A study of badminton shuttlecock aerodynamics

Being a bluff body, the shuttlecock generates significant aerodynamic drag and complex flight trajectory. Despite the popularity of the game, scant knowledge is available in the public domain about the aerodynamics of shuttlecocks. The primary objectives of this study were to experimentally measure the aerodynamic properties of a series of natural feather and synthetic shuttlecocks under a range of wind speeds and pitch angles. The drag coefficients for shuttlecocks were determined and compared. The natural feather shuttlecock indicated lower drag coefficient at low speeds and significantly high value at high speeds. On the other hand, the synthetic shuttlecocks have shown opposite trends. The average drag coefficient for shuttlecocks found in this study was between 0.5 and 0.6.