Form Drag – Pressure Drag

Form drag known also as pressure drag arises because of the shape and size of the object. The pressure drag is proportional to the difference between the pressures acting on the front and back of the immersed body, and the frontal area.

form drag - pressure drag This type of drag force is also an interesting consequence the Bernoulli’s effect. According to Bernoulli’s principle, faster moving air exerts less pressure.

This causes, that there can be a pressure difference between surfaces of the object. The general size and shape of the body are the most important factors in form drag. In general, bodies with a larger presented geometric cross-section will have a higher drag than thinner bodies.

As can be seen from the figure, the drag force arises from the difference between the pressures acting on the front and back of the immersed body. For this force can be calculated (for this case) simply using the definition of pressure as:

form drag - drag force

Since the head loss is roughly proportional to the square of the flow rate in most engineering flows, the total drag coefficient can be determined by simply adding the friction and pressure drag coefficients:

skin friction - form drag - coefficients

 
References:
Reactor Physics and Thermal Hydraulics:
  1. J. R. Lamarsh, Introduction to Nuclear Reactor Theory, 2nd ed., Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA (1983).
  2. J. R. Lamarsh, A. J. Baratta, Introduction to Nuclear Engineering, 3d ed., Prentice-Hall, 2001, ISBN: 0-201-82498-1.
  3. W. M. Stacey, Nuclear Reactor Physics, John Wiley & Sons, 2001, ISBN: 0- 471-39127-1.
  4. Glasstone, Sesonske. Nuclear Reactor Engineering: Reactor Systems Engineering, Springer; 4th edition, 1994, ISBN: 978-0412985317
  5. Todreas Neil E., Kazimi Mujid S. Nuclear Systems Volume I: Thermal Hydraulic Fundamentals, Second Edition. CRC Press; 2 edition, 2012, ISBN: 978-0415802871
  6. Zohuri B., McDaniel P. Thermodynamics in Nuclear Power Plant Systems. Springer; 2015, ISBN: 978-3-319-13419-2
  7. Moran Michal J., Shapiro Howard N. Fundamentals of Engineering Thermodynamics, Fifth Edition, John Wiley & Sons, 2006, ISBN: 978-0-470-03037-0
  8. Kleinstreuer C. Modern Fluid Dynamics. Springer, 2010, ISBN 978-1-4020-8670-0.
  9. U.S. Department of Energy, THERMODYNAMICS, HEAT TRANSFER, AND FLUID FLOW. DOE Fundamentals Handbook, Volume 1, 2 and 3. June 1992.
  10. White Frank M., Fluid Mechanics, McGraw-Hill Education, 7th edition, February, 2010, ISBN: 978-0077422417

See above:

Drag