Effects of golf ball dimple configuration on aerodynamics, trajectory, and acoustics

The speed of golf balls can be regarded as the fastest in all ball games. The flying distance of a golf ball is influenced not only by its material, but also by the aerodynamics of the dimple on its surface. By using Computational Fluid Dynamics method, the flow field and aerodynamics characteristics of golf balls can be studied and evaluated before the golf balls are actually manufactured. This work uses FLUENT as its solver and numerical simulations were carried out to estimate the aerodynamics parameters and noise levels for various kinds of golf balls having different dimple configurations. With the obtained aerodynamics parameters, the flying distance and trajectory for a golf ball were determined and visualized. The results showed that the lift coefficient of the golf ball increased if small dimples were added between the original dimples. When launched at small angles, golf balls with deep dimples were found to have greater lift effects than drag effects. Therefore, the golf balls would fly further. As far as noise generation was concerned, deep dimples produced lower noise levels