velocity increases away from the stagnation point the pres ure drops and reaches its lowest value at 90 away from the tagnation point. The theoretical pres ure di tribution over the phere is given by equation I, Eq.l where e is mea ured away from the stagnation point. Experimentally it has been found that the drag coefficient of a sphere in a vi cous fluid is particularly sensitive to variations in the Reynolds number. At low Reynold numbers the drag coefficient is quite large (about 0.5 or more) whereas as high Reynolds number it drop to a value of about 0.07. A typical variation of drag of a sphere a a function of ReynoJds number is given in Fig.l .

200 100 60 40 20 10 6
4 I

CD

, , , ?",
Theory due ' to Stoke

0.6 0.4 0.2 0.1 0.06 0.04 -

Re= VD

v
Figure 1: Drag coefficient of a phere as a function of Reynold number.

In a real fluid as the flow goes past the front tagnation point it comes under the influence of an adver e pres ure gradient and separates. If the boundary layer is laminar, separation occur before the flow ha progre ed appreciably further away from the

stagnation point and a large low-pre ure wak is formed behind the phere resulting in an unbalance of pres ure forces between the front and back portions of the phere. At higher Reynolds nwnber the tran ition from laminar to turbulent flow in the boundary layer occurs before the separation point for laminar flow i reached, and the flow adheres to the phere for a greater di tance along the urface. This happens because the laminar boundary layer ha a lower energy level than a turbulent layer and therefore tends to separate earlier under the influence of an adver e pre ure gradient. Schematic of flow past a ph r with laminar and turbulent boundary layer eparation are hown in Fig. 2. Separation

--~
Broad Wake V

Separation

r.

e 82~
Co=1.2

r:

>

Narrow Wake

____ 0
(b)

(a)

Figure 2: Sch matic of

a) laminar separation and (b) turbulent

eparation.

The laminar flow eparates at about 80 while the turbulent flow eparates at about 120. A comparati e variation of theoretical and actual pre sure distribution on the top surface of the phere i hown in Fig. 3. The experimental pressure coefficient, Cp, i calculated u ing Eq. 2, C =
P

p-p
q_
-

Eg.2

where P i the pre LIreat the tap P at infinity is th pre ure at the entrance to the test section and g at infinity i the dynamic pre LIrein the test ection which can be determined from th calibration oftbe wind tunnel.

1.0
I

0.8

0.6
0.4

v~

,.I

0.2

c
P

= p-p

o
-0.2
-0.4

~pV2

-0.6
-0.8 -1.0 -1.2 -1.4
'------L-_l....----J..._....1....-_.L.----'-_--1-_--L.--'

20 40

60

80

100 120

140

160

180

8, degrees Figure 3: Pres UTedi tribution over a sphere. It ha been experimentally obs rved that at a Reynolds number of about 3 5,000 tran ition OCCUTand the sphere drag-coefficient exhibits a sharp drop a hown in Fig. 4. The drag coefficient, Co is determined by numerically integrating the Cp versus 8 curve. 0.5

-r-.
Transition ~ \ 3R5.000

CD

0.3

0.1

I'---

2.0

4.0

6.0

Figure 4: Variation of phere drag coefficient near tran ition. 3

In ummary for Reynolds number greater than 1000 the drag of a ph ere is predominantly due to the pressure variation around the sphere. The pres ure difference between the front an drear side of the phere i the primary cau e of drag and this pressure difference i largely owing to eparation; hence if the eparation can be delayed the drag will be reduced. The eparation of the turbulent boundary-layer flow is delayed when compared with the laminar boundary-layer flow separation and the wake narrows appreciably. Transition to turbulence can be achieved by roughening the surface of a sphere in the vicinity of the forward tagnation point. The ame result can be achieved by attaching a trip wire to th sphere ahead of the laminar boundary-layer eparation point (a hown chematically in Fig. 5) forcing tran ition to turbulent boundary layer flow and delayed eparation.

Trip Wire

Figure 5: Schematic of a phere with a trip wire.