Airfoils and Wind tunnels.
Airfoils and Wind tunnels.
(OP)
I am looking into designing an airfoil to reduce the drag behind a small vechile (about 7 feet long, 1.5 feet wide, and a 1 foot high)
I was thinking about building a small wind tunnel to do this.
Am I crazy? Can I build a small wind tunnel to do this work? Do I need to, is there another way to work on an airfoil? Am I just out of my leaque?
Thanks
Chris
I was thinking about building a small wind tunnel to do this.
Am I crazy? Can I build a small wind tunnel to do this work? Do I need to, is there another way to work on an airfoil? Am I just out of my leaque?
Thanks
Chris





RE: Airfoils and Wind tunnels.
If your system is not producing any lift or downforce then the best thing to do is often to get as much laminar flow as you can over the main body, and then decide whether a cut off tail will work better than a complete taper.
I think buying a book on aero would probably be a better investment of time/money.
We evaluated the aerodynamic form of our solar car by building a 1/5 model and measuring the pressure distribution using a car and a roof rack and a big sheet of plywood and manometers.
The trim of the final vehicle was set by looking at the power/speed curve, but we could probably have used coastdown data instead.
Cheers
Greg Locock
RE: Airfoils and Wind tunnels.
As for doing research, can you recommend a good book on aero?
Thanks
Chris
RE: Airfoils and Wind tunnels.
Ah, devious. The best way to minimise the drafting potential is to punch as small a hole in the air as possible in the first place - that is by improving your pressure recovery - so you want no separation and ideally minimal friction drag. So by a circuitous route we still end up with the same requirement - an additional wing will make things worse not better.
As to books - there's plenty of recommendations further down - Katz is a classic.
Cheers
Greg Locock
RE: Airfoils and Wind tunnels.
Dont think that a wind tunnel is the way to go.
If someone is drafting you move over!