School of Aerospace, Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, RMIT University

APPLICATION OF AERODYNAMICS IN SPORTS: SOCCER BALL

AERODYNAMICS

Victor Djamovski (s3167086)

Bachelor of Aerospace Engineering BP069

Supervisor: Associate Professor Hadi Winarto

ABSTRACT

The flight of a sports ball through the air is a fundamental part of almost every popular sport.
Whichever ball is being there are certain factors which determine how the ball will travel through
the air, they are drag, lift, gravity and the Magnus effect. For this study, regarding CFD simulation,
flow over a sphere will be used to model to represent a soccer ball- due to limited resources (i.e. 3d
scanner) and time restraints make it difficult to accurately model a soccer balls complex seam
surface geometry. The spin rate decay of both balls test showed good linear results, while the two
balls displayed expected results. A wind tunnel analysis of the Adidas Jabulani ball will also be
performed to test out its aerodynamic characteristics such as drag, lift and side force. The
juxtaposition between CFD and experimental results will

INTRODUCTION

Research into the effects of aerodynamics on sports balls has been growing field of interest in recent
times, with the use of computer simulations only recently becoming a tool for capturing the flow
over sports balls. However, with more investment pouring into the field of sports research, for the
creation of optimised equipment in order to achieve a higher quality of play- researchers have been
looking to a combination of experimental procedures and CFD to analyse the interactive nature
between sports balls and airflow, to gain a better understanding of their aerodynamics. A soccer ball
has been chosen for analyses through wind tunnel, CFD and high-speed camera testing. The
spherical shape and smooth surface of a soccer ball can be modelled using CFD software Ansys
12.1. Such experimental procedures along with Ansys 12.1 have proven to be very valuable method
and modelling tool. The objective of this paper is to assess the effect that speed, rate of spin and
spin rate decay have on a soccer balls flight through the air. A look into how aerodynamics can be
applied to improve sports balls and equipment, will also benefit millions of spectators worldwide,

METHODOLOGY- HIGH SPEED CAMERA EXPERIMENT

The testing of spin rate decay through high -speed video recording was performed on Tuesday 1st of
June at approximately 10.30 am. The camera used was the X-stream XS-4, which was operated
by RMIT workshop technician Mr Peter Tkatchyk. Mr Peter Tkatchyk provided technical assistance
and guided any problems which were encountered with the procedure. He advised us on where to
position the ball, for optimum viewing of initial spin rates by marking a sort of datum line which
would be the initial point of the ball for each kick. Peter also varied the lens, in order to see which
lens was best suited for the testing, which would in turn give the best results by changing the
camera lens, Peter was able to utilise the FlexROI technology of the camera, to configure the
region of interest. The technical assistance of technician Peter Tkatchyk was invaluable to ensuring
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the entire procedural testing was a success, and his expertise and guidance helped enhance the
accuracy of results. Below can be seen a general view of the set-up of the test, with technician Peter
Tkatchyk along with colleague Sam Dowler who was conducting spin rate decay study on AFL
footballs. Figure shows a general work station set-up, along with colleague Sam Dowler and high-
speed video camera technician Peter Tkatchyk.

Figure 1: Schematic diagram of

experimental set-up

EXPERIMETNAL ARRANGEMENT

For the testing procedure, the balls tested were struck from an initial point on the grass, in order for
the ball(s) to be projected over a distance and high speed video cameras to record images of the
balls spin rate, velocity and launch angle at the start and at the end of the balls trajectory. The test
were conducted outdoors, to mimic real-life situations such as wind resistance, real friction
between turf and ball along with the friction of contact between foot and ball. Also, a combination
of everyday runners and football boots were used for kicking the ball. This was purely for the case
of curiosity, just to see what benefit kicking with boots had over runners, for which the data for the
boots was used. A frontal view of the experimental arrangement can be seen in the photograph
below.

