The Coand effect /kwand/ is the tendency of a fluid jet to be attracted to a

nearby surface.[1] The principle was named after Romanian aerodynamics pioneer
Henri Coand, who was the first to recognize the practical application of the

phenomenon in aircraft development.[2

A spinning ping pong ball is held in a diagonal stream of air by the Coand Effect. The ball
"sticks" to the lower side of the air stream, which (in combination with the Magnus effect) stops
the ball from falling down. The jet as a whole keeps the ball some distance from the jet exhaust,
and gravity prevents it from being blown away.
The Coand effect /kwand/ is the tendency of a fluid jet to be attracted to
a nearby surface.[1] The principle was named after Romanian aerodynamics
pioneer Henri Coand, who was the first to recognize the practical
application of the phenomenon in aircraft development. Discovery
An early description of this phenomenon was provided by Thomas Young in a lecture given to
The Royal Society in 1800:
The lateral pressure which urges the flame of a candle towards the stream of air from a blowpipe
is probably exactly similar to that pressure which eases the inflection of a current of air near an
obstacle. Mark the dimple which a slender stream of air makes on the surface of water. Bring a
convex body into contact with the side of the stream and the place of the dimple will
immediately show the current is deflected towards the body; and if the body be at liberty to move
in every direction it will be urged towards the current...[3]
A hundred years later, Henri Coand identified an application of the effect during experiments
with his Coand-1910 aircraft which mounted an unusual engine designed by Coand. The
motor-driven turbine pushed hot air rearward, and Coand noticed that the airflow was attracted
to nearby surfaces. He discussed this matter with leading aerodynamicist Theodore von Krmn

who named it the Coand effect.[4] In 1934 Coand obtained a patent in France for a "Method and
apparatus for deviation of a fluid into another fluid". The effect was described as the "Deviation
of a plain jet of a fluid that penetrates another fluid in the vicinity of a convex wall."

Applications
The Coand effect has important applications in various high-lift devices on aircraft, where air
moving over the wing can be "bent down" towards the ground using flaps and a jet sheet blowing
over the curved surface of the top of the wing. The bending of the flow results in aerodynamic
lift.[5] The flow from a high speed jet engine mounted in a pod over the wing produces increased
lift by dramatically increasing the velocity gradient in the shear flow in the boundary layer. In
this velocity gradient, particles are blown away from the surface, thus lowering the pressure
there. Closely following the work of Coand on applications of his research, and in particular the
work on his "Aerodina Lenticular,"[6] John Frost of Avro Canada also spent considerable time
researching the effect, leading to a series of "inside out" hovercraft-like aircraft from which the
air exited in a ring around the outside of the aircraft and was directed by being "attached" to a
flap-like ring.

The first Avrocar being readied at the Avro factory in 1958

This is as opposed to a traditional hovercraft design, in which the air is blown into a central area,
the plenum, and directed down with the use of a fabric "skirt". Only one of Frost's designs was
ever built, the Avrocar.
The VZ-9 AV Avrocar (often listed as VZ-9) was a Canadian vertical takeoff and landing
(VTOL) aircraft developed by Avro Aircraft Ltd. as part of a secret United States military project
carried out in the early years of the Cold War.[7] The Avrocar intended to exploit the Coand
effect to provide lift and thrust from a single "turborotor" blowing exhaust out the rim of the
disk-shaped aircraft to provide anticipated VTOL-like performance. In the air, it would have
resembled a flying saucer. Two prototypes were built as "proof-of-concept" test vehicles for a
more advanced USAF fighter and also for a U.S. Army tactical combat aircraft requirement.[8]
Avro's 1956 Project 1794 for the US military designed a larger-scale flying saucer based on the
Coand effect and intended to reach speeds between Mach 3 and Mach 4.[9] Project documents
remained classified until 2012.

The effect was also implemented during the U.S. Air Force's AMST project. Several aircraft,
notably the Boeing YC-14 (the first modern type to exploit the effect), NASA's Quiet Short-Haul
Research Aircraft, and NAL's Asuka research aircraft have been built to take advantage of this
effect, by mounting turbofans on the top of the wings to provide high-speed air even at low
flying speeds, but to date only one aircraft has gone into production using this system to a major
degree, the Antonov An-72 'Coaler'. The Shin Meiwa US-1A flying boat utilizes a similar
system, only it directs the propwash from its four turboprop engines over the top of the wing to
generate low-speed lift. More uniquely, it incorporates a fifth turboshaft engine inside of the
wing center-section solely to provide air for powerful blown flaps. The addition of these two
systems gives the aircraft an impressive STOL capability.

