Hydrodynamic drag
| Shape and flow | Form Drag |
Skin friction |
|---|---|---|
 |
0% | 100% |
 |
~10% | ~90% |
 |
~90% | ~10% |
 |
100% | 0% |
In fluid dynamics, drag (sometimes called air resistance, a type of friction, or fluid resistance, another type of friction or fluid friction) is a force acting opposite to the relative motion of any object moving with respect to a surrounding fluid. This can exist between two fluid layers (or surfaces) or a fluid and a solid surface. Unlike other resistive forces, such as dry friction, which are nearly independent of velocity, drag forces depend on velocity. Drag force is proportional to the velocity for a laminar flow and the squared velocity for a turbulent flow. Even though the ultimate cause of a drag is viscous friction, the turbulent drag is independent of viscosity.
Drag forces always decrease fluid velocity relative to the solid object in the fluid's path.
Examples of drag include the component of the net aerodynamic or hydrodynamic force acting opposite to the direction of movement of a solid object such as cars, aircraft and boat hulls; or acting in the same geographical direction of motion as the solid, as for sails attached to a down wind sail boat, or in intermediate directions on a sail depending on points of sail. In the case of viscous drag of fluid in a pipe, drag force on the immobile pipe decreases fluid velocity relative to the pipe.
In physics of sports, the drag force is necessary to explain the performance of runners, particularly of sprinters.
Types of drag are generally divided into the following categories:
The phrase parasitic drag is mainly used in aerodynamics, since for lifting wings drag it is in general small compared to lift. For flow around bluff bodies, form and interference drags often dominate, and then the qualifier "parasitic" is meaningless.
Further, lift-induced drag is only relevant when wings or a lifting body are present, and is therefore usually discussed either in aviation or in the design of semi-planing or planing hulls. Wave drag occurs either when a solid object is moving through a fluid at or near the speed of sound or when a solid object is moving along a fluid boundary, as in surface waves.
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Wikipedia