PRESENTATION FOR

AERODYNAMICS LAB
TOPIC - AERODYNAMICS OF BOOMRANG

NAME - RAMRAJ BHUDHANIYA

ROLL NO. - 13/612

BRANCH - AERONAUTICAL ENGINEERING

BATCH - A2

SUBMITTED TO - MR. ANSHUL KHANDELWAL

 What is Boomerang?

Flat air foil

Designed to spin about an axis perpendicular to
direction of flight
Well known as a weapon used by Australians for
hunting
Boomerang can be returned to the thrower(Returning
Boomerang)
 Materials used

Plywood
Plastic such as polypropylene
Phenolic paper
High- tech materials such as carbon fibre-reinforced
plastics
 TYPES OF BOOMERANG

Cross-stick
Pinwheel
Tumble stick
Boomabird
Parts of a Boomerang
Right-Handed vs Left-Handed

This presentation is geared towards right-handed

boomerangs, which turn counter-clockwise when
thrown.
Left-handed boomerangs, on the other hand,
turn clockwise.
 Aerodynamic Lift

An airfoil produces lift when the combined

effects of its orientation (angle of attack) and
its shape cause oncoming air to be deflected
downward. Sketch of Streamlines
 The Lift Equation
Under some simplifying assumptions, the lift produced by
a wing is proportional to the area of the wing, the speed of
the wing squared and the density of air. We will use the
following approximation of lift force on a wing:

= density
U = speed
A = area
CL = lift coefficient
Remark: This model puts the complex dependencies that are
hard to compute, like the dependence of lift on boomerang
shape, angle of attack, air viscosity, etc., into a single
constant CL.
FLift U2
 Intuition from
Oversimplification
Downwash from a Helicopter

Recall Newtons Second Law:

force = rate of change of momentum
where momentum = mass velocity
mass of air deflected per unit time U
change in deflected airs vertical velocity U
FLift U2
 Computing Lift and

F
Drag
Assume uniform air speed U at infinity.
is the force on the airfoil in the direction of the
Drag
oncoming air, and FLift is perpendicular to the flow.
FLift = U
FDrag = 0
Good approximation of lift on an airfoil when viscosity and
angle of attack are small
Useless for computing drag because inviscid model
doesnt have any tangential forces on airfoil
Note: To incorporate tangential shear forces due to viscosity,

where D is the deformation matrix and depends on rates of

change of velocity u.
Getting Back to Lift
Equation

UL and FLift = U
FLift U 2 L
So for a wing with uniform crossection we get
back the lift equation:

Note: If we measure or simulate FLift we can

compute CL
 Which way does the
boomerang turn?

If we draw the boomerang in the x - y

plane traveling in the negative x-
direction with the angular momentum
vector pointing in the z-direction, we
see that the torque points in the
positive x-direction.

Apply the equation

Path of Boomerang
USE OF BOOMERANG

Hunting weapons
Percussive musical instrument
Battle clubs
Fire-starters
Decoys for hunting waterfowl
Recreational play toys
SOMETHING EXTRA
Smallest Returning Boomerang: Sadir Kattan of Australia in 1997 with 1.9 inches
(48mm) long and 1.8 inches (46mm) wide. This tiny boomerang flew the required
22 yards (20m), before returning to the accuracy circles on 22 March 1997 at the
Australian National Championships.

The boomerang that travels the furthest and returns closest to the launch point will
be the winning boomerang. Use the following formula to score the flight:N
Score = Furthest distance traveled distance from launch point to the landing
pointFor example, the score for a boomerang that traveled a distance of 3.5 meters
away from its launch and then landed just inside the 1 meter ring is: Score = 3.5/.9
= 3.94
Thank You