FLUID MECHANICS II

External Flow Past Bodies

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The wake of a Boeing 767 disrupts the top of a cumulus cloud
and clearly shows the counter-rotating trailing vortices. 2
Introduction
Objects are completely surrounded by the fluid and the
flows are termed external flows..
Examples include the flow of air around airplane,
automobiles, and falling snowflakes, or the flow of water
around submarines and fish.
External flows involving air are often termed
aerodynamics in response to the important external flows
produced when an object such as an airplane flies through
the atmosphere.

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Flow over bodies is commonly encountered in practice.

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90 km/h

It is much easier to
force a streamlined
90 km/h
body than a blunt
body through a fluid.
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Application
Design of cars and trucks – to decrease the fuel
consumption and improve the handling characteristics.
Improve ships, whether they are surface vessels
(surrounded by air and water) or submersible vessels.
Design of building – consider the various wind effects

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Approaches to External Flows 1/2
 Two approaches are used to obtain information of external flows:
Theoretical (analytical and numerical) approaches: Because of
the complexities of the governing equations and the complexities
of the geometry of the objects involved, the amount of
information obtained from purely theoretical methods is limited.
With current and anticipated advancements in the area of
computational fluid mechanics, computer predication of forces
and complicated flow patterns will become more readily
available.
Experimental approaches: Much information is obtained..

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Approaches to External Flows 2/2
Flow visualization

(a) Flow past a full-sized streamlined

vehicle in the GM aerodynamics
laboratory wind tunnel, and 18-ft
by 34-ft test section facility driven
by a 4000-hp, 43-ft-diameter fan.
(b) Predicted streamlines for flow past
a Formula 1 race car as obtained
by using computational fluid
dynamics techniques. (Courtesy of
ANSYS, Inc.).
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General Characteristics
 A body immersed in a moving fluid experiences a resultant force
due to the interacting between the body and the fluid surrounding:
The body is stationary and the fluid flows past the body with
velocity U.
The fluid far from the body is stationary and the body moves
through the fluid with velocity U.
 For a given-shaped object, the characteristics of the flow depend
very strongly on various parameters such as size, orientation, speed,
and fluid properties.

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Categories of Bodies
 The structure of an external flow and the ease with which the flow
can be described and analyzed often depend on the nature of the
body in the flow.
 Three general categories of bodies include (a) two-dimensional
objects, (b) axisymmetric bodies, and (c) three-dimensional bodies.

 Another classification of body shape can be made depending on

whether the body is streamlined or blunt..
The flow fields and geometries for most external flow problems are too complicated
and we have to rely on correlations based on experimental data.
Free-stream velocity: The velocity of the fluid approaching a body (V or u or U)
Two-dimensional flow: When the body is very long and of constant cross section
and the flow is normal to the body.
Axisymmetric flow: When the body possesses rotational symmetry about an axis
in the flow direction. The flow in this case is also two-dimensional.
Three-dimensional flow: Flow over a body that cannot be modeled as two-
dimensional or axisymmetric such as flow over a car.
Incompressible flows: (e.g., flows over automobiles, submarines, and buildings)
compressible flows: (e.g., flows over high-speed aircraft, rockets, and missiles).
Compressibility effects are negligible at low velocities (flows with Ma < 0.3).
Streamlined body: If a conscious effort is made to align its shape with the
anticipated streamlines in the flow.
Streamlined bodies such as race cars and airplanes appear to be contoured and
sleek.
Bluff or blunt body: If a body (such as a building) tends to block the flow.
Usually it is much easier to force a streamlined body through a fluid.
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 DRAG AND LIFT CONCEPTS
• A body meets some resistance when it is
forced to move through a fluid, especially
a liquid.
• A fluid may exert forces and moments on
a body in and about various directions.
• Drag: The force a flowing fluid exerts on a
body in the flow direction.
• The drag force can be measured directly
by simply attaching the body subjected to
fluid flow to a calibrated spring and
measuring the displacement in the flow
direction.
• Drag is usually an undesirable effect, like
friction, and we do our best to minimize it. High winds knock down trees,
• But in some cases drag produces a very power lines, and even people as
beneficial effect and we try to maximize it a result of the drag force.
(e.g., automobile brakes).

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Lift and Drag Concepts
 The interaction between the body and the
fluid:
 Stresses-wall shear stresses,,w ,due to
viscous effects.
 Normal stresses, due to the pressure p.
 Both w and p vary in magnitude and
direction along the surface.
 The detailed distribution of w and p is
difficult to obtain.
 However, only the integrated or resultant
effects of these distributions are needed.
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Lift and Drag Concepts
The resultant force on the object in the downstream
direction (by the fluid) is termed the DRAG,
and the resultant force normal to the upstream velocity
is termed the LIFT, both of which are surface forces..

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The wing is a collection of many airfoils
Example 2:
The drag coefficient of a car is to be determined
experimentally with a full scale Wind tunnel test in a large
wind tunnel. The wind speed is 100 km/h (60 mi/h) and
the drag force measured on a scale as shown in the
adjacent drawing is 302 N. The frontal area of the car is
2.068 m2. Neglect any ground effect due to the floor not
moving relative to the car

(a) Calculate the drag coefficient of the car. Assume an

air temperature of 20°c.

