MATLAB Program To Calculate Drag Force Against A Cyclist

Drag Force Equation:

Fd = 0.5*rho*A*v.^2*cd

where, rho - Density

A - Frontal Area

v - velocity

cd - drag coefficient

1. Program To Calculate the Drag Force Over a Bicycle for Different Velocities

%A Program To Calculate the Drag force For Different Velocities%

clear all
close all
clc

%Inputs%

cd = 0.82; %drag coefficient from wikipedai%

A = 2.1336; %area measured of a human on a bicycle%

rho = 1.225; %density of air%

v= 0:100; %Velocities of cycle%

drag_force = 0.5*rho*A*v.^2*cd; %Drag Force Equation%

plot(v,drag_force);
xlabel('Velocity - m2/s2')
ylabel('Drag Force - Kgm/s2')
grid on

Figure 1. Velocity Vs Drag Force

1. The inputs required for this program are:

cd - drag coefficeint

A - Frontal Area

rho - density of air

v - velocities of bicycle

2. The velocity of cycle is found using the range operator

3. The drag force is calculated using the drag force equations

4. The results are inferrred by ploting the graph between Velocity and Drag Force.

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2. Progam to Calculate The Drag Force over a Bicycle for different Drag Coefficients

%A Program to calculate the drag force for differnt drag coefficints%
clear all
close all
clc

%Inputs%
cd = 0.1:2; %Drag Coefficient values using range operators%

A = 2.1336; % Area measured of a human on a bicycle%

rho = 1.225; %Density of Air%

v = 30; %Velocity of Cycle%

drag_force = 0.5*rho*A*v.^2*cd; %Drag Force Equation%

plot(cd,drag_force);
xlabel('Drag Coefficient')
ylabel('Drag Force - Kgm/s2')
grid on

Figure 2. Drag Coefficient Vs Drag Force

1. The inputs required for this program are:

cd - drag coefficeint

A - Frontal Area

rho - density of air

v - velocity of bicycle is constant for this program

2. The drag coefficient of cycle is found using the range operator

3. The drag force is calculated using the drag force equations

4. The results are inferrred by ploting the graph between Drag Coefficient and Drag Force.

Result: The MATLAB Program helps the end the user to calculate the Drag Force by converting equation into a understable graphical plot.