Calculation of Drag Force against a Cyclist using MATLAB

Objective: Write a Matlab program to calculate drag force against a cyclist.

Code:

• Code to plot Velocity vs Drag force.

%program to calculate the drag force over a bicycle
%program to plot velocity and drag force

clear all
close all
clc

%Inputs
%Area m^2
A = 8

%density kg/m^3
rho = 1.22

%Drag Coefficient
C_d = 2

% velocity m/s
V = [1:70] 

%Drag force
drag_force = rho*A*V.^2*C_d*0.5

plot(V,drag_force);

xlabel('velocity');
ylabel('drag_force');
grid on

Output Graph:

• Graph Velocity Vs Drag force.

Code:

• Code to plot Drag Co-efficient vs Drag force.

%program to calculate the drag force over a bicycle.
%program to plot drag coefficient and drag force.

clear all
close all
clc

%Inputs
%Area m^2
A = 8

%density kg/m^3
rho = 1.22

%Drag Coefficient
C_d = [0.40:2.10]

% velocity m/s
V = 10 

%Drag force
drag_force = rho*A*V^2*C_d*0.5

plot(C_d,drag_force);

xlabel('Drag_coef');
ylabel('drag_force');
grid on

Output Graph:

• Graph Drag coefficient Vs Drag force.

Reference:

• Drag coefficient of different shapes from the internet.