View Single Post
Old 06-25-2011, 05:59 PM   #15 (permalink)
aerohead
Master EcoModder
 
aerohead's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Sanger,Texas,U.S.A.
Posts: 16,272
Thanks: 24,394
Thanked 7,363 Times in 4,763 Posts
laminar

Quote:
Originally Posted by Pendragon View Post
aerohead,

I doubt that the airflow which would be affected by the spoiler you describe is laminar in flow. In fact, it should be rather turbulent. Isn't the spoiler simply moving the point of complete separation aft so that the area of the notch back is more stable, even if it is a "dead" area?

If one were to place a spoiler at the top of the rear window it should extend the separation some distance and then a second (lower) spoiler could extend the complete separation even further.
Pendragon,if the spoiler reaches up to the 'Template',the outer flow region will be laminar as seen in many wind tunnel smoke trace photographs.
The spoiler can help 'fix' a mediocre design by capturing a vortex in front of and ahead of it.The outer flow will skip over this region as if it were a solid structure.
You still must pay for the entropy of the circulation.
  Reply With Quote