Figure 2: Frontal view of high-speed

camera station set-up

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Five markers were placed at 5 metre intervals within each other over a total distance of 25 metres,
so that the times and spin rates at each points could be calculated, for which these points could then
be plotted various graphs. This methodical approach to analysing the data was taken upon the
technical advice given by Professor Firoz Alam, as he suggested this method would yield the best
possible result for this particle experiment. Twenty five metres was chosen as the distance
trajectory because it is for this range that curling shots are usually taken by soccer players. The
curling shot requires players to strike the ball at the furthest offset distance from the middle axis
of the ball, whereby such shots are usually preferred by professional soccer players to curl past a
defensive wall within the range of 25 metres. This increased distance trajectory of 25 metres
minimises the effect of spin measurement errors.

It has to be noted that both myself and my colleague Sam Dowler have relatively minimal
experience in measuring the dynamics of sports ball using high speed video techniques and every
attempt was made to minimise the effect of experimental uncertainties. However, relatively large
errors are inevitable when measuring spin rates and these become more evident when comparing the
dynamics at the start and end point of a trajectory. Hence, why the trajectory duration was set as
long as possible (as mentioned above), but the resulting data is subject to significant uncertainty.

Since the experiment was conducted outdoors, it is necessary to report weather statistics of the day
were recorded from the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) with conditions as follows. The below
weather statistics do not include the air density or pressure, hence sea-level conditions will be
assumes if required for future calculations. The morning of the day of testing was foggy, although
this is not shown in Table 1 below; the effects of the foggy atmosphere are thought to be negligible.

The high speed video cameras were positioned as a pre-determined distance apart, and the kicking
styles were kept the same for each kick in order to achieve a relatively constant initial kick velocity.
In order for the ball to be able to pass through the view of the camera, the camera needed to be
angled up from its initial angle position. The camera was fixed to a tripod, making it easy to tilt in
the vertical axis, giving freedom to angle by as much as 50 degrees. Two different balls were used
for the experiment, which will be described below.

The first ball experimented on was the official 2010 World Cup Adidas Jabulani ball, with
thermally bonded panels making it as close to a perfect sphere shape as possible. The ball was
inflated to the official pressure which gave a circumference of 68.7 cm. The surface of the ball is
marked with strategically placed aero grooves. Tape was not required to mark the ball, as the
balls panels are clearly identifiable which will aid the analysis of the video; these panels can be seen
in the two pictures of the ball below. The balls panels and markings make the ball easy to analyse in
the 3 dimensional x, y and z axis, as it was anticipated that the ball would rotate in these three
planes, this would minimise confusion during the analysis of the video. The ball along with the
markings can be seen in the figure below.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Professor Firoz Alam was consulted regarding the technical aspect of the calculations, and how to
go about plotting and interpreting the equations from the thesis paper of James and Haake [18].
From the footage, analysed using Motionpro X, an excel spread sheet with all the relevant data was
produced. The excel spread sheet was used as it provided an efficient means of calculating the spin
parameter (denoted as ) and spin rate decay (SRD) values for the five different points, which
others wise would have been a tedious and time consuming task to work out the above parameters
through repetitive hand calculations. The five 5 metre intervals represent the five points evenly
spaced across the 25m trajectory, for which the velocity and time could be recorded, to give an
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approximate value of the velocity at a particular interval. Very little data is provided in the James
and Haake [18] paper, and Professor Alam suggested it was not a benchmark paper and did not
have to be adhered to strictly.

From the James and Haake [18] paper, a common dimensionless parameter was used to describe the
spin rate of the ball; the spin rate parameter () which is by definition as the ratio of peripheral
velocity to translational velocity, and is shown in equation 1 below.

Whereby, is the spin rate in radians per second, r is the radius in metres and U the velocity of the
ball. For this breakdown of the equation, Professor Alam was consulted. He explained that the
peripheral velocity was just the rotational velocity of the ball and the translational velocity was
the rectilinear velocity of the ball.

