Drag equation

In fluid dynamics, the drag equation is a formula used to 1 Discussion

calculate the force of drag experienced by an object due to
movement through a fully enclosing fluid. The formula is The equation is easier understood for the idealized sit-
accurate only under certain conditions: the objects must uation where all of the fluid impinges on the reference
have a blunt form factor and the system must have a large area and comes to a complete stop, building up stagnation
enough Reynolds number to produce turbulence behind pressure over the whole area. No real object exactly cor-
the object. The equation is responds to this behavior. CD is the ratio of drag for any
1 2 real object to that of the ideal object. In practice a rough
FD = 2 ρ u CD A
un-streamlined body (a bluff body) will have a CD around
FD is the drag force, which is by definition the force
[1] 1, more or less. Smoother objects can have much lower
component in the direction of the flow velocity,
values of CD. The equation is precise – it simply provides
ρ is the mass density of the fluid, [2] the definition of CD (drag coefficient), which varies with
the Reynolds number and is found by experiment.
u is the flow velocity relative to the object,
Of particular importance is the u2 dependence on flow
A is the reference area, and velocity, meaning that fluid drag increases with the square
CD is the drag coefficient – a dimensionless coefficient of flow velocity. When flow velocity is doubled, for ex-
related to the object’s geometry and taking into ac- ample, not only does the fluid strike with twice the flow
count both skin friction and form drag, in general velocity, but twice the mass of fluid strikes per second.
CD depends on the Reynolds number. Therefore the change of momentum per second is multi-
plied by four. Force is equivalent to the change of mo-
The equation is attributed to Lord Rayleigh, who orig- mentum divided by time. This is in contrast with solid-
inally used L2 in place of A (with L being some linear on-solid friction, which generally has very little flow ve-
dimension).[3] locity dependence.
The reference area A is typically defined as the area of the
orthographic projection of the object on a plane perpen-
dicular to the direction of motion. For non-hollow ob- 2 Relation with Dynamic Pressure
jects with simple shape, such as a sphere, this is exactly
the same as a cross sectional area. For other objects (for The drag force can also be specified as,
instance, a rolling tube or the body of a cyclist), A may
be significantly larger than the area of any cross section FD ∝ Pd A
along any plane perpendicular to the direction of motion. where, PD is pressure exerted by fluid on area A. Here the
Airfoils use the square of the chord length as the refer- pressure PD is referred to as dynamic pressure due to ki-
ence area; since airfoil chords are usually defined with netic energy of fluid experiencing relative flow velocity u.
a length of 1, the reference area is also 1. Aircraft use this is defined in similar form as kinetic energy equation:
the wing area (or rotor-blade area) as the reference area,
Pd = 12 ρu2
which makes for an easy comparison to lift. Airships
and bodies of revolution use the volumetric coefficient of
drag, in which the reference area is the square of the cube
root of the airship’s volume. Sometimes different refer- 3 Derivation
ence areas are given for the same object in which case a
drag coefficient corresponding to each of these different The drag equation may be derived to within a multi-
areas must be given. plicative constant by the method of dimensional analysis.
For sharp-cornered bluff bodies, like square cylinders and If a moving fluid meets an object, it exerts a force on the
plates held transverse to the flow direction, this equation object. Suppose that the variables involved – under some
is applicable with the drag coefficient as a constant value conditions – are the:
when the Reynolds number is greater than 1000.[4] For
smooth bodies, like a circular cylinder, the drag coeffi- • speed u,
cient may vary significantly until Reynolds numbers up
to 107 (ten million).[5] • fluid density ρ,

1
2 5 NOTES

• viscosity ν of the fluid,

( √ )
• size of the body, expressed in terms of its frontal FD u A
area A, and 1 2
= fc
2 ρAu
ν
• drag force FD. or

Using the algorithm of the Buckingham π theorem, these FD = 1

ρ A u2 fc (Re ), and with CD =
2
five variables can be reduced to two dimensionless pa- fc (Re ).
rameters:
Thus the force is simply ½ ρ A u2 times some (as-yet-
• drag coefficient CD and unknown) function fc of the Reynolds number Rₑ – a con-
siderably simpler system than the original five-argument
• Reynolds number Rₑ.
function given above.

