Applying the “Golf Ball Effect”
Ana Cedillo
to
Plane
Wings
Rationale:
Background:
Dimpled golf balls travel much farther than
smooth balls. This is because the dimples
reduce drag. They create discrete vortexes
which energize the boundary layer. This
causes the airflow around the ball to speed up
and follow the contour of the ball more closely, reducing the trailing wake
behind the ball.
Research Question:
Will creating golf ball-like
dimples on the surface of a
plane wing reduce drag?
Hypothesis:
If two planar wings that differ only in that one is dimpled
and the other is smooth were
tested in a wind tunnel, then
the dimpled plane wing would
produce less drag.
Average Drag in Newtons
If a method to reduce drag for a plane is designed and applied to a plane, the plane would
be able to travel faster, expend less fuel, and
have less of an impact on the environment.
0.9
0.8
0.7
0.6
0.5
control
0.4
dimpled
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
Materials and Methods:
Two identical foam
wings were obtained.
One was left alone while
the other had dimples
drilled into the upper surface with a dremel tool.
They were then placed in
the testing section of the
CVGS wind tunnel individually with a PASCO
force sensor placed behind the wing to obtain
drag values measured in
Newtons.
Results:
With 30 data points collected from each
wing, the average drag for the control
(smooth) wing was 0.79 Newtons, and for
the dimpled wind there were .09 Newtons.