Abstract

This paper describes the aerodynamic forces and the flight trajectory for the screw (spiral) kick in rugby. The screw kick is defined as that which causes the ball to spin on its longitudinal axis. The aerodynamic forces acting on a rugby ball spinning on its longitudinal axis were measured in a wind tunnel using a six-component strut type balance. It was found that the drag, the lift and the pitching moment depend on the angle of attack, while the side force (Magnus force) depends on both the spin rate and the angle of attack in the range where the wind speed lies between 15 and 30 m s-1 and the spin rate is between 1 and 10 revolutions per second. Moreover, the flight trajectory was obtained by integrating the full nonlinear six degrees of freedom equations of motion on the basis of aerodynamic data. In a simulation, a ball spinning on its longitudinal axis tended to hook toward or away from the touchline even if the velocity and angular velocity vectors were parallel to the touchline. The direction of the hook depends on the direction of the angular velocity vector. The initial direction of the hook depends on the relationship between the flight path angle and the pitch angle as well as the direction of the angular velocity vector. Verf.-Referat