UNIVERSITY INSTITUTE OF

ENGINEERING
BE-AEROSPACE ENGINEERING
Course Name: Physics of Flight
Course Code: 22AST-215
Faculty: Er. Sukumar Dhanapalan

INTRODUCTION TO MANAGEMENT DISCOVER . LEARN . EMPOWER

Principles of Flight

Lift and Drag

POF by Mr. SUKUMAR DHANAPALAN, AP-SOA.

 Coanda effect

• The Coandă effect is the tendency of a stream of fluid (air or liquid)

coming from an opening to follow an adjacent flat or curved surface and to
entrain fluid from the surroundings so that a region of lower pressure
develops. It can also be described as the tendency of a fluid to adhere to
the walls of a convex surface.
 Coanda effect

• Commonly a free jet of fluid entrains and mixes with its surroundings as it
flows away from a nozzle.
• The key to the Coandă effect is that when the jet of air comes close to a
curved surface, it remains close to the curvature even if the surface is
curved away from the initial direction of the jet of fluid.
• This effect can be used to change a stream’s direction. In doing so, the
rate at which the jet mixes are often significantly increased compared with
that of an equivalent free jet.
 Coanda effect
• When the fluid increases in speed, the pressure decreases, and this
pressure imbalance results in the flow being pushed against the surface
by the atmosphere.
• This means that even if the surface curves away from the direction of flow,
the flow keeps sticking to it because the atmosphere is “applying”
pressure so the liquid sticks to the surface.
• This continues until the flow slows down and mixes with ambient air taking
away the pressure difference.
• This effect is quite widespread in its applications – from airplanes to
windshield washers in automobiles and even in air conditioning unit
designs and their placement.
 Bernoulli Principle and Coandă effect:
Their Contributions to Flight

• Daniel Bernoulli (1700-1782) discovered an effect named after himself

over 300 years ago called the Bernoulli’s Principle.
• Air behaves like a liquid and when air moves, the pressure around the air
parcel decreases.
• He discovered that if you can move air along a surface, the pressure on
that side of the surface will be less than the pressure on its other side.
This principal is used to lift airplane wings on aircraft.
 Bernoulli Principle and Coandă effect:
Their Contributions to Flight
• The Bernoulli principle describes how planes fly.
• Aircraft wings have curved top sides and the bottoms are relatively flat.
• When moving, air hits the front edge of the wing causing some of the air to
move up over the wings and the rest to move below the wing.
• As the upward moving air must follow the curvature of the wing and
travels further than the air moving under the wing to reach the back edge
at the same time, the air pressure on the top of the wing is reduced
according to Bernoulli’s principle.
• The resulting higher pressure under the wing, lifts the aircraft. This lifting
effect pushes the wing upwards and keeps the aircraft in flight.
 Bernoulli Principle and Coandă effect:
Their Contributions to Flight
• Though Bernoulli’s principle is a major source of lift in an aircraft wing, a
Romanian aerodynamics pioneer engineer, Henri Coandă (1885-1972),
discovered another effect that also helps produce lift.
• Henri Coandă, built the first jet aircraft in December 16, 1910 with his
partner Gianni Caponi (another aviator).
• The plane, called the Coandă-1910, was a 4-cylinder piston engine used
to power a rotary compressor.
• It was displayed in Paris at the Second International Aeronautical
Exhibition and, unlike all other planes at the time, the Coandă-1910 did
not have a propeller.
• The motor-driven turbine of his specially designed aircraft sucked the air
through the turbine, while the exhaust exited from the rear.
 Bernoulli Principle and Coanda effect:
Their Contributions to Flight
• This design drove the plane forward by propulsion.
• Coandă noticed that the airflow was attracted to nearby surfaces.
• In 1934, Coandă obtained a patent in France for a “method and apparatus
for deviation of a fluid into another fluid.”
• The effect was described as the “deviation of a plain jet of a fluid that
penetrates another fluid in the vicinity of a convex wall.”
• The first official documents that explicitly mention the Coandă effect were
two 1936 patents by Henri Coandă. (Coanda effect, Retrieved from
Wikipedia on Dec 12, 2018).
• Unfortunately, the first flight ended in an accident and he could not raise
enough money to continue his research.
 Bernoulli Principle and Coanda effect:
Their Contributions to Flight
• A moving stream of fluid, when in contact with a curved surface, will tend
to follow the curvature instead of continuing to move in a straight line.”
• Like the Bernoulli effect, the Coandă effect also describes how an
airplane’s wing lifts. The difference is the Coandă effect describes the
angle of attack, which is the angle between the wing and the direction of
the air flow, as shown in the following diagram:
 Bernoulli Principle and Coanda effect:
Their Contributions to Flight
• The angle of attack indicates the wing’s tilt with respect to the oncoming
air.
• To lift the wing, Newton’s third law says that there must be an equal force
acting in the opposite direction.
• If we can exert a force on the air so that it is directed down, the air will
exert an upward force back on the wing.
• As the angle of attack increases, so does the lift. If the angle of attack is
too great, the air flow will stop following the curve of the wing and a small
vacuum is created behind the wing causing vibration and decreases the
wing’s efficiency.
 Bernoulli Principle and Coanda effect:
Their Contributions to Flight
• The wing’s efficiency is important because it directs the airflow downward
and pushes up on the wing to produce lift.
• If the surface is not too sharply curved, the jet of air can follow the surface.
The forces that cause these changes in the direction of flow causes an
equal and opposite force on the surface along which the jet/stream flows.
• These Coandă effect/forces causes lift depending on the orientation of the
jet and the surface to which the jet/stream adheres.
• This effect can be induced in any fluids including water.
Vortex Sheet
 Kutta-Joukowski Theorem

