Aerodynamic Characteristics of Badminton Shuttlecock with Forced Spin

Abstract

Badminton is one of the popular sports around the world and is the sport having the fastest initial velocity of a batted ball in all ball games. The initial velocity of the badminton shuttlecock reaches up to 408 km/h (113 m/s) at maximum. A shuttlecock has high deceleration characteristics as an airborne projectile and is extremely aerodynamically stable for the flip movement just after impact. These features of the shuttlecock have been the subject of research from the point of view of aerodynamics. In our previous study, it was confirmed that the air flows through the gaps in the shuttlecock skirt was strongly related to high aerodynamic drag. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of spin on aerodynamic characteristics of a badminton shuttlecock. The aerodynamic forces were measured for the shuttlecock with spin at several rotational speeds using a force balance in a wind tunnel test. The drag of the shuttlecock with spin increases with increasing rotational speed because the expansion of the skirt diameter is promoted due to a large centrifugal force given by the high rotational speed of the shuttlecock, and the drag force generation is not affected by the spin itself.