- 2079 Baisakh · 2+4 marks
Drag on sphere at Re = 0.2
Short answer
For a sphere at Re=0.2 the drag follows Stokes' law: F_D = 3πμVd. The drag coefficient C_D = 3πμVd / (0.5ρV^2 * πd²/4) simplifies to 24/Re, and at Re=0.2 yields C_D = 120.
What is the expression for the drag on a sphere, when Re of the flow is 0.2? Prove that the coefficient of drag for sphere for this range of the Reynolds number is given by , where Re is the Reynolds number.
At very low Reynolds number (, creeping flow) inertia is negligible compared with viscous forces, and the drag on a sphere is given by Stokes' law:
where is the dynamic viscosity, the velocity of the sphere relative to the fluid, and the diameter. This holds for to .
Proof that
By definition the drag coefficient is the drag divided by the dynamic pressure times the projected area:
Substituting Stokes' drag:
Hence for :
Result: and for the Stokes range.
✓ Answer checked by Claude Opus 5.5 (high effort)
Related questions
- Drag coefficient of cylinder vs Reynolds number · Fluid Mechanics, chapter 9 · asked 2×
- Reynolds number and flow regime in pipes · Applied Computational Fluid Dynamics, chapter 1
- Reynolds experiment and flow regimes · Fluid Mechanics, chapter 6