Зборник роиова МашемаШllчкоi инсiuишуша. Нова серија књ. З 11) 1979. Recueil des гагаих de " Institut Mathematique Nouvel/e serie оте З 11) 1979 А CRIТICAL REМARК ON USE OF DRAG COEFFICIENТ АТ LOW REYNOLDS NUMBERS Momchilo М. Zdravkovich Communicated June 22 1977) Summary. А resistance coefficient is proposed after Lamb's pioneering treatment ог the subject. ТЬе use ог the Reynolds number is not convenient in the range between О and 1. ТЬе reciprocal value seems more appropriate and in such а form it is proposed to Ье cahed the Oscen number. Thus ан slow viscous flows are better represented through the Lamb coefficient and the Oseen number. 1. Introduction Flow around various bodies at а very small Reynolds number is dominated Ьу viscous forces. ТЬе inertia forces are very smah and compared with the viscous forces they might ье one or two order ог magnitudes smaller. This physical fact allowed Stokes 1851) to neglect ан inertia tems in the equations of motion and to evaluate the resistance experienced Ьу а slowly moving sphere. Тhe final ехpcession for the resistance ог а sphere was obtained in the following form: 1) where D is diameter и is free stream velocity and.1. the dynamic viscosity ог fluid. In а similar way Lamb 1911) extended Stokes' solution to а circular cylinder Ьу taking partially into account the inertia-terms after the manner of Oseen 1910). ТЬе final expression for the resistance of а circular cylinder ог unit length was found as 2) R/L = 41t.l.U Re 1/2-y-log 8 where L is length ог cylinder у is Euler constant = 0.57721 and Re is the Reynolds number based оп the diameter ог the cylinder. Lamb gave two numerical examples for Re=0.4 and 0.2; the resistances per unit length were 4.31.1. и Reader Dept. Aero. Med. Eng. University of Salford England 152 ------
А critical remark оп use ос drag coefficient at low Reynolds numbers 153 and 3.48 flu respectively. тhe two numerical values correspond to а resistance coefficient defined in the following way: 3) R С В =-- LfLU Lamb's resistance coefficient is plotted versus the Reynolds number in Fig. 1. with linear scales. It is evident that as Re tends to О the С R 1 also tends to zero. 2. FшtЬеr development Тће historical development did not follow the path indicated Ьу Lamb and shown in Fig. 1. Wieselsberger 1921) was the first who collected ан the data availаblе оп drag of а cylinder and reduced them to а drag coefficient. Тће latter was defined as: 4) с _ я D -1/2 pu2ld where р is the density of the fluid. Hence the drag coefficient is the ratio of Ље measured drag and the inertia-forces. Fig. 2 was reproduced from the original Wieselsberger's 1921) plot. Тће drag coefficient showed small variations from Re= 1 О up to 2 х 1 os. Contrary to that for Reynolds numbers less than 10 there is а steep increase of the drag coefficient with the decrease of Reynolds number. For example for Re=O.I; C D =58. 5 Fig. 1 Resistance coefficient versus Reynolds number.. 1 1 2 5 10 10" 10 Fig. 2 Drag Coefficient Cor circular cylinders after Wieselsberger 1921). This increase of drag coefficient is caused Ьу the decrease of the inertia.term; there is по longer proportionality between the drag and velocity square. Wieselsberger 1921) re-wrote Lamb's equation 2) and presented it in the following foem: 5) С _ 8. D- Re 2.002 -log Re)
154 МотсМо М. Zdravkovich Another variation of Lamb's equation is given јп Oseen's book 1927). _ 4'7t 6) С D- 1/2 -log 0.226 Re. It is interesting to point out that Oseen cahed tbls section: " 17.1 Die Lambsche Lбsung" Lamb's solution) but in the final expression 6) оп page 179 it Ьесаmе as shown above Eq. 6). А comparison of ан these expressions wii1 ье given soon. The subsequent researchers measured drag at lower Reynolds numbers. Finn 1953) found C D =80 for Re=0.08. Jones and Knudsen 1961) found С D=3oo for Re=0.006. Taneda 1964) measured in glycerine CD=5ooOOO for Re=O.OOOO25. Such enormous values gave а wrong impression that the resistance at low Reynolds number is also very large. Contrary to tbls trend Wblte 1946) presented bls results through the resistance coefficient*. The original plot is reproduced јп Fig. 3. Не cahed Lamb's equation the fohowing expression: 5.46 7) C D =--- 7 4 loglo Re Тhe remarkable acblevement Ьу using Lamb's resistance coefficient instead of drag coefficient was that аll bls experimental data shown down to Re=0.OOOO8 were confined between 2<C R <8. There is а strong effect of wall blockage even when the cylinder diameter is 500 times smaller than the tank width see Fig. 3. 20 - _... ~--... АМВ _... " Fig. 3 Resistance coefficient for various rations of tank to cylinder diameter aftec White 1946) 3. СЬеа ос уатјопs drag СОТШulае It is worthwblle to check the accuracy of various approximations of the original Lamb's equation 2). Table 1 shows the comparison of resistance coefficients and drag coefficients for various Reynolds number between 1 and 0.00001. It is evident that WЫte's approximation 7) is јп very good agreement Oseen's equation 6) is in agreement only for very low Reynolds numbers wblist Wieselsberger's expression 5) is unsatisfactory in the whole range except for R~= 1. Непсе it seems that only Wblte's approximation is recommendable for usage. White cal1ed ј! drag coefficient but denoted it with сх.
