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Design and methodology for evaluating aerodynamic characteristics of sports

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Article in Sports Technology · September 2009

DOI: 10.1080/19346182.2009.9648505

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Aerodynamic characteristics of sports textiles

Research Article
DOI: 10.1002/jst.92

Design and methodology for evaluating aerodynamic

characteristics of sports textiles
Harun Chowdhury1,, Firoz Alam1, David Mainwaring2, Aleksandar Subic1,
Margaret Tate2, Dorothy Forster2 and Jordi Beneyto-Ferre2
1
School of Aerospace, Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, RMIT University, Australia
2
School of Applied Sciences, RMIT University, Australia

The material characteristics of textiles used in elite sports garments have been
shown to exhibit a significant influence on both the sporting performance, as Keywords:
. drag
well as their aesthetics, particularly in those sports where aerodynamic . lift
resistance and its associated energy expenditure impact on winning times. The . aerodynamic properties
present study examines standard cylindrical arrangements in wind tunnel . wind tunnel testing
environments that can provide precise data on aerodynamic drag and lift and . fabric
can be correlated to fabric surface textures and material properties. Due to . textile
complex surface structure, the aerodynamic behavior of a fabric is
significantly different compared to a smooth surface. This study describes
wind tunnel testing methodologies used to measure both drag and lift forces
acting on the fabric surface due to different patterns and materials used in
textile manufacturing. The primary objective of this work is to study the effect
of the different configurations of the experimental arrangement using
experimental methods. r 2009 John Wiley and Sons Asia Pte Ltd

1. INTRODUCTION bobsleigh, and speed skating. Considerations in this aero-

dynamic performance include the textile weave or knit, seam
The suitability of materials for sports applications, including and fastener placement and air permeability. Elite competition
textiles for sports garments and like materials for all applica- usually involves very short winning time margins in events that
tions, must meet a range of performance parameters depending often have much longer timescales, making aerodynamic re-
on the specific requirements imposed by any one application. sistance and its associated energy loss during the event sig-
Strangwood [1] points out that the close interplay of design and nificant in the outcome. In fact, a twofold increase in athlete
sports materials brought about by engineering modeling is only velocity results in a fourfold increase in the drag force needing
as good as the data on which it is based. Technological to be overcome [2]. A series of research studies over the last
innovation, in both design and materials, has played a two decades have identified the reduction of aerodynamic drag
significant role in sport, achieving its current standing in both in such sports garments [3–6].
absolute performance and its aesthetics. In sports garments, Kyle and Brownlie [4, 5, 7], carrying out systematic wind
two examples that clearly exemplify design and materials are tunnel studies of drag and flow transitions utilizing both man-
graduated compression garments and swimming bodysuits. nequins with athletic apparel and cloth-covered cylinders, showed
Aerodynamic properties play a significant role in the gar- that cylinders with three types of cloth experienced significantly
ments across a wide range of sports, including cycling, skiing, less drag than bare cylinders and earlier onsets of the flow
transition, which could have been attributed to surface
roughness, although neither the cylinders nor the mannequin
with non-porous fabric underwent such a flow transition.
*School of Aerospace, Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering,
RMIT University, Bundoora East Campus, PO Box 71, Bundoora, VIC The surface texture and the corresponding air permeability
3083, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. of sports fabrics can potentially exhibit subtle, yet significant
E-mail: harun.chowdhury@rmit.edu.au influences on drag and flow transitions. Surface roughness is an

Sports Technol. 2009, 2, No. 3–4, 81–86 & 2009 John Wiley and Sons Asia Pte Ltd 81
 Research Article H. Chowdhury et al.