Two early aerodynamicists, Kutta in Germany and Joukowski in Russia,

worked to quantify the lift achieved by an airflow over a spinning cylinder.
The lift relationship is

Lift per unit length = L = ρVГ

 Kutta-Joukowski Theorem

where ρ is the air density, V is the velocity of flow, and Г is called the
circulation
Γ = ∫ 𝛾𝑑𝑠
𝛾(𝑠)= vortex sheet of strength
ds= sheet of length
 Kutta condition

• The Kutta condition is a principle in steady flow fluid dynamics, especially

aerodynamics, that is applicable to solid bodies which have sharp
corners such as the trailing edges of airfoils.
• It basically states that “A body with a sharp trailing edge which is moving
through a fluid will create about itself a circulation of sufficient strength to
hold the rear stagnation point at the trailing edge.”
 Kutta condition

• In other words, since the streamlines on top and bottom surfaces should
be parallel, the trailing edge point ‘a’ will have two velocities in different
directions, which is impossible. Therefore, Va=0.
• For a cusped trailing edge, the edge angle is almost zero, therefore we
can have nonzero speed at the edge. However, since only one pressure
can exist at ‘a’, V1=V2
 Kutta condition

We can summarize the statement of the Kutta condition as follows:

• 1. For a given airfoil at a given angle of attack, the value of Γ around the airfoil
is such that the flow leaves the trailing edge smoothly.
• 2. If the trailing-edge angle is finite, then the trailing edge is a stagnation point.
• 3. If the trailing edge is cusped, then the velocities leaving the top and bottom
surfaces at the trailing edge are finite and equal in magnitude and direction.
 What is Magnus Effect?

• The Magnus effect is an observable phenomenon that is commonly

associated with a spinning object that drags air faster around one side,
creating a difference in pressure that moves it in the direction of the low
pressure side
 Where it is observable?

• The most readily observable case of the Magnus effect is where a

spinning sphere curves away from the arc it would follow if it were not
spinning.
• It is often used by by soccer players, baseball pitchers and cricket
bowlers. Consequently the phenomenon is mostly used to study the
physics of many ball sports
 History
• The magnus effect is named after heinrich Gustav magnus, the german
physicist who investigated it.
• The force on a rotating cylinder is known as Kutta –Joukowski Lift, after
Martin Wilhelm Kutta and Nikolai Zzhukovsky ( or joukowski) who first
analyzed the effect.
• German physicist Magnus, described the effect in 1852.
• However in 1672, Issac Newton had described it and correctly inferred
the cause ofter observing tennis players in his Cambridge college.
• In 1742, Benjamin Robins, a british mathematician , ballistics
researcher, and military engineer, explained deviations in the
trajectories of musket balls in the terms of Magnus Effect
 Physics(1)

• An intuitive understanding of the phenomenon comes from newtons third

law of motion, that the deflective force on the body is a reaction to the
deflection that the body imposes on the airflow. The body pushes the air in
one direction, and the air pushes the body in other direction. In particular,
a lifting force is accompanied by a downward deflection of the air-flow. It is
an angular deflection in the fluid flow, aft of the body
 Physics(2)

