Concept of Drag

Viscous Drag and 1D motion

Concept of Drag
 Drag is the retarding force exerted on a
moving body in a fluid medium
 It does not attempt to turn the object,
simply to slow it down
 It is a function of the speed of the
body, the size (and shape) of the body,
and the fluid through which it is moving
Drag Force Due to Air
 The drag force due to wind (air) acting on an
object can be found by:
FD = ½ ρ CDV2A

where: FD = drag force (N)

CD = drag coefficient (no units)
V = velocity of object (m/s)
A = projected area (m2)
ρ = density of air (kg/m3) {1.2 kg/m3}
 Drag Coefficient: CD
 The drag coefficient is a function of the shape of
the object and the Reynolds Number (Re)
 Re = (velocity * length-scale) / (kinematic viscosity)
 For a spherical shape the drag coefficient ranges
from 0.1 to 300, as shown on the next slide.
Drag Coefficient for Spheres
Dropping a Ping Pong Ball
 If you dropped a ping pong ball down
the stairwell in this building (height 50
feet), and the stairwell had a vacuum in
it, how long would it take for the ping
pong ball to hit the floor?
 If you left the air in the stairwell would
it take longer, shorter, or the same time
to hit the bottom?
Looking at the ball in detail
 Drawing a Free Body
Diagram (FBD) of the ball is FD=f(v)
shown to the right
 Since all the drag force is
doing is slowing the ball
down, it is directly vertical FG=mg
and upwards
Numerical Analysis
 If you have two data points (time,
position), then you can approximate the
velocity of the body.
 Given the points (2 s, -15m) and (2.1 s,
-17m), what is the approximate velocity
at 2.1 seconds?
 If the next data point is (2.2 s, -19.05m),
what is the velocity at 2.2 seconds?
Solution
V [@ 2.1] 
   15m     17m  
 20
m
(2 s  2.1s ) s

V [@ 2.2] 
   17m     19.05m  
 20.5
m
(2.1s  2.2s ) s
Now Find Acceleration
 Given the velocities at 2.1s and 2.2s,
what is the acceleration at 2.2s?
 Data points are (time, velocity):
 (2.1s, -20 m/s)
 (2.2s, -20.5 m/s)
Acceleration Solution
 m  m 
  20 s     20.5 s 
    m
A[@ 2.2]   5 2
2.1s  2.2 s s
Continuing the process
 The ultimate goal of this numerical
analysis is to find the drag force on the
body
 Now that we have the acceleration, we
can find the total force acting on the
body (F=ma), the force of gravity
(Fg=mg), and Drag Force (FD)
Implementing this in Matlab
(Section 8.3)

 Suppose you have two arrays defined,

one with the elevation of the ping pong
ball and the other with the time
intervals
 You can use numerical methods to
determine the drag coefficient by
estimating the acceleration of the ball at
each time step
Central Differencing
 To find the average velocity over a time
interval, you divide the change in
position by the change in time.
 This is called forward differencing.
 A better estimate is central differencing,
where you estimate the velocity at a
point by considering the points on
either side of it.
Sample Data
T (s) h (m)
 Type the sample 0 0
data into Matlab and 0.1 -0.05
plot Height versus 0.2 -0.2
time 0.3 -0.44
 Use central 0.4 -0.76
0.5 -1.17
differencing to find
0.6 -1.65
the velocity at the 0.7 -2.19
points 0.1 through 0.8 -2.78
0.9 0.9 -3.41
1 -4.08
The plotted data
 Central Differencing for Velocity
To find the velocity at time 0.1 seconds,
use the formula:
h0.2  h0  0.20m  0m m
v0.1    1.0
t0.2  t0 0.2s  0s s
>> t1=[0:.1:1];
>> h1=[0 -.05 -.2 -.44 -.76 -1.17 -1.65 -2.19 -2.78 -3.41 -4.08];
>> v1=(h1(3:10)-h1(1:8))./(t1(3:10)-t1(1:8))
v1 =
-1.0000 -1.9500 -2.8000 -3.6500 -4.4500 -5.1000 -5.6500 -6.1000
 Central Differencing for Acceleration
 To find the acceleration at time 0.2
seconds, use the formula:
m m
 2.80  1.0
v0.3  v0.1 s s m
a0.2    9.0 2
t0.3  t0.1 0.3s  0.1s s

 Notice you must be careful with the indices

>> a1=(v1(3:8)-v1(1:6))./(t1(4:9)-t1(2:7))

a1 =

-9.0000 -8.5000 -8.2500 -7.2500 -6.0000 -5.0000

 Finding the Drag Force
 With the net acceleration known at each time step,
the acceleration due to drag can be found be
subtracting the acceleration due to gravity.
 Then the drag force, at each time step, can be found
from Newton’s second law (for a mass of 0.0025 kg).
>> a2=a1-(-9.8)
a2 =
0.8000 1.3000 1.5500 2.5500 3.8000 4.8000
>> f2=a2*.0025
f2 =
0.0020 0.0032 0.0039 0.0064 0.0095 0.0120
Finding the Drag Coefficient
 If you know the velocity at each time
step and the drag force at each time
step, you can plot F versus v2 and fit a
straight line to the data.
 Care must be taken to make sure you
line up the correct force (a 1x6 array)
with the correct velocity (a 1x8 array).
Force 1 matches velocity 2, etc.
 Using Matlab
>> v2=v1(2:7)

v2 =
-1.9500 -2.8000 -3.6500
-4.4500 -5.1000 -5.6500
>> v3=v2.^2

v3 =
3.8025 7.8400 13.3225
19.8025 26.0100 31.9225

>> plot(v3,f2,v3,f2,'o')
 Using Least Squares
 Cast the data points
into array form using v 2 * k  FD
the base equation and  3.8025  0.0020
then solve using matrix
math.
 7.8400  0.0032
   
 Note that currently V2 13.3225  0.0039
and FD are row vectors 19.8025  * k  0.0064
and need to be    
transposed. 26.0100 0.0095
>> k=v3'\f2' 31.9225 0.0120
k=    
3.5928e-004 For this problem, \ is the
least squares operator!
Final Form of Drag Equation
 The final form of the drag equation can be
written, which will allow the drag force to
be calculated at any velocity.

FD  0.000359v 2

 where:
 FD is in Newtons
 V is in meters per second