An energized mass approach for drag evaluation

Development and testing of a drag evaluation method for bodies moving with constant velocity

Master thesis (2022)

Authors

L. Jou Ferrer Aerospace Engineering

Contributors

A. Sciacchitano Aerodynamics - Aerospace Engineering (supervisor 1)
Faculty
Aerospace Engineering
Copyright: © 2022 Laura Jou Ferrer
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Published Date

22-06-2022

Language

English

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Faculty

Aerospace Engineering

Abstract

In speed sports, the result of a competition might be decided by a very small time difference, so reducing the drag coefficient is a priority. This work introduces a new method to calculate the drag of a transiting object that moves with a constant velocity. It is based on the concept of the energized mass and its only input is raw PIV images obtained with one camera. The energized mass refers to a measure of the normalised kinetic energy of all the fluid that is affected by the movement of the body.

The method was tested on five different experimental cases, pertaining to three different models: a sphere, a cyclist and a skater. The wake was first studied by examining PIV velocity fields, and the energized mass method results were compared to those from a momentum balance approach. The method was found to overestimate the drag of all objects.

Files

Thesis6june.pdf
(.pdf | 148 Mb)