CFD of a Soccer Ball’s Curving Flight

For the next 4 years, the World Cup has come to a close with Germany on top. With this shockingly high scoring tournament, it is interesting to look at the science behind the ball’s flight.

Setup the Penalty Kick

To perform this study, Rescale and Convergent Science got on the field to demonstrate how CFD and cloud computing can assess a soccer ball’s flight.

Let’s just hope knowing the science doesn’t reduce the magic of the moment.

The study was calculated using the CONVERGE CFD solver. It contains an automated meshing process that simplifies the simulation set up. Additionally, to run the analysis calculations quickly, Rescale offered up their on-demand cloud simulation platform for customized high performance computing (HPC).

Thanks to an on-demand technology partnership between these two organizations, engineers can produce a study using the same fast and simple Rescale/Convergent Science CAE setup.

The Goal Analysis

A vortex is created as the ball spins.

The findings show that when a player applies a force (kicking the ball) at the bottom right, or bottom left, lift and spin are created. This causes the curved flight of the ball.

In the analysis, the team assumed an average kicking velocity, for a professional, at about 23 meters per second (55 MPH). They also assumed an average professional spin of about 24 revolutions per second. No wonder my car was dented.

The vortex in more detail.

It is this spin that results in the 10 feet (3 meters) lateral movement per second we see as an amazed spectator. An air vortex is created by the spin which accounts for the curve flight.

If you wish to see this model run in more detail, you can access a copy of the simulation at: platform.rescale.com/tutorials/converge-soccer-ball/clone/.

Source: Rescale Blog