important parameter for lift and drag due to the transitional section is not immediately apparent. Therefore, the primary
properties at the boundary layer. Sports textiles represent a wide objective of this paper is to design and develop standard cylinder
spectrum of surface topologies and wide boundary layer behaviors. testing protocols and also evaluate the overall effects of top and
Here, we report an experimental wind tunnel arrangement that bottom sections on the middle section of the cylinder. This
provides precise information on both the drag and aero- evaluation would then be used to optimize the arrangement for
dynamic lift characteristics of textiles covering standard the simultaneous measurement of aerodynamic drag and lift.
cylindrical geometries formed from rigid plastic materials, as
well as ballistic test gel materials matched to muscle tissue
density (1.3 g/cc). In the aerodynamic evaluation of surface- 2. EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE
coating materials, such as textiles, a cylinder provides a readily
available generic standard geometry if established within the 2.1 Experimental Facility
correct experimental arrangement. Here, we show a standard
cylinder arrangement for this textile testing consisting of three To experimentally measure the aerodynamic properties (such
segments of the cylinder: non-active top and bottom sections and as drag, lift, side force and their corresponding moments) of fab-
an active middle section, where the top and bottom sections are rics, the RMIT wind tunnel was used. The tunnel is a closed return
used to minimize the aerodynamic influence on the active middle circuit wind tunnel with a maximum air speed of approximately
section. This cylindrical arrangement has been designed to 150 km/h. The rectangular test section dimension is 3 m (wide)-
operate with its principle axis between perpendicular and 2 m (high)  9 m (long) with a turntable to yaw suitably sized
horizontal to the force transducer to allow data on both objects. A plan view of the tunnel is shown in Figure 1. The tunnel
aerodynamic drag and lift of textile samples to be determined. was calibrated before conducting experiments with air speeds
However, the effect of the non-active top and bottom sections of measured via a modified National Physical Laboratory (NPL)
the cylinder on the aerodynamic properties of the active central ellipsoidal head pitot-static tube (located at the entry of the test
section) connected to a MKS Baratron pressure sensor (MKS
Instruments, Andover, MA, USA) through flexible tubing. Pur-
pose-made computer software was used to compute all six forces
and moments (drag, side, lift forces and yaw, pitch and roll
moments) and their non-dimensional coefficients.

2.2 Description of Experimental Arrangements

The standard cylindrical geometry consisted of an active

central section connected to the load cell (force sensor) and
passive upper and lower sections assembled to minimize end-
effects, as shown in Figure 2. The active cylinder has a dia-
meter and length of 110 mm and 400 mm, respectively, while
Figure 1. Plan view of RMIT wind tunnel [8]. the six-axis force sensor (type JR-3) had a sensitivity of 0.05%

Figure 2. Active middle section with non-active top and bottom sections. Schematic CAD model (a) and cylinder in wind tunnel (b).

82 www.sportstechjournal.com & 2009 John Wiley and Sons Asia Pte Ltd Sports Technol. 2009, 2, No. 3–4, 81–86
Aerodynamic characteristics of sports textiles

Figure 3. Design and experimental arrangement of the cylinder geometry to measure both aerodynamic lift and drag at different angles of attack from
301 to 1501 relative to wind direction. Schematic CAD model (a) and cylinder in wind tunnel (b).

Figure 4. Microstructure of the textile surface in comparison to the

bare PVC cylinder surface (shown as an inset) and arrow showing warp
direction on cylinder.

over a range of 0–400 N. Textile sleeves were fabricated for the

cylinders so that each fabric had similar tensions when
installed on the cylinders.
The various experimental configurations used in the wind
Figure 5. (a) Drag force (FD)–velocity (V) and (b) drag coefficient
tunnel to determine the respective end-effects when using the
(CD)–Reynolds number (Re) for different configurations without textile
textile sleeves are given in Figure 2. The cylinder was made of sleeve, where ( & ) is the arrangement without the bottom section, (m) is
PVC tubing and was made solid by using fillers for structural the arrangement without the top and bottom sections, () is the complete
rigidity. The middle section is vertically supported on a six- arrangement and (~) is the arrangement without the top section.
component force sensor using a threaded strut. The non-active
bottom section was secured to the wind tunnel floor, while the physical contact with the active middle section; 5 mm gaps
top section was secured with the floor using an L-shaped were maintained between the sections. In order to quantify the
bracket (Figure 2) so that the top and bottom sections had no effects of the top and bottom sections on the aerodynamic

Sports Technol. 2009, 2, No. 3–4, 81–86 & 2009 John Wiley and Sons Asia Pte Ltd www.sportstechjournal.com 83
 Research Article H. Chowdhury et al.

Figure 6. Drag and lift force as a function of speed for the cylinder (a) and (c) without textile sleeve, (b) and (d) with textile sleeve where angles of
inclination to the wind direction are 901 (~), 751 ( & ), 601 (m), 451 (X), 301 ().

