Drag reduction by applying speedstrips on rowing oars

Conference paper (2016)

Authors

A. J. Greidanus Fluid Mechanics - Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering
J. Westerweel Fluid Mechanics - Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering
Research Group
Fluid Mechanics (Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering) (TU Delft)
Copyright: © 2016 C.B. Kuyt, A.J. Greidanus, J. Westerweel
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2016.06.198
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Published Date

2016

Language

English

Faculty

Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering

Department

Process and Energy

Research Group

Fluid Mechanics

Abstract

The objective of this study was to determine the advantage of the application of speedstrips to rowing oars for a lightweight single sculler. The research method comprehended three steps: (1) the analysis of the rowing oar movement, (2) the determination of the change in drag and (3) the composition of a rowing model to establish the advantage that could be achieved. The parameters needed for the model: boat velocity, oar angle velocity and power delivered by the rower, were recorded on a real single sculler. The change in drag due to speedstrips on cylinders was determined by performing wind tunnel experiments. The rowing model (Matlab) simulates a race by using real stroke data of a world-class rower as input, while calculating the drag with the coefficients determined by the wind tunnel experiments. The output of the model is the final advantage by the application of speedstrips to rowing oars. Speedstrips induce a 0.1% advantage over a 2000 m race under calm wind conditions. The advantage increases up to.4% with a headwind velocity of 5 m s-1. For bigger boats, the advantage could be even more significant.