11:30   Soccer ball aerodynamics
Chair: Matt Carre
11:30
20 mins
WIND TUNNEL EXPERIMENTS AND TRAJECTORY ANALYSES FOR FIVE NONSPINNING SOCCER BALLS
John Goff, Chad Hobson, Takeshi Asai, Sungchan Hong
Abstract: We report drag, side, and lift coefficients for two orientations of five non-spinning soccer balls (Brazuca, Cafusa, Jabulani, Teamgeist 2, and Vantaggio), measured using a wind tunnel. The air's speed range was 7 m/s to 35 m/s, covering most of the speeds of kicked soccer balls in real games. Trajectory analyses make use of our aerodynamic wind-tunnel data and show that the five balls we tested behave differently while in flight. We also show that in some cases, changing ball orientation leads to a significant change in flight trajectory. Turning off side and lift forces alter ranges and lateral deflections as fractions of ranges in excess of 10% for some balls. Because we have only two orientations for non-spinning balls, the work we present here is only the preliminary investigation of a much larger project in which we hope to have aerodynamic data for many more ball orientations. Such work will allow us to use trajectory analysis for general trajectories.
11:50
20 mins
A STUDY OF AERODYNAMIC DRAG OF CONTEMPORARY FOOTBALL
Firoz Alam, Harun Chowdhury, Bavin Loganathan
Abstract: The game of football is world’s most viewed, played and loved sport. Due to increasing technological advancements and demand for performance, the ball manufacturers have been developing new designs progressively since its inception over 100 years ago. A traditional spherical football made of 32 leather panels stitched together in 1970s has become 14 synthetic curved panels thermally bonded without stitches in 2006 and more recently 8 panels thermally bonded in 2010, and again some new designed balls 96 panels) in 2014. Despite being most popular game in the world, scant data is available on aerodynamic properties of recently introduced FIFA approved Nike Ordem 3 (thermally bonded 12 panels) and Adidas Finale 2015 (32 star and shield types panels) balls. The Nike Ordem 3 is used in league matches in Europe (English Premier League, Spanish Laliga and Italian Seria A) while Adidas Finale 2015 ball is used in UFEA Champion League. The surface structures of these two balls are significantly different than those balls introduced in last 10 years. Hence the primary objectives of this study are to evaluate aerodynamic performance of these recently introduced balls and compare their aerodynamic properties. The aerodynamic forces and moments are measured experimentally for a range of wind speeds in wind tunnel. The aerodynamic forces and their non-dimensional coefficients were determined and compared.