Study of the aerodynamic forces evaluation methods

This paper reviews some of the different formulations of the force exerted on a submerged body by the fluid flowing around it. The study is particularly focused on identifying the most appropriate formulations and their inherent assumptions and experimental conditions that fit the current experimental techniques. Several force formulations are derived using different assumptions such as finite and infinite domain, simple and double connected domains. The aim was to obtain formulations that can benefit from the data gathered through the particle image velocimetry method, more explicitly the velocity field around the body and its derivatives. The equations were afterwards discussed in terms of their exposure to error magnification due to the limitations of the experimental method and recommendations were made for appropriate situations in which different formulations should be used. In conclusion, all different force formulations are valid and can be used with the Particle Image Velocimetry data but the accuracy of each outcome depends on the problem definition. As a future objective, experimental work should be performed and test the different equations for different flow conditions, steady, unsteady, quasi-steady, and also for different domain ranges.