Whale tubercles for trailing edge?

[charliel]

Found this and thought it may be an idea to help reduce turbulence on trailing edge on a vehicle. Website mostly talks about fan blades but if turbulence is reduced on a fan blade maybe the same can be done for a vehicle.

http://http://www.whalepower.com/drupal/

[SVOboy]

Fixed the links, looks interesting!

[tasdrouille]

A lot of great inventions were inspired by nature. In regards to aerodynamics though, a given design will not necessarily behave the same at 15 mph than 100 mph. This might work, but only tests will show.

Originally Posted by FTA:

Tubercle Technology began with WhalePower President, Dr. Frank E. Fish

ROFLMAO Fish...The guy's name is Fish!!

[charliel]

Dr Frank E. Fish...

Yeah, I thought that might be a joke but after reading further I guess not.

[boxchain]

Originally Posted by tasdrouille

A lot of great inventions were inspired by nature. In regards to aerodynamics though, a given design will not necessarily behave the same at 15 mph than 100 mph. This might work, but only tests will show.

The working fluid is different as well. Somewhere in my fluid mechanics texts I have the method to calculate changes in fluid/speed/power/etc in order to do scale modeling. Buckingham Pi method IIRC.

I believe this is the inspiration for VGs.

[charliel]

Leading edge tubercles.



Are they just leading edge vortex generators?

[H4MM3R]

yes

[charliel]

Sorry, nothing new I guess.

http://www.technologyreview.com/Energy/20379/page2/

[H4MM3R]

It was new to me and I enjoyed reading about it. They are VG's but more so. Like advance VG's or improved design. Good stuff.

We have wind turbines in town where I live.

[donee]

Hi All,

Very neet to apply this to wind turbine blades. But how does one apply it to cars?

I do not see a real obvious eco-modder applications. But it certainly would be a great thing for these big wings they put on ricer cars. They could generate more downforce for less drag.

One possible drag reduction application might be as some sort of aero device to improve drag in a side-wind situation.

Not sure if this is precisely a vortex generator. The protrusions would make a high and low pressure pattern across the span of the wing. The vortex might not be a vortex, but a planar back and forth oscillation that prevents the boundary layer from breaking up. As the protrusions do not stick up they do not create additional cross section area, like a VG does. Nor would they then cause a rotational flow perpendicular to the plane of the wing.