CASE STYDY :- 01

Simulation of aerodynamic nature of air around

SPHERE
 Statement: - Analysis the aerodynamic nature of a fluid over a rotating soccer ball of
diameter 250mm at rest on a surface.

Input Parameters:-
Temperature taken:- 303 K
Input velocity of air:- 16.04 m/s
Viscosity of air at 303 K:- 16.0410-6 Ns/m
Density of air at 303 K:- 1.275 kg/m
Rotational speed of soccer ball:- 31.4 rpm
Dimension of fluid domain:- (1900*1000*1000) mm3
The diameter of sphere:- 220 mm

1000

1900

1000

Fig: - 01
 Geometry:- A sphere of 250mm diameter is created in center. A rectangle of 1000*1900
mm is created around it. The sphere is freezed. The rectangle is extruded upto 500 mm to
both sides.

Wall

Outlet

Inlet

Sphere -
wall

Fig: - 02 creating geometry & named selection

The fluid domain around the sphere is shown here, here complimentary diagram of the
sphere is taken by extracting the sphere from the air box. So, here The fluid domain around
the sphere is only shown. A vacuum is placed at the spot of sphere and the imaginary wall of
vacuum is the wall of sphere.

Mesh generation: -

Structure type of mesh: - Unstructured Meshing

Number of Divisions: - 120
Mesh method: - Triangle
Bias Factor : - 5
 Fig:-03 the mess generation around the fluid domain in ansys simulation

Input and set up condition: -

Fluid Air
Density - 1.166 kg/m3
Velocity 16.04 m/s
Viscosity - 1.604*10-5 Ns/m2
Mesh Cell Shape - Triangle
Bias Factor- 5
Top and bottom edge- symmetry
Circle edge- sphere wall
Left edge- velocity outlet
Right edge- velocity inlet
Solver- SIMPLE
Under relaxation factor- 0.3
Iterations- 1000
 Results: -
Static pressure distribution: -

Fig:- 04

The pressure distribution of air around the rotating sphere at y-z plane is shown
here. The pressure colour indicator is given at left side of the analysis image. The air is flowing
from positive x direction to negative x direction. Here by looking at the distribution diagram it can
be said that, the air after colliding with the ball gets distributed and flows around the ball, as it
proceeds to the outer wall of the ball the velocity of air increases and simultaneously the pressure
of the air decreases.
 Negative pressure
Stagnation point area

Here the pressure distribution of air around the sphere wall is shown in x-z plane.
The pressure colour indicator is given at left side of the analysis image. Here it is clearly shown that
the air is coming from positive x-direction and going to negative x direction. Here, as the air comes
and collides at the left end of the sphere we see a high pressure zone at the left end of the sphere as at
this point kinetic energy of the air by colliding with the sphere wall is transforming into pressure
energy, the high pressure zone is highlighted red.

The value of high pressure zone is (3.31*10 pascal) As after colliding with the sphere wall the air gets
distributed and spreads around the ball its velocity increases and pressure drops as it approaches to
the higher outer wall of the ball, so the higher outer wall is shown as low pressure zone and marked
with blue.

This value of low pressure zone is (-4.81*10 pascal).

At a close look we can say the sphere itself is rotating at clockwise direction in this plane, hence
more low pressure zone is shown at the top surface, compared to down surface.
 Low pressure,high
velocity

inlet
outlet

High pressure,Low
velocity

Fig:-05

It is the air pressure distribution around the sphere wall plotted in x-z plane. The
pressure colour indicator is given at left side of the analysis image. As we see the air comes from
positive x side and collides with the sphere wall at the right end producing a high pressure zone, as at
this point kinetic energy by colliding with sphere wall is tranformed into pressure energy. This zone
is marked as red at the very right end. After collision, the air flow gets distributed around the sphere
outer wall and with the icreasing diameter of sphere face the velocity of air aound the sphere increases,
simultaniously the pressure drops. Hence we see, the pressure of the air is decreasing gradually with
the increasing face diameter of the sphere, and the colour changes from orange to yellow to green to
light blue indicating the pressure drop contour. At the maximum face diameter the air pressure is
minimum, this zone is marked by indigo coloured pressure contour. After the maximum face diameter
zone the air gets scattered, and huge amount of air followes the straightline flow with respective to
the maximum face diameter. The amount of air that is attached to the the sphere surface loses its
vellocity and uprises its pressure due to less travel path, vortex flow and other factors. Here we see a
high pressure build up but at a low rate with respect to frantal face. The pressure build up is shown
by colour countour of light blue, green and yellow in order.
 High velocity region

Stagnation
point

Fig:- 06

The velocity of air at different point around the sphere wall is shown here at x-z
plane. Here, the velocity distribution colour indicator is given at the left side of the analysis image.
Here, the air comes from the positive x-side and goes to negative x-side. And the ball rotates in
clockwise direction. As the air comes and collides with the left end of the ball the velocity drop is
maximum at the left end of the ball, this zone is indicated with green, light blue and blue colour. After
colliding at the left end the air gets distributed and flows with the outer wall oif the sphere. With
increasing face diameter of the wall the velocity of air increases this zone is marked as yellow. And
at reaching the maximum face diameter of the sphere the velocity of air becomes maximum and this
zone is marked as red. Here also due to the clockwise rotation the passing air is opposed by the
rotaional movement of the ball at the bottom surface and is pushed at the top surface, hence it showes
greater velocity magnitude, ie, wide red zone at top surface and lower velocity magnitude, ie, small
red band at bottom surface. After the maximum facing diameter the air gets away in straghtline around
the maximum diameter of the sphere, the rest air flows around the sphere surface and shows turbulant
and vortex flow at the exit side, hence the velocity of the air drops, and it shows its drop down nature
at a more area compared to the inlet side, this zone shows light blue and green coloured velocity
contour spread over larger area. Moreover due to viscous force of air the air flow at the very close
zone to the outer surface of the sphere, we see a velocity drop and the air flows at a very low speed
just around the surface of the sphere.
 Low
velocity,
high
pressure

High velocity,
pressure low

Fig:- 07

Here the velocity magnitude of air around the sphere wall at y-z plane. This shows
the maximum face diameter of the sphere, ie, the diameter of the sphere. Due to maximum face
diameter the air passing around the sphere wall travels the maximum path at this zone and shows the
maximum velocity of air around the sphere wall here. The maximum velpcity zone is marked with
red velocity contour. Due to the rotation of the sphere, the velocity magnitude is shown less at right
end and more at left end. Due to viscosity around the sphere wall the air foil touching the sphere wall
shows very low velocity, this zone is marked with indigo colour, and the velocity of the air foil
increases gradually with increasing distance from the sphere surface, these zones are marked with
light blue, green and yellow colours respectively.

Drag force and lift force:-

The force on an object that resists its motion through a fluid is called drag. When
the fluid is a gas like air, it is called aerodynamic drag(or air resistance).And the component to the
force on the body perpendicular the direction of the flow is called Lift force. In case of flow over
static cylinder the body is symmetrical and the axis is parallel to the direction of flow. So lift is 0.
Only drag force is there.Slow flow equation around a sphere is known as stokes law. From navier-
stokes equation an d continuity equation the drag is :-

D = 3Ud
24
CD=

 Fig:- 08 drag force on ve x axis (-1 0 0)

From figure it is crystal clear that drag force is 7.381 N and drag coefficient is
0.2342 using the above mention two formulae.

Fig: - 09 lift force on y axis (0 1 0)

From figure it is crystal clear that lift force is 4.016 N and lift coefficient is
0.1274 using the above mention two formulae.