Fluid forces on kayak paddle blades of different design

Abstract

Three kayak paddle blades of different design (Conventional, Norwegian, Turbo) were tested in a low-speed wind tunnel at a maximum chord Reynolds number of Re = 2.2–2.7 × 10⁵ (corresponding to speed through water of ≈1 m/s). The mean drag force and side force acting on each blade were measured, as the yaw and pitch angles were varied. The results were compared with those recorded for a finite rectangular flat plate of similar area and aspect ratio. For zero pitch angle of the blades, the results indicate that the drag coefficient was mostly independent of the blade design as the yaw angle was varied between ± 20°, with only the Norwegian blade design displaying a marginally higher drag coefficient than either of the other two blades or the flat plate. Increasing the pitch angle to 30°, while maintaining the yaw angle at zero, resulted in a 23% reduction of the drag coefficient for the flat plate, but only a 15% reduction of the drag coefficients for the three blades. For all designs, the drag coefficient reduction followed a simple cosine relationship as the pitch angle or yaw angle was increased. The wind tunnel experiments revealed that the side force coefficients for all three paddle blade designs were entirely independent of the blade design and were indistinguishable from those recorded for a flat plate. In summary, the study showed that the nondimensional force coefficients are largely independent of the paddle blade design.