The other dimensionless parameter which is useful in describing the data is spin rate decay (SRD).
From the paper by James and Haake [18] they detail how Smits and Smith derived SRD from the
spin rate parameter. Beginning with equation 1, if the spin rate ( ) is replaced by the change in spin
rate (d /dt) and the balls radius (r) is replaced by and the initial velocity (or velocity for each
interval) is replaced with . This creates a new dimensionless parameter that describes spin rate
decay.

Professor Firoz Alam described how the d /dt was just simply the spin rate at one interval minus
the spin rate from the subsequent interval; divided by the time it took the ball to travel that interval.
In mathematical terms, it is simply .

Results figure 1 below displays the relationship between spin parameter (alpha) and spin rate decay
for both the official 2010 World Cup ball and the rough surfaced official size Adidas F50 ball.
The scatter in the plots observed was far less than that of the scatter observed in the graph of James
and Haake [18]; as they noted there is significant scatter. Their clearly exists a difference between
in the spin decay behaviour between the two balls , and they adhere to the linear spin decay
relationship which was mentioned in the James and Haake [18] paper- which they noted was first
proposed by Smits and Smith.

A comparison of the graph obtained from my results, can be seen below with that of the graphed
results of James and Haake [18]. The first initial point from the graph, spin parameter equal to 0.285
and SRD equal to . This point was in the vicinity of the first point from James and Haake
[1], this means that the method and analysis was accurate. However, subsequent points varied to a
certain degree, this could be attributed to the effects of the environment such as wind resistance or
air density- as their experiment was conducted indoors. Also, the balls sued are very different, as
they presumably did not use a ball which is thermally bonded and close to a spherical shape. Also,
the special restraints of indoor testing the launch speeds of the soccer ball tested by James and
Haake [18] were relatively slow (typically 7m/s). The Reynolds number in their case would have
always remained subcritical and hence the flow around the ball would have been laminar. This is
not the case for our ball test outdoors with speeds typically around 20m/s, and hence results would
have between my ball and the ball of James and Haake [18] would have varied. With James and
Haake noting that it is assumed that this laminar flow regime contributes significantly to the spin
decay of the football.
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Also note that the (d /dt) was calculated as a positive parameter it is dimensionless; however this
would be negative in real life as Prof. Alam stated that decay is a negative value. As both the
change in and the change in time work out to give negative values and hence two negatives
cancel to give a positive. As the SRD equation gives a dimensionless value, the direction of the
magnitude of values within the SRD equation are not relevant, but just to validate the values
obtained it is important to identify that the SRD should be negative. The negative phenomena of
spin rate decay of a soccer balls (or any sports ball) flight trajectory was outlined by Prof. Alam,
which is an expected result.

The first set of results focus on plotting the SRD against the spin parameter ( ) which was
identified as the proper method to analysing a sports ball spin rate decay over a certain flight
trajectory. The results compared favourably, however some of the data plots were not all similar.
The reason for this will be explained in sections aft of the resulting graphs.

2010AdidasJabulaniball
0.002

0.0015
Spinratedecay(SRD)
SRD

0.001
Linear(Spinratedecay
0.0005 (SRD))

0
0.24 0.26 0.28 0.3
Spinparameter(alpha)

Figure 3: Plot of results for SRD against for the 2010 Adidas Jabulani
ball

2 DIMENSIONAL RESULTS

The computational fluid dynamic software used to model and simulate the flow around a sphere
which represents a soccer ball was FLUENT software package version 6.2, along with its pre-
processor program GAMBIT. The computational fluid dynamic software used to model and
simulate the flow around a sphere which represents a soccer ball was Fluent software package
version 6.2, along with its pre-processor program GAMBIT. The first step to creating the geometry,
was to firstly get the dimensions of the official 2010 World Cup ball, so from the official FIFA
Laws of the Game for 2009/2010 it was found that the circumference of the must be no greater
than 70 cm or no less than 68 cm. From the circumference, the diameter or radius can be calculated
using C=2r. From this an averaged value of 69cm was taken for the circumference, and the radius
was calculated to be 10.98 cm, this was the value used for the modelling of the sphere for
simulation.