properties of the active middle section, the active section was from 301 to 1501 relative to wind direction, as shown in Figure 3.
tested in following configurations: The inclined cylinder allows simultaneous measurement of
both aerodynamic drag and lift for various textiles in the
 Active section with top and bottom sections.
experimental wind tunnel program at different angles of attack.
 Active section with a non-active bottom section only (no top
section).
 Active section with a non-active top section only (no bottom
section). 3. RESULTS
 Active section only (no non-active top and bottom sections).
3.1 Textile Characterization
Figure 2 shows the complete testing configuration with the
active middle section and the non-active top and bottom A textile sleeve was fabricated to examine the effects of
sections, as illustrative of the arrangements evaluated. surface texture and finish. The sleeve was knitted fabric and
The standard cylinder configuration shown in Figure 2 is made from rotor spun yams using 50% cotton and 50%
only used for aerodynamic drag measurements. Since body microfiber polyester material. As noted, it was produced so
positions do not remain in an upright position during sports that it provided a constant fabric tension when placed on the
activity, deviations from an upright position can generate both cylinders. Figure 4 shows a scanning electron microscope
aerodynamic drag and lift or down force. Therefore, the image of the textile examined, where it can be seen that the
standard cylinder, with the active central section and the non- surface topology consists of 60 mm linear arrays of regular
active bottom section only, was modified maintaining the same yarn bundles of approximately 250 mm diameter and weft
diameter of 110 and 300 mm of length using a specifically fibers straggling this regular warp array. The insert shows the
designed rotating mechanism to fix the cylinder at any angle bare cylinder surface for comparison of feature sizes.

84 www.sportstechjournal.com & 2009 John Wiley and Sons Asia Pte Ltd Sports Technol. 2009, 2, No. 3–4, 81–86
Aerodynamic characteristics of sports textiles

Figure 7. Drag and lift coefficient (CD and CL) as a function of Reynolds number (Re) for the cylinder (a) and (c) without textile sleeve, (b) and (d) with
textile sleeve where angles of inclination to the wind direction are 901 (~), 751 ( & ), 601 (m), 451 (X), 301 ().

3.2 Aerodynamic Characterization of Experimental Configurations non-active top section at low velocities and that it undergoes
the greatest laminar-to-turbulent flow transition. It was also
Figure 5 shows the response of the bare cylinder in terms found that at higher wind velocities, vibration of the top section
of the drag force (FD) and drag coefficient ðCD ¼ 1 FD2 Þ with caused the gap distance between the active cylinder and the top
2 rV A section to vary, influencing the force measurements. Thus, the
respect to wind velocity (V) and Reynolds number ðRe ¼ rVD
m ÞÞ, standard configuration adopted consisted of the active central
respectively, characterizing the different experimental ar- cylinder and the non-active bottom section, which was applied
rangements of the cylinder components shown in Figure 2. The to the following drag and lift force measurements. It also in-
aerodynamic tests were carried out in a range of wind speeds dicates that the top section has minimal effect at high speeds
from 20 to 120 km/h, corresponding to Reynolds number (high Reynolds number), particularly over 80 km/h.
ranges from 4.1  104 to 2.5  105. Figure 6 compares the bare cylinder arrangement with and
Figure 5(a) indicates that the drag forces (FD) resulting without the textile sleeve (shown in Figure 4) in terms of the drag
from the four configurations follow similar trend lines with and lift forces (FD and FL), with the arrangement set at five angles
only small differences in magnitude. Figure 5(b) shows that the (301, 451, 601, 751, 901) of inclination to the wind direction.
coefficient of drag (CD) is highest for the cylinder without the The corresponding drag and lift coefficients (CD and CL) of these

Sports Technol. 2009, 2, No. 3–4, 81–86 & 2009 John Wiley and Sons Asia Pte Ltd www.sportstechjournal.com 85
 Research Article H. Chowdhury et al.

systems are given in Figure 7. Inclination angles below 901 produce systematic shift in the laminar-to-turbulent flow transition, as seen
greater drag forces than the vertical position, with 751 dominating in the CD plots, as inclination is varied, while aerodynamic lift
with the bare cylinder and 601 dominating with the textile sleeve. increased linearly with the inclination angle. This behavior is not
Very low angles, for example, 301, yield low drag forces. seen with the bare cylinder surface. Such a standard cylinder
The corresponding drag coefficients clearly show pro- arrangement will be used in further studies evaluating lift and drag
gressive increases in the flow transitions with the textile sleeve characteristics of high-performance sports garment and textile
where the final transition velocities increase from 40 to design and construction. Sports engineering studies and materials
50 km/h and finally 55 km/h for 601, 751, and 901. Figure 6(a) science thus deepens the understanding of the aerodynamic load
shows that the bare cylinder does not exhibit these transitions. contribution (drag and lift) of clothing on competitive athletic
The textile surface at 901 produces both the largest reduction performance, and thus on optimal garment design.
in drag coefficient with the transition, as well as the lowest CD
in the high velocity region, for example, 70–120 km/h. The
respective lift forces in Figure 5(c) and (d) show the increases REFERENCES
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straggling the regular array of warp bundles, produced a Published online 25 September 2009

86 www.sportstechjournal.com & 2009 John Wiley and Sons Asia Pte Ltd Sports Technol. 2009, 2, No. 3–4, 81–86

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