Fluid Mechanics: Fundamentals and Applications

2nd EDITION IN SI UNITS

Yunus A. Cengel, John M. Cimbala
McGraw-Hill, 2010
CHAPTER 3
FLOW PAST IMMERSED BODIES:
EXTERNAL DRAG AND LIFT
LECTURE 3
FAUZIAH JERAI
30th APRIL 2020

Copyright © The McGraw-Hill Companies.

The wake of a Boeing 767 disrupts the top of a cumulus cloud and
2
clearly shows the counter-rotating trailing vortices.
 Objectives
• Have an intuitive understanding of the various
physical phenomena associated with external
flow such as drag, friction and pressure drag,
drag reduction, and lift
• Calculate the drag force associated with flow
over common geometries
• Understand the effects of flow regime on the drag
coefficients associated with flow over cylinders
and spheres
• Understand the fundamentals of flow over airfoils,
and calculate the drag and lift forces acting on
airfoils
3
11–1 ■ 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.
4
 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.

It is much easier to force

a streamlined body than
a blunt body through a
fluid. 5
11–2 ■ DRAG AND LIFT
• 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. High winds knock down trees, power
• Drag is usually an undesirable effect, like lines, and even people as a result of
friction, and we do our best to minimize it. the drag force.
• But in some cases drag produces a very
beneficial effect and we try to maximize it
(e.g., automobile brakes).
6
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.
7
 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
8
pressure only and is independent of the wall shear, which acts normal to the
free-stream flow.
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 is frontal area (area

projected on a plane normal
to the direction of flow)
dynamic
pressure

In lift and drag calculations of some thin During a free fall, a

bodies, such as airfoils, A is taken to be body reaches its
the planform area, which is the area terminal velocity when
seen by a person looking at the body the drag force equals
from above in a direction normal to the the weight of the 9

body. body minus the

buoyant force.
10
11–3 ■ 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.
11
• Friction drag is a strong function of viscosity, and increases with
increasing viscosity.
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.

12
Flow separation in a waterfall.
Boundary Layers with Pressure Gradients
When the flow in the inviscid and/or irrotational
outer flow region (outside of the boundary
layer) accelerates, U(x) increases and P(x)
decreases.
We refer to this as a favorable pressure
gradient.
It is favorable or desirable because the
boundary layer in such an accelerating flow is
usually thin, hugs closely to the wall, and
therefore is not likely to separate from the wall.
When the outer flow decelerates, U(x)
decreases, P(x) increases, and we have an
unfavorable or adverse pressure gradient.
As its name implies, this condition is not
Boundary layers with nonzero pressure desirable because the boundary layer is usually
gradients occur in both external flows and thicker, does not hug closely to the wall, and is
internal flows: (a) boundary layer
developing along the fuselage of an
much more likely to separate from the wall.
airplane and into the wake, and (b) 13
boundary layer growing on the wall of a
diffuser (boundary layer thickness
exaggerated in both cases).
 The boundary layer along a body
immersed in a free stream is
typically exposed to a favorable
pressure gradient in the front
portion of the body and an
adverse pressure gradient in the
rear portion of the body.

The closed streamline indicates a region of recirculating flow called a separation bubble.

Examples of boundary layer separation in regions of adverse pressure gradient: (a) an

airplane wing at a moderate angle of attack, (b) the same wing at a high angle of attack 14
(a stalled wing), and (c) a wide-angle diffuser in which the boundary layer cannot remain
attached and separates on one side.
15
CFD calculations of flow over a twodimensional bump: (a) solution of the
Euler equation with outer flow streamlines plotted (no flow separation), (b)
laminar flow solution showing flow separation on the downstream side of 16

the bump,
CFD calculations of flow over a twodimensional bump: (c) close-up view of
streamlines near the separation point, and (d) close-up view of velocity vectors, 17
same view as (c). The dashed line is a dividing streamline – fluid below this
streamline is “trapped” in the recirculating separation bubble.
Flow visualization comparison
of
laminar and turbulent
boundary layers in an adverse
pressure gradient; flow is from
left to right. (a) The laminar
boundary layer separates at
the corner, but (b) the turbulent
one does not. Photographs
taken by M. R. Head in 1982
as visualized with titanium
tetrachloride.

18
CFD calculation of turbulent flow over the same bump as that of Fig. 10–124.
Compared to the laminar result of Fig. 10–124b, the turbulent boundary layer is
more resistant to flow separation and does not separate in the adverse pressure
gradient region in the rear portion of the bump.

The turbulent boundary layer remains attached (no flow separation), in contrast to
the laminar boundary layer that separates off the rear portion of the bump. In
the turbulent case, the outer flow Euler solution is a reasonable approximation
over the entire bump since there is no flow separation and since the boundary 19

layer remains very thin.

