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Creeping flow past a falling sphere in a fluid (e.g., a droplet of fog falling through the air): streamlines, drag force F d and force by gravity F g. At terminal (or settling) velocity, the excess force F e due to the difference between the weight and buoyancy of the sphere (both caused by gravity [7]) is given by:
If the fluid is a gas, certain properties of the gas influence the drag and those properties must also be taken into account. Those properties are conventionally considered to be the absolute temperature of the gas, and the ratio of its specific heats. These two properties determine the speed of sound in the gas at its given temperature.
The Fanning friction factor (named after American engineer John T. Fanning) is a dimensionless number used as a local parameter in continuum mechanics calculations. It is defined as the ratio between the local shear stress and the local flow kinetic energy density: [1] [2]
Flux F through a surface, dS is the differential vector area element, n is the unit normal to the surface. Left: No flux passes in the surface, the maximum amount flows normal to the surface.
An object moving through a gas or liquid experiences a force in direction opposite to its motion. Terminal velocity is achieved when the drag force is equal in magnitude but opposite in direction to the force propelling the object. Shown is a sphere in Stokes flow, at very low Reynolds number.
If this frictional reaction force satisfies , then the tentative assumption was correct, and it is the actual frictional force. Otherwise, the friction force must be set equal to F f = μ N {\displaystyle F_{f}=\mu N} , and then the resulting force imbalance would then determine the acceleration associated with slipping.
With a doubling of speeds, the drag/force quadruples per the formula. Exerting 4 times the force over a fixed distance produces 4 times as much work . At twice the speed, the work (resulting in displacement over a fixed distance) is done twice as fast.
The force between a fluid and a body, when there is relative motion, can only be transmitted by normal pressure and tangential friction stresses. So, for the whole body, the drag part of the force, which is in-line with the approaching fluid motion, is composed of frictional drag (viscous drag) and pressure drag (form drag).