Alternatively, the dimensionless parameters via direct Dimensional analysis thus makes a very complex prob-
manipulation of the variables. lem (trying to determine the behavior of a function of
five variables) a much simpler one: the determination of
That this is so becomes apparent when the drag force FD the drag as a function of only one variable, the Reynolds
is expressed as part of a function of the other variables in number.
the problem:
The analysis also gives other information for free, so to
speak. The analysis shows that, other things being equal,
the drag force will be proportional to the density of the
fa (FD , u, A, ρ, ν) = 0. fluid. This kind of information often proves to be ex-
tremely valuable, especially in the early stages of a re-
This rather odd form of expression is used because it
search project.
does not assume a one-to-one relationship. Here, fa
is some (as-yet-unknown) function that takes five argu- To empirically determine the Reynolds number depen-
ments. Now the right-hand side is zero in any system of dence, instead of experimenting on huge bodies with
units; so it should be possible to express the relationship fast-flowing fluids (such as real-size airplanes in wind-
described by fa in terms of only dimensionless groups. tunnels), one may just as well experiment on small models
with more viscous and higher flow velocity, because these
There are many ways of combining the five arguments of
two systems are similar.
fa to form dimensionless groups, but the Buckingham π
theorem states that there will be two such groups. The
most appropriate are the Reynolds number, given by
4 See also
√
u A • Aerodynamic drag
Re =
ν • Angle of attack
and the drag coefficient, given by
• Morison equation

• Stall (flight)
FD
CD = 1 2
. • Terminal velocity
2 Au
ρ
• dynamic pressure
Thus the function of five variables may be replaced by
another function of only two variables:

(
5 Notes
√ )
FD u A
fb 1 2
, = 0. [1] See lift force and vortex induced vibration for a possible
2 ρAu
ν
force components transverse to the flow direction.

where fb is some function of two arguments. The origi- [2] Note that for the Earth’s atmosphere, the air density can be
nal law is then reduced to a law involving only these two found using the barometric formula. Air is 1.293 kg/m3
numbers. at 0°C and 1 atmosphere

Because the only unknown in the above equation is the [3] See Section 7 of Book 2 of Newton’s Principia Mathemat-
drag force FD, it is possible to express it as ica; in particular Proposition 37.
 3

[4] Drag Force Archived April 14, 2008, at the Wayback Ma-
chine.

[5] See Batchelor (1967), p. 341.

6 References
• Batchelor, G.K. (1967). An Introduction to Fluid
Dynamics. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-
521-66396-2.
• Huntley, H. E. (1967). Dimensional Analysis.
Dover. LOC 67-17978.
4 7 TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

7 Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

7.1 Text
• Drag equation Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drag_equation?oldid=762999205 Contributors: Maury Markowitz, Heron, Ryguasu,
Bdesham, Patrick, Michael Hardy, Charles Matthews, Prumpf, Saltine, Robinh, Wolfkeeper, BenFrantzDale, Theon~enwiki, Jcobb, Jason
Quinn, Mboverload, Fpahl, ZeroOne, CDN99, Rslippert, Meggar, PAR, Theodore Kloba, Katefan0, Shoefly, Gene Nygaard, SCEhardt,
BlaiseFEgan, Keithpickering, Fresheneesz, Meawoppl, RussBot, JabberWok, Bergsten, SmackBot, Blue520, Chris the speller, Telempe,
TheKMan, Pinktulip, ArglebargleIV, Mets501, Safalra, Cydebot, Sytelus, Rracecarr, Akradecki, Alphachimpbot, Hamsterlopithecus, An-
toniusJ~enwiki, Matthewslf, Paolo.dL, Oxymoron83, Dolphin51, Rlboyce, Quercus basaseachicensis, Doprendek, Crowsnest, DumZiBoT,
WikHead, Medich1985, Tide rolls, , EmausBot, Abeboparebop, ClueBot NG, C.R.Leedham-Green, MerlIwBot, Helpful Pixie Bot, Reg-
istreernu, InternetArchiveBot, GreenC bot, MeowMoon and Anonymous: 73

7.2 Images
• File:Question_book-new.svg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/99/Question_book-new.svg License: Cc-by-sa-3.0
Contributors:
Created from scratch in Adobe Illustrator. Based on Image:Question book.png created by User:Equazcion Original artist:
Tkgd2007

7.3 Content license

• Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0