Boundary Layers with Pressure Gradients
Fundamentals of Fluid Mechanics
7th EDITION
Inviscid Flow Over A Cylinder Munson, Okishi, Huebsch, Rothmayer
Wiley, 2010

20
 Viscous Flow Over A Cylinder *experiment MEC554

EXAMPLE (CONT….)

• Separated Flow
• No matter how small the
viscosity, provided it is not
zero, there will be a
boundary layer that
separates from the surface,
giving a drag that is, for the
most part independent of
viscosoty
21
• 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

22
wake region during flow
over a tennis ball.
 Flow separation occurs at about   80°
(measured from the front stagnation
point of a cylinder) when the boundary
layer is laminar and at about  140°
when it is turbulent.
The delay of separation in turbulent
flow is caused by the rapid fluctuations
of the fluid in the transverse direction,
which enables the turbulent boundary
layer to travel farther along the surface
before separation occurs, resulting in a
narrower wake and a smaller pressure
drag.

Flow visualization of flow over (a) a

smooth sphere at Re = 15,000, and (b) a
sphere at Re = 30,000 with a trip wire.
The delay of boundary layer separation
is clearly seen by comparing the two 23
photographs.
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. *experiment MEC554

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 not Stokes law

all) geometries remains essentially Stokes law is often applicable to dust particles24in the
constant at Reynolds numbers above air and suspended solid particles in water.
about 104.
25
26
27
28
29
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 rectangular direction of flow.
rod can be reduced almost by half from 2.2
to 1.2 by rounding the corners. 30
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 designed

modern car closely resemble the streamlines
around the car in the ideal potential flow
This sleek-looking Toyota Prius has a
(assumes negligible friction),
drag coefficient of 0.26—one of the 31
except near the rear end, resulting in a low drag
lowest for a passenger car.
coefficient.
The aerodynamic drag is negligible at low speeds,
but becomes significant at speeds above about 50 Superposition
km/h. The shapes of many bodies
At highway speeds, a driver can often save fuel in encountered in practice are not
hot weather by running the air conditioner instead simple.
of driving with the windows rolled down. But such bodies can be treated
The turbulence and additional drag generated by conveniently in drag force
open windows consume more fuel than does the air calculations by considering them to
conditioner. be composed of two or 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
The drag coefficients of bodies following body can be determined
other moving bodies closely can be reduced approximately by using
considerably due to drafting (i.e., entering superposition.
into the low pressure region created by the 32
body in front).
33
Discussion Answers are given to 2
significant digits. This example
demonstrates that significant
reductions in drag and fuel
consumption can be achieved by
reducing the frontal area of a vehicle
as well as its drag
coefficient.

34
11–5 ■ 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.

35
The development of the boundary layer for flow over a 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
The development of a boundary layer drag coefficient is equal to the friction
on a surface is due to the no-slip coefficient and the drag force is equal36
condition and friction. to the friction force.
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 37

level, and the variation of pressure along the surface.

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.

38
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
39
shown here are for a laminar flat plate
boundary layer.
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 > 10−4.

For turbulent flow, surface

roughness may cause the
40
friction coefficient to increase
severalfold.
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
41
both laminar and turbulent
flows.
42
Effect of Surface Roughness
Surface roughness, in general, increases the drag coefficient in turbulent flow.
This is especially the case for streamlined bodies.
For blunt bodies such as a circular cylinder or sphere, however, an increase in the surface
roughness may increase or decrease the drag coefficient depending on Reynolds number.

The effect of
surface
roughness on
the drag
coefficient
of a sphere.

43
 Surface roughness
Drag force
may increase or
relation
decrease the drag
coefficient of a
spherical object,
depending on the
value of the Reynolds Frontal area for
number. a cylinder and
sphere
Roughening the surface can be used to great advantage in reducing
drag.
Golf balls are intentionally roughened to induce turbulence at a lower
Reynolds number to take advantage of the sharp drop in the drag
coefficient at the onset of turbulence in the boundary layer (the
typical velocity range of golf balls is 15 to 150 m/s, and the
Reynolds number is less than 4105). The occurrence of turbulent flow
at this Reynolds number reduces the drag coefficient of a golf ball by
about half. For a given hit, this means a longer distance for the ball.
For a table tennis ball, however, the speeds are slower and the ball is
smaller—it never reaches speeds in the turbulent range. Therefore,
44
the surfaces of table tennis balls are made smooth.
45
11–7 ■ LIFT
Lift: The component of the net force (due to viscous and pressure forces) that is
perpendicular to the flow direction.
A planform area: the area that would be seen
Lift coefficient
by a person looking at the body from above in
a direction normal to the body

For an aircraft, the wingspan is the

total distance between the tips of
the two wings, which includes the
width of the fuselage between the
wings.
The average lift per unit planform
area FL/A is called the wing
loading, which is simply the ratio of
the weight of the aircraft to the
planform area of the wings (since
lift equals the weight during flying
at constant altitude).
Definition of various terms associated with an 46

airfoil.
The minimum flight velocity can be determined from the requirement that
the total weight W of the aircraft be equal to lift and CL = CL, max:

For a given weight, the landing or takeoff speed can be minimized by maximizing the
product of the lift coefficient and the wing area, CL, maxA.
One way of doing that is to use flaps. Another way is to control the boundary layer, which
can be accomplished simply by leaving flow sections (slots) between the flaps.
Slots are used to prevent the separation of the boundary layer from the upper surface of
the wings and the flaps.

