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Old 12-11-2009, 07:14 PM   #52 (permalink)
aerohead
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crosswind

Quote:
Originally Posted by jamesqf View Post
This is a good point. In these parts, it's not at all unusual to have a 40 mph or so crosswind - and anyone who's flown small planes into tight fields knows that a bit of slip is a darned good way to bleed off altitude/airspeed in a hurry. So I wonder what that 0.28 Cd straight into the wind becomes when the effective wind's at 30 degrees?
If the relative wind is 30-degrees off to one side of the vehicle,and as some of the side of the car is now impacting the airstream,the Cd based on frontal projected area goes right out the window,and all the body curvature which governed separation @ 0-yaw,is oriented completely different.
I'd done some crosswind testing in New Mexico and noodled with force vectors as one might in Statics.It was an interesting thought experiment but I never had any confidence in the "science" of it.
I suspect that these conditions are best investigated in a tunnel.
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