Experimental Investigation of Falling Spherical Balls with Different Sizes in Newtonian Fluid and Calculation of Drag Coefficients Using Photography

The falling and sedimentation of solid particles in liquids occur in many natural and industrial processes such as water and waste water industries, biotechnologies, environmental engineering, marine engineering, etc. This study represents the results of the experimental study of the falling velocity of steel balls in the water channel for different ball diameters (in the range of 8 to 25mm). The tests are done far from the channel walls. Moreover, as a case study, the wall effect on falling velocity of steel ball (i.e. diameter=12mm) is examined. A high-speed camera is used to determine the coordinate of a falling sphere and estimate the ball velocity and drag coefficients. In addition, a numerical method is used to solve the governing equations in comparison with experimental data. Comparing experimental and numerical results for transient and terminal velocities shows the maximum difference of 12 and 4.5% respectively. Experimental drag coefficients have good agreement with other published data. In addition, falling near the wall leads to a negligible effect on velocity but path diversion is observed.