(b) Calculate the equivalent power required to overcome

wind resistance at this speed (100 km/h) on the open
road. Neglect rolling resistance

(c) If the overall engine and transmission efficiency is

30% estimate the fuel consumption of the car in litres
per 100 km at 100 km/h due to wind resistance only.
Use the answer from (b) above and assume a
calorific value of 40 000 kJ/kg for the fuel.
For air at T = 25 ℃ and atmospheric pressure, ρ = 1.184 kg/m3 and μ =
1.849x10-5 kg/m-s & at T = 5 ℃ and atmospheric pressure, ρ = 1.269 kg/m3
and μ = 1.754x10-5 kg/m-s.
Lift: 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 fluid forces may generate moments and cause
the body to rotate.
Rolling moment: The moment about the flow
direction.
Yawing moment: The moment about the lift direction.
Pitching moment: The moment about the side force
direction.

The pressure and

viscous forces acting
on a two-dimensional
body and the
resultant lift and drag
forces.
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 Airplane wings are shaped and
positioned to generate sufficient lift
during flight while keeping drag at
a minimum. Pressures above and
below atmospheric pressure are
indicated by plus and minus signs,
respectively.

(a) Drag force acting on a flat plate parallel to the flow depends on
wall shear only.
(b) Drag force acting on a flat plate normal to the flow depends on
the pressure only and is independent of the wall shear, which acts
normal to the free-stream flow. 25
Lift and Drag Concepts
 Without detailed information concerning the
shear stress and pressure distributions on a
body, the drag and the lift are difficult to
obtain by integration..
 A widely used alternative is to define
dimensionless lift and drag coefficients and
determine their approximate values by means
of either a simplified analysis, some
numerical technique, or an appropriate
experiment..
• In addition to size, shape and orientation of the body, lift FL and
drag FD forces are a function of density  and velocity V.
• Dimensional analysis gives 2 dimensionless parameters: lift and
drag coefficients.

dynamic
pressure

Area A can be frontal area (drag applications), planform area (wing

aerodynamics), or wetted-surface area (ship hydrodynamics).

In lift and drag calculations of some thin bodies, such as airfoils, A is taken to be
the planform area, which is the area seen by a person looking at the body from
above in a direction normal to the body.
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Drag and Lift
• For applications such as tapered wings, CL and CD may be a function
of span location. For these applications, a local CL,x and CD,x are
introduced and the total lift and drag is determined by integration
over the span L
■ 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.
• The part of drag that is due directly to wall shear stress is called the skin
friction drag (or just friction drag) since it is caused by frictional effects,
and the part that is due directly to pressure is called the pressure drag
(also called the form drag because of its strong dependence on the form or
shape of the body).

• 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.
• For parallel flow over a flat surface, the drag coefficient is equal
to the friction drag coefficient.
• Friction drag is a strong function of viscosity, and increases with
increasing viscosity. 29
Drag is due entirely to friction drag for a
flat plate parallel to the flow; it is due
entirely to pressure drag for a flat plate
normal to the flow; and it is due to both
(but mostly pressure drag) for a cylinder
normal to the flow. The total drag
coefficient CD is lowest for a parallel flat
plate, highest for a vertical flat plate, and
in between (but close to that of a vertical
flat plate) for a cylinder.
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Streamlining

• Streamlining reduces drag by

reducing FD,pressure, at the cost
of increasing wetted surface
area and FD,friction.
• Goal is to eliminate flow
separation and minimize
total drag FD
• Also improves structural
acoustics since separation
and vortex shedding can
excite structural modes.
Streamlining
Reducing Drag by Streamlining
Streamlining decreases pressure drag by delaying boundary layer separation
and thus reducing the pressure difference between the front and back of the
body but increases the friction drag by increasing the surface area. The end
result depends on which effect dominates.

The variation of friction,

pressure, and total drag
coefficients of a
streamlined strut with
thickness-to-chord length
ratio for Re = 4×104. Note
that CD for airfoils and
other thin bodies is based
on planform area rather
than frontal area.
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 The drag coefficient decreases
drastically as the ellipse
becomes slimmer.
The reduction in the drag
coefficient at high aspect ratios
is primarily due to the boundary
layer staying attached to the
surface longer and the resulting
pressure recovery.
Streamlining has the added
benefit of reducing vibration and
noise.
Streamlining should be
considered only for blunt bodies
that are subjected to high-
The variation of the drag coefficient of a long velocity fluid flow (and thus high
elliptical cylinder with aspect ratio. Here CD is Reynolds numbers) for which
based on the frontal area bD where b is the flow separation is a real
width of the body. possibility.
Streamlining is not necessary for
bodies that typically involve low
Reynolds number flows. 34
Flow Separation
Flow separation: At sufficiently high velocities, the fluid stream detaches itself
from the surface of the body.
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.

