EXTERNAL FLOW:

DRAG
The wake of a Boeing 767 disrupts the top of a cumulus cloud
and clearly shows the counter-rotating trailing vortices. 2
INTRODUCTION
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 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.

A fluid moving over a stationary body (such as the wind blowing over a
building), and a body moving through a quiescent fluid (such as a car
moving through air) are referred to as flow over bodies or external flow.

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Flow over bodies is commonly encountered in practice.

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Two-dimensional,
axisymmetric, and
three-dimensional
flows.
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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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 DRAG
• 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 applies 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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 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. 9
The drag and lift forces depend on the density of the fluid, the upstream velocity,
and the size, shape, and orientation of the body.
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.

A frontal
area

dynamic
pressure

During a free fall, a

In lift and drag calculations of some
body reaches its
thin bodies, such as airfoils, A is
terminal velocity
taken to be the planform area,
when the drag force
which is the area seen by a person
equals the weight
looking at the body from above in a
of the body minus
direction normal to the body. 10
the buoyant force.
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. 11
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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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 Reynolds numbers) for which
is based on the frontal area bD where b is flow separation is a real
the width of the body. possibility.
Streamlining is not necessary for
bodies that typically involve low
Reynolds number flows. 14
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. 15

• 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. 16
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 17
to dangerous levels.
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 Stokes law

not all) geometries remains Stokes law is often applicable to dust particles in
essentially constant at Reynolds the air and suspended solid particles in water.
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numbers above about 104.
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Example 1

 Compute the drag force on a 1.8 m square bar with

a cross section of 0.1 m × 0.1 m when the bar is
moving at 1.2 m/s through water at 50C. The long
axis of the bar and a flat face are placed
perpendicular to the flow. CD is given as 2.05.

1.8 m 1.2 m/s Flow of

water

01/05/2019
Example 2

 A very thin square sign, 3 m × 3 m is attached to

the top of a 18 m high pole which is 30 cm in
diameter as shown on the board. Calculate the
total drag force on the structure for a wind speed
of 30 m/s. CD for the square and rectangular
objects are is given as 1.9 and 2.2, respectively.
The density of the wind is 1.23 kg/m3.

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PARALLEL FLOW OVER FLAT PLATES
Velocity boundary layer: The region of the flow above the plate bounded by
 in which the effects of the viscous shearing forces caused by fluid viscosity
are felt.
The boundary layer thickness  is typically defined as the distance y from the
surface at which u = 0.99V.
The hypothetical curve of u = 0.99V divides the flow into two regions:
Boundary layer region: The viscous effects and the velocity changes are
significant.
Irotational flow region: The frictional effects are negligible and the velocity
remains essentially constant.

The development of the boundary layer for flow over a

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flat plate, and the different flow regimes. Not to scale.
The turbulent boundary layer can Friction coefficient on a flat plate
be considered to consist of
four regions, characterized by
the distance from the wall:
• viscous sublayer Friction force on a flat plate
• buffer layer
• overlap layer
• turbulent layer

For parallel flow over a flat plate,

the pressure drag is zero, and thus
The development of a boundary the drag coefficient is equal to the
layer on a surface is due to the no- friction coefficient and the drag
slip condition and friction. force is equal to the friction force. 30
The transition from laminar to turbulent flow depends on the surface
geometry, surface roughness, upstream velocity, surface temperature, and
the type of fluid, among other things, and is best characterized by the
Reynolds number.
The Reynolds number at a distance x from the leading edge of a flat plate is
expressed as
V upstream velocity
x characteristic length of the geometry
(for a flat plate, it is the length of the
plate in the flow direction)
For flow over a smooth flat plate, transition from laminar to turbulent begins
at about Re  1105, but does not become fully turbulent before the Reynolds
number reaches much higher values, typically around 3106.
In engineering analysis, a generally accepted value for the critical Reynolds
number is

The actual value of the engineering critical Reynolds number for a flat plate may
vary somewhat from about 105 to 3106 depending on the surface roughness,
the turbulence level, and the variation of pressure along the surface. 31
Friction Coefficient
• The friction coefficient for laminar
flow over a flat plate can be
determined theoretically by solving
the conservation of mass and
momentum equations numerically.
• For turbulent flow, it must be
determined experimentally and
expressed by empirical correlations.

The variation of the local friction coefficient for flow

over a flat plate. Note that the vertical scale of the
boundary layer is greatly exaggerated in this sketch.

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Average friction coefficient over the entire plate

When the laminar flow region is not disregarded

The average friction coefficient over a

surface is determined by integrating the
local friction coefficient over the entire
surface. The values shown here are for a
laminar flat plate boundary layer. 33
For laminar flow, the friction coefficient depends only on the Reynolds number,
and the surface roughness has no effect.
For turbulent flow, surface roughness causes the friction coefficient to increase
severalfold, to the point that in the fully rough turbulent regime the friction
coefficient is a function of surface roughness alone and is independent of the
Reynolds number.

 the surface roughness

L the length of the plate in
the flow direction.
This relation can be used
for turbulent flow on rough
surfaces for Re > 106,
especially when /L > 104.

For turbulent flow, surface

roughness may cause the
friction coefficient to
increase severalfold. 34
 Cf increases
severalfold with
roughness in turbulent
flow.
Cf is independent of
the Reynolds number
in the fully rough
region.
This chart is the flat-
plate analog of the
Moody chart for pipe
flows.

Friction coefficient for

parallel flow over smooth
and rough flat plates for
both laminar and
turbulent flows. 35
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 Summary
• Introduction
• Drag
• Friction and Pressure Drag
 Reducing Drag by Streamlining
 Flow Separation
• Drag Coefficients of Common Geometries
 Biological Systems and Drag
 Drag Coefficients of Vehicles
 Superposition
• Parallel Flow Over Flat Plates
 Friction Coefficient

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