• It is said that Magnus himself wrongly postulated a theoretical effect

with laminar flow due to skin friction and viscosity as the cause of the
magnus effect.
• Such effects are physically possible but slightly in comparison to
what produced in Magnus effect proper.
• In some circumstances the causes of the magnus effect can produce
a deflection opposite to that of the magnus effect.
 Physics(3)
• The process by which a turbulent wake develops aft of a body in a airflow
is complex, but well-studied in aerodynamics.
• The thin boundary layer detaches itself from the body at the same point,
and this is where the wake begins to develop.
• The boundary layer itself may be turbulent or not, and that has a
significant effect on the wake of formation.
• Quite small variations in the surface conditions of the body can influence
the onset of wake formation and thereby have a marked effect on the
downstream flow pattern.
• The influence of the body’s rotation is of this kind
In Sports

• In Table tennis, the magnus effect is easily observed, because of

the small mass and low density. An experienced player can place a
wide variety of spins on the ball. Table tennis rackets usually have a
surface made of rubber to give the racket maximum grip on the ball
to impart spin
• The Magnus effect is not responsible for the movement of the
cricket ball seen in swing bowling, although it does contribute to the
motion known as drift and dip in spin bowling.
 In Aviation
• Some aircraft have been built that use the magnus effect to create lift
with a rotating cylinder at the front of the wing, allowing flight at lower
horizontal speeds.
• The earliest attempt to use the magnus effect for a heavier-than-
aircraft was in 1910 by a US member of congress, Butler Ames of
Massachusetts. The next attempt was in early 1930s by three
inventors in New york state.
 Ship Propulsion and stabilization
• Rotor ships use mast-like cylinders for propulsion. The effect is used
in a special type of ship stabilizer consisting of a rotating cylinder
mounted beneath the waterline and emerging laterally.
• By controlling the direction and the speed of rotation, strong lift or
downforce can be generated. The largest deployment of the system to
date is in the motor yacht eclipse
 References
Text Book
Sr No Title of the Book Author Name Volume/Edition Publish Hours Years Link
Charles E Dole, James chrome-
Flight Theory and
1 E Lewis, Joseph R Third edition Wiley 2017 extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://soaneemrana.org/
Aerodynamics
Badick and onewebmedia/THEORY%20OF%20FLIGHT.pdf
2 Introduction to Flight John D Anderson Jr Eighth edition McGraw Hill 2016 https://toaz.info/doc-view-2

3 Basics of Space Flight Dave Doody Fourth edition NASA/JPL-Caltech 2011 https://www.amazon.in/Basics-Space-Flight-Dave-
Doody/dp/0615476015
https://www.google.com/search?q=flight+without+formulae+by+a.c.+ker
mode+pdf+free+download&ei=z5ynZInZL6rfseMP6fSy8AI&start=10&sa
4 Flight without Formulae Kermode, A.C Fifth edition Pearson Education 2004
=N&ved=2ahUKEwjJ_IWE6fv_AhWqb2wGHWm6DC4Q8tMDegQIAxAE
&biw=1366&bih=600&dpr=1

Reference Book
Sr No Title of the Book Author Name Volume/Edition Publish Hours Years Link

Manuel Soler [Ed.]. https://e-

Fundamentals of Printed by Create archivo.uc3m.es/bitstream/handle/10016/21184/fundamentals_aerospac
1 Aerospace Engineering Manuel Soler Arnedo 2nd Edition Space. Madri 2017 e_engineering_soler_2014.pdf
Introduction to
Aerospace Engineering https://www.amazon.in/Introduction-Aerospace-Engineering-Flight-
with a Flight Test Perspective/dp/1118953363
2 Perspective Stephen Corda First edition Wiley 2017

chrome-
Principles of Flight for extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://www.abul.org.br/bi
3 Pilots P J Swatton First edition Wiley 2011 blioteca/82.pdf
Introduction to Space https://www.amazon.in/Introduction-Space-Flight-Francis-
4 Flight Francis J. Hale First Edition Pearson 1994 Hale/dp/0134819128
 THANK YOU

For queries
Email: [email protected]
POF by Mr. SUKUMAR DHANAPALAN, AP-SOA.