After the mesh was complete, it was advised to check the mesh quality and refine the mesh if
need be. There are many factor to consider when using the meshing quality tool provided by
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GAMBIT, which are as follows; area, aspect ratio, edge ratio, equiangular skew, equiangular size
and volume. Through advice from users of GAMBIT, the most important factors for 2 dimensional
modelling are the aspect ratio and equiangular skew. Therefore, firstly the aspect ratio was check
through, to ensure that all the cells were of reasonable size and not too stretched. GAMBIT has a
maximum value of 100, which is acceptable for the mesh, and this requirement was satisfied with
the largest cell aspect ratio being 99.5. Then, the mesh was exported and opened in Fluent, to check
the equiangular skew of the cells. The quality of the triangular cells is measured on a scale of 0 to 1,
with 0 being an equiangular cell. It was researched that a value of 0.8 for 2D, but it was advised
that a value of .9 or less is acceptable for a mesh. To achieve this value of 0.9 for all the cells for the
2D mesh, approximately 13 565 cells had their skewness reduced. Figure 24 below shows the
finished mesh structure.

Figure 2: Mesh structure showing dense concentration of cells in wake region

2 DIMENSIONAL RESULTS

The drag coefficient was monitored for the full time range, providing for a more accurate averaged
value. Table 1 below displays the results for each laminar simulation, with corresponding Reynolds
number to each velocity run with the all-important time averaged drag coefficient.

Velocity (m/s) Reynolds number (Re) Drag coefficient ( )

7.5 112,957 0.42
10 150,609 0.419
12.5 188,261 0.416
15 225,913 0.415
Table 1: Laminar results for drag coefficient at various Reynolds numbers

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TURBULENT RESULTS

For the turbulent simulation case, steady flow was used to analyse the flow as fully turbulent for the
range of velocities. Analysing the flow as fully turbulent for this case can bring up errors as the
Reynolds number enters the trans-critical region of flow regime. In order for turbulent flow to
develop over the surface of the sphere the velocity has to be large enough that the critical Reynolds
number is achieved. This critical Reynolds number occurs at around for a sphere, which
equates to a velocity of 25.3 m/s. Reynolds numbers used for the simulation ranged from the critical
Reynolds number to 602,437, corresponding to a velocity of 40m/s- roughly how fast Cristiano
Ronaldos 40 yard goal was travelling in the game against Porto F.C in the Champions League
season 2008/2009. The results of the steady state turbulent simulation can be seen in Table 2
below.
Velocity Reynolds Drag Experimen Error (%)
(m/s) number (Re) coefficient ( ) tal result Asai et
al. (2007)
25.3 355,953 0.108 0.100 8
30 451,827 0.106 0.108 2
35 527,132 0.105 0.117 9
40 602,437 0.103 0.125 15
Table 2: Comparison of drag coefficient for various Reynolds numbers for turbulent
simulation

3 DIMENSIONAL RESULTS

Only steady flow was analysed for the 3 dimensional models, as transient flow simulations require
large amounts of computing power and create large files with intricate details of time steps. Even
using the VPAC system, it would take several days to attain good results also the mesh must be
very fine and mine may be too coarse to get good results. As with the 2 dimensional model only
fully turbulent flow is considered, this occurs once the flow reaches the critical Reynolds number of
about which equates to a velocity of about 25 m/s.
Three velocities ranging between 25 to 35 m/s were simulated to give results for varied speeds that
are commonly achieved during a soccer match. At these different speeds the first aim was to capture
the drag force and see how this changed over time with respect to Reynolds number. Below in the
table can be seen the results from the 3D model compared with those from the 2D model as well as
the experimental results used to validate the axisymmetric model. Table3 below represents the
comparison of the results with the 2 dimensional turbulent results and the experimental results.

