EXTERNAL FLOW: DRAG AND

LIFT
• Fluid flow over solid bodies frequently occurs in practice, and it is
responsible for numerous physical phenomena such as the drag force
acting on automobiles, power lines, trees, and underwater pipelines;
the lift developed by bird or airplane wings; upward draft of rain,
snow, hail, and dust particles in high winds; the transportation of red
blood cells by blood flow; the entrainment and disbursement of
liquid droplets by sprays; the vibration and noise generated by bodies
moving in a fluid; and the power generated by wind turbines.
• Sometimes a fluid moves over a stationary body (such as the wind
blowing over a building), and other times a body moves through a
quiescent fluid (such as a car moving through air). These two
seemingly different processes are equivalent to each other; what
matters is the relative motion between the fluid and the body.
• The flow over a body is said to be two-dimensional when the body is
very long and of constant cross section and the flow is normal to the
body. The wind blowing over a long pipe perpendicular to its axis is an
example of two-dimensional flow.
• Another simplification occurs when the body possesses rotational
symmetry about an axis in the flow direction. The flow in this case is
also two-dimensional and is said to be axisymmetric. A bullet piercing
through air is an example of axisymmetric flow.
• The two-dimensional idealization is appropriate when the body is
sufficiently long so that the end effects are negligible and the
approach flow is uniform.
• Flow over a body that cannot be modeled as two-dimensional or
axisymmetric, such as flow over a car, is three-dimensional
DRAG AND LIFT
• It is a common experience that a body meets some resistance when it
is forced to move through a fluid, especially a liquid. As you may have
noticed, it is very difficult to walk in water because of the much
greater resistance it offers to motion compared to air.
• The force a flowing fluid exerts on a body in the flow direction is
called drag.
• Reduction of drag is closely associated with the reduction of fuel
consumption in automobiles, submarines, and aircraft; improved
safety and durability of structures subjected to high winds; and
reduction of noise
• in some cases drag produces a beneficial effect and we try to
maximize it. Friction, for example, is a “life saver” in the brakes of
automobiles. Likewise, it is the drag that makes it possible for people
to parachute, for pollens to fly to distant locations.
• A stationary fluid exerts only normal pressure forces on the surface of
a body immersed in it.
• A moving fluid, however, also exerts tangential shear forces on the
surface because of the no-slip condition caused by viscous effects.
Both of these forces, in general, have components in the direction of
flow, and thus the drag force is due to the combined effects of
pressure and wall shear forces in the flow direction. The components
of the pressure and wall shear forces in the direction normal to the
flow tend to move the body in that direction, and their sum is called
lift.
• The pressure and shear forces acting on a differential area dA on the
surface are P*dA and 𝜏w *dA, respectively. (𝜃 is the angle that the
outer normal of dA makes with the positive flow direction). The
differential drag force and the lift force acting on dA in two-
dimensional flow are
• The total drag and lift forces acting on the body are determined by
integrating Eqs:

both the skin friction (wall shear) and pressure, in general, contribute to
the drag and the lift.
• The drag and lift forces depend on the density 𝜌 of the fluid, the
upstream velocity V, and the size, shape, and orientation of the body,
among other things, and it is not practical to list these forces for a
variety of situations. Instead, it is more convenient to work with
appropriate dimensionless numbers that represent the drag and lift
characteristics of the body. These numbers are the drag coefficient CD,
and the lift coefficient CL , and they are defined as:
• The drag coefficient of a car at the design conditions of 1 atm, 20°C,
and 95 km/h is to be determined experimentally in a large wind
tunnel in a full-scale test The frontal area of the car is 2.07 m2 If the
force acting on the (No acceleration) car in the flow direction is
measured to be 300 N, determine the drag coefficient of this car.
FRICTION AND PRESSURE DRAG
• the drag force is the net force exerted by a fluid on a body in the
direction of flow due to the combined effects of wall shear and
pressure forces. It is often instructive to separate the two effects, and
study them separately.
• The friction drag is the component of the wall shear force in the
direction of flow, and thus it depends on the orientation of the body
as well as the magnitude of the wall shear stress 𝜏w
• The friction drag is zero for a flat surface normal to the flow, and
maximum for a flat surface parallel to the flow since the friction drag
in this case equals the total shear force on the surface. Therefore, for
parallel flow over a flat surface, the drag coefficient is equal to the
friction drag coefficient, or simply the friction coefficient. Friction
drag is a strong function of viscosity, and increases with increasing
viscosity.
• the contribution of friction drag to total drag for blunt bodies is less at
higher Reynolds numbers and may be negligible at very high Reynolds
numbers.
• A blunt body is a body that experiences pressure drag during fluid
movement.
• Blunt bodies are said to have separated flow over a considerable
portion of their layer.
• The fluid flowing over any type of object will not be in contact with
the whole portion of the object
Flow Separation

Flow separation and the wake region

for flow over a tennis ball.
• When fluid is forced to flow over a curved surface at high velocities. A
fluid follows the front portion of the curved surface with no problem,
but it has difficulty remaining attached to the surface on the back
side. At sufficiently high velocities, the fluid stream detaches itself
from the surface of the body, This is called flow separation.
• The location of the separation point depends on several factors such
as the Reynolds number, the surface roughness, and the level of
fluctuations in the free stream, and it is usually difficult to predict
exactly where separation will occur unless there are sharp corners or
abrupt changes in the shape of the solid surface.
• When a fluid separates from a body, it forms a separated region
between the body and the fluid stream. This low-pressure region
behind the body where recirculating and backflows occur is called the
separated region. The larger the separated region, the larger the
pressure drag.
• The effects of flow separation are felt far downstream in the form of
reduced velocity (relative to the upstream velocity). The region of
flow trailing the body where the effects of the body on velocity are
felt is called the wake.