Effect of Tumbling and Burning on the Drag of Bluff Objects

Abstract

The drag on various tumbling, nonburning wooden plates, cubes, rods, and wood chips was determined by measuring the free-fall velocity. The drag coefficient was reduced by a factor of 0.46 to 0.72 compared to the drag coefficient with the largest flat surface oriented perpendicular to the flow. The drag coefficient of burning wooden cubes and disks which are not tumbling was half that of identical nonburning, nontumbling cubes and disks. The drag coefficient of burning wooden cylinders with axes normal to the flow was slightly larger than nonburning cylinders with the same orientation. The information was obtained in order to better model the trajectory of solid fuel particles in furnaces.