Cricket is something many of us have grown up playing or watching, but have you ever wondered what actually happens from a physics and engineering perspective when a ball travels toward the bat? As the ball moves through the air, it interacts with the surrounding airflow, creating changes in velocity, pressure, and aerodynamic forces around its surface. These interactions influence how the ball moves, slows down, and behaves before it even reaches the bat. At the same time, the bat is moving along its own trajectory and speed, setting up the conditions for impact and the motion that follows. |
For this challenge, I tried to explore that moment using SOLIDWORKS by combining modeling, motion analysis, CFD simulation, and rendering.
I started by designing a 3D model of a cricket bat and ball, and then created a motion study to simulate the ball traveling across the pitch toward the bat. This helped visualize the trajectory, speed, and interaction between the bat and ball in a controlled environment.
| Sweet Spot! 🏏 | Direct Hit! 🎯 |
Next, I wanted to understand what’s happening with the air around the ball while it’s moving.
So I ran a CFD simulation with an incoming airflow velocity of around 25 m/s. Looking at the velocity contours and flow trajectories, a few interesting aerodynamic effects appear:
• At the front of the ball, the airflow slows down significantly, creating a stagnation region where the (Air Flow) velocity drops to about 0.6 m/s.
• As the air moves along the curved surface, it accelerates, reaching velocities of around 24.6 m/s.
• Toward the back of the ball, the flow begins to separate due to pressure changes, creating a wake region with much lower velocity.
• This wake also shows small recirculation zones, which contribute to the drag acting on the ball.
Seeing these patterns visually was really interesting because it turns something we normally take for granted into a clear engineering problem involving fluid flow, velocity gradients, and pressure differences.
What I enjoyed most about this was how engineering tools can help us look at everyday things a little differently. A simple cricket delivery suddenly becomes a way to explore motion, aerodynamics, and simulation.
Sometimes the best engineering examples are hiding in the things we see every day.
Next I would Like to explore how spinning the ball affects these parameters