The C-17 Globemaster III uses the Coand effect for a comfortable ride at low flying speeds
The McDonnell Douglas YC-15 and its successor, the Boeing C-17 Globemaster III, also employ
the effect. The NOTAR helicopter replaces the conventional propeller tail rotor with a Coand
effect tail.
An important practical use of the Coand effect is for inclined hydropower screens,[10] which
separate debris, fish, etc., otherwise in the input flow to the turbines. Due to the slope, the debris
falls from the screens without mechanical clearing, and due to the wires of the screen optimizing
the Coand effect, the water flows though the screen to the penstocks leading the water to the
turbines.
The Coand effect is used in dual-pattern fluid dispensers in automobile windshield washers.[11]
The operation principle of oscillatory flowmeters also relies on the Coand phenomenon. The
incoming liquid enters a chamber that contains 2 "islands". Due to the Coand effect, the main
stream splits up and goes under one of the islands. This flow then feeds itself back into the main
stream making it split up again, but in the direction of the second isle. This process repeats itself
as long as the liquid circulates the chamber, resulting in a self-induced oscillation that is directly
proportional to the velocity of the liquid and consequently the volume of substance flowing
through the meter. A sensor picks up the frequency of this oscillation and transforms it into an
analog signal yielding volume passing through.[12]
In air conditioning, the Coand effect is exploited to increase the throw of a ceiling mounted
diffuser. Because the Coand effect causes air discharged from the diffuser to "stick" to the
ceiling, it travels farther before dropping for the same discharge velocity than it would if the
diffuser was mounted in free air, without the neighbouring ceiling. Lower discharge velocity
means lower noise levels and, in the case of variable air volume (VAV) air conditioning systems,

permits greater turndown ratios. Linear diffusers and slot diffusers that present a greater length of
contact with the ceiling exhibit a greater Coand effect.
In cardiovascular medicine, the Coand effect accounts for the separate streams of blood in the
fetal right atrium.[13] It also explains why eccentric mitral regurgitation jets are attracted and
dispersed along adjacent left atrial wall surfaces (so called "wall-hugging jets" as seen on
echocardiographic color-doppler interrogation). This is clinically relevant because the visual area
(and thus severity) of these eccentric wall-hugging jets is often underestimated compared to the
more readily apparent central jets. In these cases, volumetric methods such as the proximal
isovelocity surface area (PISA) method are preferred to quantify the severity of mitral
regurgitation.
In medicine, the Coand effect is used in ventilators.[14][15][16]
In meteorology, the Coand effect theory has also been applied to some air streams flowing out
of mountain ranges such as the Carpathian Mountains and Transylvanian Alps, where effects on
agriculture and vegetation have been noted. It also appears to be an effect in the Rhone Valley in
France and near Big Delta in Alaska.[17]
In Formula One automobile racing, the Coand effect has been exploited by the McLaren,
Sauber, Ferrari and Lotus teams, after the first introduction by Adrian Newey (Red Bull Team) in
2011, to help redirect exhaust gases to run through the rear diffuser with the intention of
increasing downforce at the rear of the car.[18] Due to changes in regulations set in place by the
FIA from the beginning of the 2014 Formula One season, the intention of redirecting exhaust
gases to use the Coand effect have been negated, due to the mandatory requirement that the car
exhaust must not have bodywork directly behind the exit for use of aerodynamic effect.[19]

Demonstration
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The Coand effect can be demonstrated by directing a small jet of air upwards at an angle over a
ping pong ball. The jet is drawn to and follows the upper surface of the ball curving around it,
due to the (radial) acceleration (slowing and turning) of the air around the ball. With enough
airflow, this change in momentum is balanced by the equal and opposite force on the ball
supporting its weight. This demonstration can be performed using a vacuum cleaner if the outlet
can be attached to the pipe and aimed upwards at an angle.
A common misconception is that Coand effect is demonstrated when a stream of tap water
flows over the back of a spoon held lightly in the stream and the spoon is pulled into the stream.
While the flow looks very similar to the air flow over the ping pong ball above (if one could see
the air flow), the cause is not really the Coand effect. Here, because it is a flow of water into air,
there is little entrainment of the surrounding fluid (the air) into the jet (the stream of water). This
particular demonstration is dominated by surface tension.[dubious discuss]

Another demonstration is to direct the air flow from, e.g., a vacuum cleaner operating in reverse,
tangentially past a round cylinder. A waste basket works well. The air flow seems to "wrap
around" the cylinder and can be detected at more than 180 from the incoming flow. Under the
right conditions, flow rate, weight of the cylinder, smoothness of the surface it sits on, the
cylinder will actually move. Note that the cylinder will not move directly into the flow as a
misapplication of the Bernoulli effect would predict, but at a diagonal.
The effect can also be seen by placing a can in front of a lit candle. If one blows directly at the
can, the air will bend around it and extinguish the candle.
If two lit candles are placed side-by-side, the heated air from each candle rises and entrains
surrounding air. Since both "jets" are trying to entrain common air from the space between the
two streams, they are drawn towards each other. This is more apparent if the candles are making
a little smoke. This is a demonstration of the Coand effect without the presence of any surface.
In some sense, the plane of symmetry between the two flows can be thought of as the surface. In
actual fact this is not the Coand Effect in action but is in fact the Atmospheric Press in action as
putting two candles close together causes an area of warmth between them which warms the air
which then rises - leaving the cooler atmosphere to try fill this partial void and so the flames are
forced together.

Problems caused
The engineering use of Coand effect has disadvantages as well as advantages.
In marine propulsion, the efficiency of a propeller or thruster can be severely curtailed by the
Coand effect. The force on the vessel generated by a propeller is a function of the speed,
volume and direction of the water jet leaving the propeller. Under certain conditions (e.g., when
a ship moves through water) the Coand effect changes the direction of a propeller jet, causing it
to follow the shape of the ship's hull. The side force from a tunnel thruster at the bow of a ship
decreases rapidly with forward speed.[20] The side thrust may completely disappear at speeds
above about 3 knots.[21]