The present experimental work is focused on designing and standardizing a direct method of measuring the drag force on a tapered cylinder in a water tunnel. The model considered in the present study is a tapered cylinder of 70:1 taper ratio (with a mean diameter( \(D_m\) ) of 8 mm) placed in a water tunnel test section. The drag force is measured directly, which is acquired by using a force transducer setup (strain-gauge-based), augmented with a lever arm to amplify or attenuate the force. Multiple calibrations of the load cells were done to ensure the repeatability of experiments. The taper cylinder model is suspended inside the water tunnel and the drag force is obtained for various Reynolds numbers (based on mean diameter). It was found that the drag coefficient was \(\approx\) 10-20 \(\%\) less than a circular cylinder.
