PREDICTION OF FLUID FORCES ACTING ON A HAND MODEL IN UNSTEADY FLOW CONDITIONS

Abstract

A method to predict resultant ftuid forces acting on the hands in unsteady conditions was developed for kinematic and for pressure data for a hand model. The hand model was rotated in the flume. Regression analysis was used to find best-fit equations to predict the resultant fluid forces acting on the hand model. The best-fit equations for pressure and kinematic data were built, and the equation for pressure data was more accurate. The new pressure method predicted more accurately the fluid forces acting on the hand model than the kinematic method and does not require orientation angles of the hand. The mean RMS error in prediction from pressure was 4.2 N compared to 6.7 N from kinematic data (p < 0.01).