V Reynolds 3D 2D Error Experim Error

elocity number Drag drag (%) ental results (%)
(ms/) coefficient coefficient
2 355,953 0.115 0.108 6 0.100 13
5
3 451,827 0.112 0.106 5 0.108 2
0
3 527,132 0.114 0.105 8 0.117 3
5
Table 3: Comparison of the drag coefficient between CFD and experimental data, also
showing relationship between drag coefficient and Reynolds number
Along with the drag being measured for the 3 dimensional simulation, the separation point
can also be analysed and compared with results from experimental data and 2 dimensional results.
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The plot of wall shear stress along the ball can be used to work out the separation point of the flow
over the sphere, which can be seen in Figure 3 below. For the 3 dimensional turbulent case
separation occurs at a distance 0.27m along the horizontal axis of the sphere, corresponding to an
angle of 141 degrees. The 2 dimensional separation point occurred at 126 degrees, with
experimental results from Asai et al. (2007) separation of the flow occurred at an angle of 135
degrees; which is only an error of about 5%. This error is slightly less than was seen with the 2
dimensional model, which could help to explain the difference in drag coefficient between the 2D
and 3D models. Another possible reason for the drag increasing for the 3 dimensional case could be
certain forces which are calculated due to the increased number of planes, compared with only the
frontal plane for the 2 dimensional case.

Figure 3: Wall shear stress for 3D non-rotating model

A 3 dimensional streamline plot of the 3D turbulent sphere can be used to analyse the wake
structure of the flow around the sphere and can also be sued to compare with previous results to
help assess the quality of results. As the flow is fully turbulent the wake region is expected to be
relatively small, below can be seen the wake structure of the 3 dimensional results in Figure 4. It
shows a size wake region, with the separation points indicating that this should be the case. In
Figure 4, it is clear to see the flow reversing just after separating from the sphere with periodic
vortex shedding creating re-circulation behind the ball.

1.1

Figure 4: Velocity streamline profile around 3D sphere, showing turbulent wake structure
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 3D ROTATIONAL REULTS

As was the case with previous simulations, the rotational simulations were also performed with
steady flow. The flow is assumed to be fully turbulent after the critical Reynolds number of
equal to a velocity of about 25 m/s.
For the rotational simulations, 25 and 35 m/s velocity were run for each of the three different ball
rotation speeds. These rotational speeds correspond to spin parameters ( ) of 0.08, 0.16 and 0.24.
The first exercise of the rotational results was to determine the effect that increasing the rotational
speed had on the drag coefficient of the ball. Table 4 below shows the results of the rotational
simulation compared with results attained by Asai et al. (2007).

Spin parameter Drag Drag Error (%)

( ) coefficient ( ) coefficient Asai et. al
simulated
0.08 0.142 0.150 5
0.16 0.227 0.239 5
0.24 0.244 0.263 7
Table 4: Relationship between drag coefficients to spin parameter, with comparison to Asai et
al. experimental data

Analysing the results in Table 4 above it is clear to see that as the spin parameter is increased, the
drag coefficient also increases almost linearly, observed in Figure 5 below. It would seem that with
the data ascertained, the drag coefficient is highly dependent upon the spin parameter. A similar
trend was observed with golf balls. This would tend to indicate that as the rotational speed of the
ball increasing, the and also increase. This means that the more a ball is rotated by a curve
kick at a constant speed, the more it will be affected by wind resistance and become airborne. The
Cd is largely independent of the Re and, therefore, the velocity. The relationship between the
number of ball revolutions and the Cd is thus unrelated to the ball speed. The results of the present
study demonstrated that when a high-speed curve kick was made from an actual free kick (Asai et
al., 2002); the ball had a comparatively small Cd.