А critical remark оп use оу drag coefficien1 at low Reynolds numbers 155 4. Resistance coefficent versus Oseen number ТЬе Lamb resistance coefficient as presented in Fig. 1 has one disadvantage namely the Reynolds number range is not spread. In microbiology for example it јв likely that for the втаl1 microbs and their flagellas the Reynolds number тау Ье lower than 10-6. In order to allow for extremely low Reynolds numbers it is better to plot Lamb's resistance coefficient versus the reciprocal value of ReynoJds number. This has been done and the result is shown јn Fig. 4. ТЬе upper Reynolds nl mber range is limited Ьу 1 as it should ье due to the approximations used to obtain equation 2). ТЬе right-hand side is now unlimited to accommodate for ан possible sizes of micro organisms. Thе reciprocal value of Reynolds number was denoted Ьу 08 after Professor Oseen from Up8ala Sweden who extended Stokes' solution for а sphere in 1910. Lamb applied that method to а circular cylinder јn 1911. So it seems that both names are appropriate to mark this subject for future. 1 10 Fig. 4 Resistance coefficient versus Oseen number. Acknowledgement. ТЬе author would like to mention а stimulating influence made Ьу Professor Lighthill's recent lecture оп Hydrodynamics of Flagella given at the Imperial College which led to а second thought оп the drag coefficient. References [1] F 1 N N R.K. Determination о/ the drag оп а cylinder at low Reynalds nuтbers Јоurnal оу Applied РЬузiсз 24 рр. 771-773. 1953 [2] Ј О N Е S А.М. and К N U D S Е N J.G. Drag coe//icients at low Reynolds numbers /ог flow past immersed bodies Amer. Inst. СЬеm. Eng. Journal 7 рр 20-25 1961. [3] L А М В Н. Оп the uni/orm motion о/ а арћеге through а viscous fluid. РЫl Mag. 6th Ser. 21 рр. 112-121. Also јп: Hydrodynamics 6th Ed. 343 р.616 1911. [4] О S Е Е N C.W. иеье die Stokessche Formel und јјьег ејnе verwandte АufкаЬе јп der Hydrodynamik. Arkiv for matematik astr. ось fysik 6. Also јп: Hydrodynamik јп GeI1nan) Leipzig 1927 р. 177 1910. [5] S Т о к Е S G.G. Оп the e//ect о/ the internal/riction о/ /luids оп the тotion о/ реndulums Cambr. Trans. Vol. IX. Also јп: Math and РЬуз. Papers 111.1. 1951. [6] Т А N Е D А S. Experimental investigation о/ the wai/-е//еесt оп а cyliпdrical оьstacle moving јn viscous fluid at low Reynolds nuтbers. Јоurnаl оу РЬуз. Soc. оу Јарап 19 рр. 1024 1030 1964. [7] W Н 1 Т Е С.М. Тhe drag о/ cylinders јn fluids at slow арееш Proc. Roy. Soc. А. 186 рр. 472-479 1946. [8] W 1 Е S Е L S В Е R G Е R С Neuere Feststellungen јјье die Gesetze des Fliissigkeitsund Luftwiderstandes РЬуз. Zeitschr 22 рр. 321-328 1921. ---- --------~
------- _... - 156 МоmсЫl0 М. Zdravkovich Table 1. Resistance and drag coefficients Re I 05 I 1 1 0.1.01.001.0001.00001 10 100 1000 10000 100000 Eq. 2) Eq. 4) CR \ Eq. 6) Eq. 1) CD Eq. 2) I.. 6.26 6.26 12.70 6.28 12.52 2.91 1.89 1.41 1.12 0.93 41.7 4.81 2.55 1.73 1.31 3.81 2.24 1.58 1.23 1.00 2.92 1.90 1.41 1.12 0.93... 58.2 378 2820 22400 186000. ~. '.;.' ". 1...;'. Ј 1 ""...'" Ј.:: '~..;-'".' :..."" -. '_~"'-''''-~ -... r.." " --. '... 1'"--...._..-._.....'-.:.-.: --- t""';i " :. ~. f~ I.:И -.' I/'~ ; ~. ":'......р.' ;-":f~~;f' "- i'~' 1.' ~~.;:':.1.' ''''I!I ' " У. I " '.1'. ".. -----.. ~""-.. --~_~'Y"". '. - -- -----._-- ----