Effect of hydrophobic finishing on drag force of swimwear

Abstract

Purpose During 2008 Olympics, Michael Phelps had a record-breaking performance. One contributing factor to his success was the full-body swimsuit he was wearing. Cases like these were the reason for the initiation of study and research for improvement in the new generation of sport gears. The purpose of this paper is to show that drag force plays a significant role in swimmers’ speed through the water; thus, using swimsuit with minimized drag force becomes imperative for Olympians like Michael Phelps. Design/methodology/approach This paper shows a comparative evaluation of hydrodynamics of three PET fabrics with different finishings that have hydrophobic behavior over a range of Reynolds number 1.0218×103 and 1.365×103 in the air medium at 20°C ambient temperature, and Reynolds number ranging from 15.68856×103 to 20.958×103 in the water medium at 20°C ambient temperature under stable stretch conditions. Findings The results show that hydrophobic finishing reduces the drag force by 1.5 percent at the angles of attack of 0 and 90 degrees. Originality/value If all the factors are considered to be stable for the swimmer, the drag force reduces by 1.5 percent, thereby increasing the speed of swimmer by 1.22 percent, which means that the record of the swimmer improves by 0.819 seconds.