Abstract
The soccer ball panel pattern, which changes every World Cup, greatly affects the ball’s aerodynamics and flight characteristics. In this study, the fluid force of 11 soccer balls with different panel patterns was measured by wind tunnel tests. The drag crises with different Reynolds numbers were confirmed depending on the panel shape. To understand this, the shapes of panel grooves were measured and the relationship between them was investigated. The flow separation point was also visualized by the oil film method and the particle image velocimetry (PIV) analysis. The separation points were confirmed to be different depending on the panel groove by the oil film method in a supercritical Reynolds region. The flow separation points were found to be almost the same position in the subcritical and supercritical state and to be partly different around the Reynolds number of drag crisis.
Highlights
The patterns of recent soccer balls are greatly different from that of the conventional soccer ball, with several changes being made to the shape and design of the surface of the ball
The following four kinds of experiment were performed on the following soccer balls: the fluid force experiment to measure the aerodynamic performance, the groove shape measurement to determine the surface properties, the oil film experiment to confirm the separation lines of each panel, and particle image velocimetry (PIV) analysis to confirm the separation points on the Reynolds number around drag crisis phenomena
In order to confirm the relationship between the aerodynamic characteristics of soccer balls and their panels, the fluid force experiment, groove shape measurement, oil film experiment, and 2D-PIV
Summary
The patterns of recent soccer balls are greatly different from that of the conventional soccer ball, with several changes being made to the shape and design of the surface of the ball. Various aerodynamic studies on soccer balls have been reported. Goff et al [2,3] reported the aerodynamic difference of non-spinning several soccer balls by the different panel shapes. The authors of [5] reported that the aerodynamic forces acting on the ball differed corresponding to its orientation and rotation. The relationship between the groove shape and the aerodynamic characteristics on the Reynolds number region around the drag crisis has not yet been clarified
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