Leading wing instead of...

[homeworkhome53]

Question for you aero guys. Instead of an air dam how about a leading wing to lift the air over the car. The wing would be adjustable and replicate the aero angle on the front of the car. I've been looking over this grill block, air dam, belly pan situation for my car and it occured to me an all in one solution would be to lift the air up to the already aeroed front area of the car. Photo is for demonstration purposes. I drive only paved roads and with experimentation I could get it fairly close to the road maybe 4'' and direct all that air over the top. I would leave the top grill open for cooling. There are two heavy towing members right under the bumper which would be ideal for primary attachment points and the bumper has a plate bracket that should work for the angle adjust support. I have a plate of reinforced aluminum that should hold the load from the front and maybe add some wings on the end to fill the gaps and push air out around the front tires. Jump in with sugestions please.

[Xringer]

Almost sounds like a front lip spoiler..


If I owned this subie, I would have a nice grill-blocker plate over that giant air intake on the bottom.
And I would likely block off those two little intakes next to the headlamps.

[aerohead]

Originally Posted by homeworkhome53

Question for you aero guys. Instead of an air dam how about a leading wing to lift the air over the car. The wing would be adjustable and replicate the aero angle on the front of the car. I've been looking over this grill block, air dam, belly pan situation for my car and it occured to me an all in one solution would be to lift the air up to the already aeroed front area of the car. Photo is for demonstration purposes. I drive only paved roads and with experimentation I could get it fairly close to the road maybe 4'' and direct all that air over the top. I would leave the top grill open for cooling. There are two heavy towing members right under the bumper which would be ideal for primary attachment points and the bumper has a plate bracket that should work for the angle adjust support. I have a plate of reinforced aluminum that should hold the load from the front and maybe add some wings on the end to fill the gaps and push air out around the front tires. Jump in with sugestions please.

I don't think there is anything fundamentally wrong with the front end as it is.You don't need more air over the top,ideally,you'd want equal portions over top and sides.Anything good happening in front of your wing would be undone by what happened behind it.All this stuff has been tried and failed.For a STOL aircraft,I'd say,go for it.For a car I'd say no-no!

[donee]

Hmm,

Well, a wing could be made allot more aerodyanmically efficient than a dam, or lip spoiler.

But it would have to stick way out in front, so that the gap between the car and the trailing edge does not choke off the air flow accellerated by the surfaces of the wing from flying upward. Wings work by throwing air off their trailing edges toward the concave curved side of the wing. The accelleartion of the air perpendicular to the wing, creates a reaction force (same as a rocket engine thrust) that pushes the wing towards the convex surface of the wing.

Your picture of the ramp is not a wing, and its not going to work any better than dam, I think.

Sticking so far out in front, the torque put on the mounting points is going to be tremendous. So it would take some careful engineering. To be effective, the wing would have to throw a whole bunch of air upward, and air has mass. And the fast you go, the more air per second you have to throw upward. And the more downforce there will be.

[Xringer]

Flippers inspire windmill innovation | Portland Press Herald

There is a new wing in town. It gets lift at higher AOAs and may even have less drag than regular wings a low AOAs.



But, one problem I see is, the nose of your car would look like a killing machine!

This design might not be the best choice for cars. But, it the buzz is true,
you may be seeing this saw-tooth design on your radiator fan blades before long.

[aerohead]

Originally Posted by donee

Hmm,

Well, a wing could be made allot more aerodyanmically efficient than a dam, or lip spoiler.

But it would have to stick way out in front, so that the gap between the car and the trailing edge does not choke off the air flow accellerated by the surfaces of the wing from flying upward. Wings work by throwing air off their trailing edges toward the concave curved side of the wing. The accelleartion of the air perpendicular to the wing, creates a reaction force (same as a rocket engine thrust) that pushes the wing towards the convex surface of the wing.

Your picture of the ramp is not a wing, and its not going to work any better than dam, I think.

Sticking so far out in front, the torque put on the mounting points is going to be tremendous. So it would take some careful engineering. To be effective, the wing would have to throw a whole bunch of air upward, and air has mass. And the fast you go, the more air per second you have to throw upward. And the more downforce there will be.

-------------------------------------------------------------
Bear in mind that a wing only functions in a free-stream atmosphere,very different than the forward stagnation point of a car in ground-effect.With no flow behind the wing it stalls and becomes a drag-producing erruption to the airstream.Wings are also designed for turn-and-bank zero yaw environments.Once your wing gets into a cross-wind situation your screwed.

[i_am_socket]

That looks like something out of Carmageddon. It'd look great on a Chevy Impaler :-)

[Shawn D.]

Here you go, Japanese style...



Bwhahahahaaaa... I have more pics at home, but can't find the URLs now...

[donee]

Hi Aerohead,

The wing would not be in the forward stagnation point at low speeds, as it would be say 3 feet out in front of the car for a 1 foot wing. At some speed, the 2 foot gap would not handle the airflow and the wing would loose its effectiveness, as the stagnation grows forward and the wing and car become aerodynmically one.

This is not mechanically practical. The weight of the whole contraption might get up to 100 pounds, or more, and down force/torque on the front of the car might lead to handling problems.

[COMP]

Originally Posted by Xringer

Flippers inspire windmill innovation | Portland Press Herald

There is a new wing in town. It gets lift at higher AOAs and may even have less drag than regular wings a low AOAs.



But, one problem I see is, the nose of your car would look like a killing machine!

This design might not be the best choice for cars. But, it the buzz is true,
you may be seeing this saw-tooth design on your radiator fan blades before long.

hmmmmmmmmm death race 08

[gascort]

so..... the preferred thing to do on the front is a vertical air dam, pointing out the most in the center so it pushes some air to the sides and some over the top?
Any merit at all to angling it out like this? My grill block was angled the opposite direction, but apparently that's a big no-no. I was thinking of angling mine out like his ramp, but not as far - just maybe 1-2" farther at the bottom. I'm familiar with Newton's 3rd law and I don't want my car to get funky at 70 mph. I also don't want my wing to rip off downward when I'm on the highway!!

[gascort]

You can see my existing grill block and my ideas here:

[Stanger98]

This is the front splitter I will be going with for aerodynamics.



and the rear spoiler: