Drag of circular cylinders for a wide range of Reynolds numbers and Mach numbers

Author / Creator

Gowen, Forrest E., author

Available as

Online

Summary

Pressure distributions around circular cylinders placed perpendicular to the stream for subsonic and supersonic flow conditions have been obtained. Drag coefficients calculated from these wind-tunn...

Pressure distributions around circular cylinders placed perpendicular to the stream for subsonic and supersonic flow conditions have been obtained. Drag coefficients calculated from these wind-tunnel tests and from transonic free-flight tests are presented.

Drag data are presented for the Mach number range of 0.3 to 2.9. The Reynolds numbers for the subsonic and supersonic Mach numbers were within the ranges of approximately 50,000 to 16,000 and 100,000 t0 1,000,000, respectively. No effects of Reynolds number were found for flow in the supersonic Mach number range of the tests. The drag coefficient increased with increasing Mach number to a maximum of approximately 2.1 at a Mach number of unity. In the supersonic Mach number range, the drag coefficient decreased with increasing Mach number to a value of about 1.34 at a Mach nmber of 2.9. Drag data from other investigations have been included for comparison.

The effects of fineness ratio on drag at supersonic Mach numbers were also investigated and found to be small.

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