Flow separation over a backward-

facing step along a wall.

Flow separation in a waterfall. 35

• Separated region: When a fluid separates from a body, it forms a
separated region between the body and the fluid stream.
• This is a low-pressure region behind the body where recirculating and
backflows occur.
• 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).
• Wake: The region of flow trailing the body where the effects of the
body on velocity are felt.
• Viscous and rotational effects are the most significant in the boundary
layer, the separated region, and the wake.

Flow separation and

the wake region during
flow over a tennis ball. 36
At large angles of attack (usually larger than
15°), flow may separate completely from the
top surface of an airfoil, reducing lift
drastically and causing the airfoil to stall.

An important consequence of flow

separation is the formation and shedding
of circulating fluid structures, called
vortices, in the wake region.
The periodic generation of these vortices
downstream is referred to as vortex
shedding.
The vibrations generated by vortices near
the body may cause the body to resonate 37
to dangerous levels.
 11–4 ■ DRAG COEFFICIENTS OF COMMON GEOMETRIES
The drag behavior of various natural and human-made bodies is characterized by
their drag coefficients measured under typical operating conditions.
Usually the total (friction+pressure) drag coefficient is reported.

The drag coefficient exhibits different

behavior in the low (creeping), moderate
(laminar), and high (turbulent) regions of
the Reynolds number.
The inertia effects are negligible in low
Reynolds number flows (Re < 1), called
creeping flows, and the fluid wraps around
the body smoothly.
Creeping flow,
sphere

The drag coefficient for many (but which is known as Stokes law. This relation shows that at very low
Reynolds numbers, the drag force acting on spherical objects is
not all) geometries remains proportional to the diameter, the velocity, and the viscosity of the
essentially constant at Reynolds fluid. This relation is often applicable to dust particles in the air and
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numbers above about 104. suspended solid particles in water.
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Observations from the drag
coefficient tables

The orientation of the body relative to

the direction of flow has a major
influence on the drag coefficient.
For blunt bodies with sharp corners,
such as flow over a rectangular block or
a flat plate normal to flow, separation
occurs at the edges of the front and
back surfaces, with no significant
change in the character of flow.
The drag coefficient of a body
Therefore, the drag coefficient of such may change drastically by
bodies is nearly independent of the changing the body’s orientation
Reynolds number. (and thus shape) relative to the
The drag coefficient of a long direction of flow.
rectangular rod can be reduced almost
by half from 2.2 to 1.2 by rounding the
corners. 44
Biological Systems and Drag
The concept of drag also has important consequences for biological systems.
The bodies of fish, especially the ones that swim fast for long distances (such
as dolphins), are highly streamlined to minimize drag (the drag coefficient of
dolphins based on the wetted skin area is about 0.0035, comparable to the
value for a flat plate in turbulent flow).
Airplanes, which look somewhat like big birds, retract their wheels after takeoff
in order to reduce drag and thus fuel consumption.
The flexible structure of plants
enables them to reduce drag at high
winds by changing their shapes.
Large flat leaves, for example, curl
into a low-drag conical shape at high
wind speeds, while tree branches
cluster to reduce drag.
Flexible trunks bend under the
influence of the wind to reduce drag,
and the bending moment is lowered Birds teach us a lesson on drag
by reducing frontal area. reduction by extending their beak
Horse and bicycle riders lean forward forward and folding their feet 45
as much as they can to reduce drag. backward during flight.
Drag Coefficients of Vehicles
The drag coefficients of vehicles range from about 1.0 for large semitrailers to 0.4
for minivans, 0.3 for passenger cars, and 0.2 for race cars. The theoretical lower
limit is about 0.1.
In general, the more blunt the vehicle, the higher the drag coefficient.
Installing a fairing reduces the drag coefficient of tractor-trailer rigs by about 20
percent by making the frontal surface more streamlined.
As a rule of thumb, the percentage of fuel savings due to reduced drag is about
half the percentage of drag reduction at highway speeds.

Streamlines around an aerodynamically

This sleek-looking Toyota Prius has designed modern car closely resemble the
a drag coefficient of 0.26—one of streamlines around the car in the ideal potential
the lowest for a passenger car. flow (assumes negligible friction), except near
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the rear end, resulting in a low drag coefficient.
The aerodynamic drag is negligible at low speeds, Superposition
but becomes significant at speeds above about 50
km/h. The shapes of many bodies
encountered in practice are not
At highway speeds, a driver can often save fuel in simple.
hot weather by running the air conditioner instead
of driving with the windows rolled down. But such bodies can be treated
conveniently in drag force
The turbulence and additional drag generated by calculations by considering
open windows consume more fuel than does the them to be composed of two or
air conditioner. more simple bodies.
A satellite dish mounted on a
roof with a cylindrical bar, for
example, can be considered to
be a combination of a
hemispherical body and a
cylinder.
Then the drag coefficient of the
body can be determined
approximately by using
superposition.
The drag coefficients of bodies following other moving bodies
closely can be reduced considerably due to drafting (i.e., falling
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into the low pressure region created by the body in front).
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