Analysis of footballs to study their overall performance using design parameters and explain the knuckling effect using CFD

Abstract

The design of a football entails consideration of various aerodynamic parameters to optimize its flight characteristics inclusive of surface roughness, number of panels, panel shapes, seam angles etc. The layout of football has advanced from the standard 32-panels to the 6 panels with different panel shapes. The primary objective of this study is to determine the influence of the surface roughness design parameter of selected and designed balls a smooth sphere, 32 panels football and FIFA 2014 football Brazuca on their aerodynamics, which is assessed by the flight traits such a drag force, drag coefficient and lift coefficient in CFD Analysis. The end result of these effects with and without surface roughnesses are defined within side the paper and are used to give an explanation and apprehend the reasons behind the unusual phenomenon of knuckling effects of footballs.