gixxer_drew

I thought some of you might find this article interesting. Even though its talking about the context of a high powered FWD car, it might have some useful information.

http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/blogs/gixx...nd-out-why.html

NuncoStr8

Good article. I think this kind of thing is fascinating. But then I'm kind of a geek.

The designer of the Piper Cub used the luff of fabric in the body on one of his first planes to redesign the body using a rigid material to reduce drag by designing the rigid material to the form of the fabric *at speed.* The fabric wanted to fill the low pressure area, and the energy it took to suck the fabric out drew from the energy driving the plane forward. The rigid material filled that space, and the energy saved went to propulsion. His new design looked the same, used the same powerplant, but was measurably faster, despite replacing fabric with a rigid material.

It's an insight that isn't common.

They should take off that joke of a rear "wing." They'd see a definite improvement in lap times if they replaced it with a stock-style spoiler.

gixxer_drew

[QUOTE=NuncoStr8,Feb 16 2010, 12:27 AM] Good article.

gixxer_drew

[QUOTE=NuncoStr8,Feb 16 2010, 12:27 AM] Good article.

Snowmoto125

good stuff!

NuncoStr8

I'd argue a teardrop is the lazy man's aerodynamic shape But yes, Taylor informed himself by what nature wanted to do to his original design. The teardrop shape is probably not the solution to the fastest falling shape, but rather the shape things naturally want to conform to. I think a teardrop is the slowest falling object with the most stability. If you force nature to conform to a tighter line, nature picks up speed. Nature is lazy. By nature


I assumed since the wing was featured in the model it was factored into the analysis. It seemed like a reasonable assumption, as the cars did not have that kind of wing from the factory.

Good job, by the way. I appreciate you sharing it.

gixxer_drew

yah no problem it was a totally fair assumption. The CFD model was a factory car so I wanted to demo the flow streamline to a rear wing that was high up. That image is a video game model

Thanks for the feedback as well!

ZDan

Raindrops/teardrops freefalling in the air don't form a teardrop shape. The flatten out in the "wrong" direction, actually! They don't "self-optimize" for aerodynamic considerations.

gixxer_drew

Zdan, thank you for the correction on bad information. I'm sure your correct I just assumed that those shapes I was studying were formed by falling water but that post makes 100% sense.

Mr.E.G.

You're not talking about the wing on the actual pictures of the car, are you?