This is done by allowing air to move

from the high-pressure region under the
wing into the low-pressure region at the
top surface.

A flapped airfoil with a slot to prevent

the separation of the boundary layer
47
from the upper surface and to increase
the lift coefficient.
 CL increases almost linearly with the
angle of attack , reaches a maximum
at about =16°, and then starts to
decrease sharply. This decrease of lift
with further increase in the angle of
attack is called stall, and it is caused by
flow separation and the formation of a
wide wake region over the top surface
of the airfoil. Stall is highly undesirable
since it also increases drag.
At zero angle of attack ( = 0°), the
lift coefficient is zero for symmetrical
airfoils but nonzero for nonsymmetrical
ones with greater curvature at the top
surface. Therefore, planes with
symmetrical wing sections must fly with
their wings at higher angles of attack in
The variation of the lift coefficient with the angle order to produce the same lift.
of attack for a symmetrical and a nonsymmetrical
airfoil.

The lift coefficient can be increased severalfold by adjusting the angle of attack 48

(from 0.25 at  =0° for the nonsymmetrical airfoil to 1.25 at  =10°).

The drag coefficient
increases with the
angle of attack,
often exponentially.
Therefore, large
angles of attack
should be used
sparingly for short
periods of time for
fuel efficiency.

The variation of the drag coefficient of an airfoil

with the angle of attack.
49
Lift Generated by Spinning
Magnus effect: The phenomenon of producing lift by the rotation of a solid body.
When the ball is not spinning, the lift is zero because of top–bottom symmetry. But when
the cylinder is rotated about its axis, the cylinder drags some fluid around because of the
no-slip condition and the flow field reflects the superposition of the spinning and
nonspinning flows.

Generation of lift on a rotating circular cylinder for the case of

50
“idealized” potential flow (the actual flow involves flow separation in the
wake region).
Note that the lift coefficient strongly depends
on the rate of rotation, especially at low
angular velocities.
The effect of the rate of rotation on the drag
coefficient is small. Roughness also affects the
drag and lift coefficients.
In a certain range of Reynolds number,
roughness produces the desirable effect of
increasing the lift coefficient while decreasing
the drag coefficient.
Therefore, golf balls with the right amount of
roughness travel higher and farther than
smooth balls for the same hit.

51
52
53
Discussion The power
determined is the power to
overcome the drag that acts on
the wings only and does not
include the drag that acts on
the remaining
parts of the aircraft (the
fuselage, the tail, etc.).
Therefore, the total power
required during cruising will be
much greater. Also, it does not
consider induced drag, which
can be dominant during takeoff
when the angle of attack is
high (Fig. 11–45 is for a 2-D
airfoil, and does not include 3-
D effects).
54
55
56
The Wright Brothers are truly the most impressive engineering team of all time.
Self-taught, they were well informed of the contemporary theory and practice in
aeronautics.
They both corresponded with other leaders in the field and published in technical
journals.

While they cannot be credited

with developing the concepts of
lift and drag, they used them to
achieve the first powered,
manned, heavier-than-air,
controlled flight.
They succeeded, while so many
before them failed, because
they evaluated and designed
parts separately.
Before the Wrights,
experimenters were building and
testing whole airplanes.
57
The Wright Brothers take flight at Kitty Hawk.
 SUMMARY
• INTRODUCTION
• DRAG AND LIFT
• FRICTION AND PRESSURE DRAG
• REDUCING DRAG BY STREAMLINING
• FLOW SEPARATION
• FAVORABLE AND ADVERSE PRESSURE GRADIENT
• DRAG COEFFICIENTS OF COMMON GEOMETRIES
• BIOLOGICAL SYSTEMS AND DRAG
• DRAG COEFFICIENTS OF VEHICLES
• SUPERPOSITION
• PARALLEL FLOW OVER FLAT PLATES
• FRICTION COEFFICIENT
• FLOW OVER CYLINDERS AND SPHERES
• EFFECT OF SURFACE ROUGHNESS
• LIFT
• FINITE-SPAN WINGS AND INDUCED DRAG 58
• LIFT GENERATED BY SPINNING