Drag and Drag Coefficeints

Instructor: Dr. Mohammad Al-Harahsheh

Department of Chemical Engineering
Jordan University of Science and Technology
 Drag and Lift

 Fluid dynamic forces are due to

pressure and viscous forces acting on
the body surface.

 Drag: component parallel to flow

direction.

 Lift: component normal to flow

direction.

JUST Department of ChE 362 Unit Operations Chapter 2-2

Chemical Engineering
 Drag

 Drag: The force in the direction of flow exerted by the fluid on the
solid.
 When the wall of the body is parallel with the direction of flow (e.g.,
flow over a flat plate) the only drag is the wall shear.

 Drag on flat plate is solely due to friction created by laminar,

transitional, and turbulent boundary layers

JUST Department of ChE 362 Unit Operations Chapter 1-3

Chemical Engineering
 Drag

 The component of the wall shear in the direction of flow contributes to drag.

 The total integrated drag from wall shear is called wall drag, shear drag or skin
drag.

 The fluid pressure, which acts in a direction normal to the wall, possesses a
component in the direction of flow, and this component also contributes to the
drag.

 The total integrated drag from pressure is called form drag.

Total drag = skin drag + form drag

  τ w sin αdA   P cos αdA

A A

JUST Department of ChE 362 Unit Operations Chapter 2-4

Chemical Engineering
 Wall and Form Drag

 Fluid dynamic forces are comprised of

pressure and friction effects.
Friction drag

 Often useful to decompose,

Pressure drag
 FD = FD,wall + FD,form
Pressure drag

Friction & pressure drag

JUST Department of ChE 362 Unit Operations Chapter 2-5

Chemical Engineering
 Flow Past Objects

 Streamlines represent the path of fluid elements around the body.

 At the stagnation point the fluid velocity is zero and boundary layer
growth begins and continues over the surface until it separates.
wall drag
form
drag

eddies

JUST Department of ChE 362 Unit Operations Chapter 2-6

Chemical Engineering
 Streamlining

• Streamlining reduces drag by reducing FD,form, at the cost of

increasing wetted surface area and FD,wall.
• Goal is to eliminate flow separation and minimize total drag FD

JUST Department of ChE 362 Unit Operations Chapter 1-7

Chemical Engineering
Bernoulli equation (fps system) along streamline AB:
2 1. No friction along the streamline
PA gz A u A PB gz B u B2
     2. The flow is horizontal, zA = zB
ρ g c 2g c ρ g c 2g c 3. At point A: uA = uo and PA = Po
4. At point B: uB = 0 and PB = Ps
Po u o2 Ps
 
ρ 2g c ρ
uo
Ps  Po u o2
  Po
ρ 2g c
stagnation point

The pressure increase (Ps-Po) for the stream line passing through a stagnation point is larger
than that for any other streamline, because at that point the entire velocity head of the
approaching stream is converted to pressure head

JUST Department of ChE 362 Unit Operations Chapter 1-8

Chemical Engineering
 Drag Coefficient

Drag coefficients are defined in a similar fashion to friction factors for

pipes:
F /A drag force / projected area τ
CD  D2 P  Note : f  2 w
ρu o / 2g c velocity head ρu o / 2g c

FD: drag force

AP: projected area
uo: the velocity of the approaching stream
: fluid density

JUST Department of ChE 362 Unit Operations Chapter 1-9

Chemical Engineering
Projected Area

• The projected area used in the FD is the area “seen” by the fluid
= Area projected by projecting body on a plane perpendicular to the direction
of flow.

Spherical Particle
 Dp2
AP 
4 DP

Cylinder
Axis perpendicular to flow Axis parallel to flow

AP  LDp  Dp2 uo
P
AP  P

4
uo

JUST Department of ChE 362 Unit Operations Chapter 2-10

Chemical Engineering
 Drag Coefficients for Typical Shapes
(Figure 7.3)
CD  f  Rep  Re P 
 uo DP uo DP
 
Inertia forces
  Viscous forces
Stokes’ law

Newton’s law

JUST Department of ChE 362 Unit Operations Chapter 1-11

Chemical Engineering
 Drag Coefficients for
Non-spherical Particles

s= 0.125
s= 0.22
s= 0.6
s= 0.806
s= 1

JUST Department of ChE 362 Unit Operations Chapter 2-12

Chemical Engineering
 Stokes’ Law

u o Dp
FD  3πμ -Sphere
gc -Rep < 0.1

FD / A P 3πμu o Dp 4  2g c
CD  2  CD 
ρu o / 2g c ρu o2g c πD 2p

24μ
 CD 
Dpρu o

24
 CD 
Rep

JUST Department of ChE 362 Unit Operations Chapter 1-13

Chemical Engineering
Example: Air flowing past a sphere
Air
T = 37.8 oC DP = 42 mm
P = 101.3 kPa
uo = 23 m/s
Calculate CD and FD
Solution:
Air @ 37.8 oC and 101.3 kPa →  = 1.137 kg/m3,  = 1.9 × 10-5 Pa.s

uo DP 1.137  23  0.042

Re P    5.781 10 4

Fig. 7.3
 CD  0.47
 1.90 10 -5

F /A π D 2p
CD  D2 P ; AP 
ρu o / 2g c 4
2
u o2 πD p
 FD  CD ρ
2 4
 FD  0.196 N
JUST Department of ChE 362 Unit Operations Chapter 1-14
Chemical Engineering