Dynamical assimilation of surface elevation from tide gauges is investigated to estimate the bottom drag coefficient and surface stress as a first step in improving modeled tidal and wind-driven circulation in the Chesapeake Bay. A two-dimensional shallow water model and an adjoint variational method with a limited memory quasi-Newton optimization algorithm are used to achieve this goal. Assimi...

The purpose of this experiment is to explore the variables that affect the efficiency of a swimmer in the streamline position. There are various factors that affect the drag of a swimmer such as: the type of suit, wearing a cap or not, and the depth of the push off. The hydrophobicity of a fast suit and a regular suit was measured to show which one will be the most effective in the water. The c...

For birds diving to depths where pressure has mostly reduced the buoyancy of air spaces, hydrodynamic drag is the main mechanical cost of steady swimming. Drag is strongly affected by body size and shape, so such differences among species should affect energy costs. Because flow around the body is complicated by the roughness and vibration of feathers, feathers must be considered in evaluating ...

In Part I of this two-part study, the coupled flows external and internal to the fish lateral line trunk canal were consecutively calculated by solving the Navier-Stokes (N-S) equations numerically in each domain. With the external flow known, the solution for the internal flow was obtained using a parallelepiped to simulate the neuromast cupula present between a pair of consecutive pores, allo...

The ion drag force acting on dust grains was measured experimentally in a low-pressure Ar plasma in the regime of strong ion-grain coupling. Argon ions were drifting in the axial ambipolar electric field naturally present in a hot-filament dc discharge plasma. Following the method of Hirt et al. Phys. Plasmas 11, 569

Drag reduction of an object is the major concern in many engineering applications. Experimental studies have been carried out on circular cylinder with helical grooves in a subsonic wind tunnel. Different cases of helical grooves with different pitches, helical groove angles and number of starts of helical groove on circular cylinder are tested. Experimental results show the drag coefficient is...

With rising oil prices, the issue of energy economy in transportation is getting much attention. At the same time, new emissions standards for tractor-trailer vehicles introduce additional challenges for the manufacturers to achieve improvements in vehicle fuel economy. As part of the U.S. Department of Energy Office of FreedomCAR and Vehicle Technologies’ Heavy Vehicle Aerodynamic Drag Consort...

Three different cyclist positions were evaluated with Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and wind-tunnel experiments were used to provide reliable data to evaluate the accuracy of the CFD simulations. Specific features of this study are: (1) both steady Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) and unsteady flow modelling, with more advanced turbulence modelling techniques (Large-Eddy Simulation -...

Crude oil plays an important role in providing the energy supply of the world, and pipelines have long been recognized as the safest and most efficient means of transporting oil and its products. However, the transportation process also faces the challenges of asphaltene-paraffin structural interactions, pipeline pressure losses and energy consumption. In order to determine the role of drag-red...

Hypersonic vehicles with single-stage-to-orbit (SSTO) capability present a major design challenge. Such vehicles reflect highly integrated airframe and propulsion systems and are also known to exhibit a large degree of interaction between the airframe and engine dynamics. Consequently, even simplified hypersonic models are characterized by tightly coupled nonlinear equations of motion. The vehi...