Figure 5: Comparison of drag coefficient as a function of spin parameter for

simulated and Asai et al. (2007) experimental results

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The wake region behind the rotational sphere is far more chaotic compared with the non-rotational
results, with the rotational results on a slight angle. This chaotic wake region could help to explain
the larger drag and the steady increase in drag seen as the rotational speed is increased. Observing
Figure 39, the pressure differential of the flow over the ball compared with the flow beneath is quiet
apparent, and this is expected as a rotating ball will create lift. If the spin parameter or flow is
increased, there is expected to be an increase in this pressure differential.

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION

The results presented above, show that using FLUENT and ANSYS CFX 12.1 to model flow over a
sphere is quiet accurate. Some minor problems were encountered when using the 2D axisymmetric
sphere, assuming the flow is symmetric, and with the laminar steady simulations is caused the
vortex shedding and wake to be symmetric, which was not the case with the 3D flow. Separation
points were calculated with a good degree of accuracy, as FLUENT and ANSYS CFX 12.1 do
sometimes have difficulty with calculating separation points when using RANS modelling. Other
assumptions made to ease simulation computing power which could cause issues, are that in all the
simulations the flow is assumed to be either laminar or fully turbulent, and either detached or large
eddy simulations (DES) or (LES) modelling could be run, or introducing a time-step with transient
flow.
Overall, the results achieved for the both the laminar and turbulent simulations are of very high
quality and accuracy. The drag coefficients of the laminar simulations are within 9% of the Asai et
al. (2007) experimental results. Slight variations with the turbulent results between the 2D and 3D
models were expected, but at the critical Reynolds number both cases were within 10% of the
experimental results. The most interesting results came from the rotational simulations; where it
was seen that the drag would increase with an increase in rotational speed at a given Reynolds
number, with results for drag coefficient within 10% of experimental data. It was also found that by
increasing the free stream velocity and keeping the rotational speed constant, the side force is much
lower. When the spin parameter was held constant for different velocities, slight differences were
noticed with the different speeds. This indicates that if a ball is struck with more power, a far
greater amount of spin is required to be imparted if it were to have the same curved flight path as a
kick with less power behind it; this is an interesting topic which could be utilised by players to
optimise their kicking ability. It is at low rotational speeds that the Magnus effect has very little
impact on the flight of a ball; it is within the lower range of rotational speeds that a soccer ball is
observed to sway erratically through the air, with these results it is conclusive to say that the seam is
causing this phenomenon
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FUTURE WORK

A possible long term investment for the University could be to purchase a 3D scanner; in order to
help research and elucidate the effect seam geometry has on soccer balls in flight and their
aerodynamic characteristics. This would provide students with an opportunity to investigate
different seam and panel layouts seen in todays soccer balls; and also see how these seam
geometries affect the side force of a ball with a spin parameter less than 0.1. This would be a very
worthwhile investment for future sports engineering students, as there is very little literature
available within the professional sports engineering world.
Predicting the flight of a footballs trajectory and modelling this to estimate the flight trajectory of
real game situations will be attempted. Also, the effects of impact location and weather conditions
on a balls trajectory will also be endeavoured in the near future. Such problems require the use of
high-speed video cameras and a computer program which can provide geometric data with regards
to a soccer balls location in a video frame. This will provide a look into a particular strategy a
player may approach when taking a free kick and help benefit players by providing insight into how
to better adapt to adverse weather conditions with regards to strike location.

ACHNOWLEDGEMNETS

A special thank you to the following people for helping me with my project throught the year; CFD
tutor Mohammed Rasidi, laboratory technician Peter Tkatchyk, RMIT colleague Sam Dowler,
supervisor Associate Professor Hadi Winarto and Dr. Firoz Alam. I would also like to acknowledge
RMIT University for providing me with resoures such as the RMIT Industrial Wind Tunnel and
equipment to help me achieve my goal in completing my final year project.

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Final Year Project 2010 Technical Paper