Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr. Previa
Hi All,
So...
My paint is looking pretty rough and I am playing with the idea of using a bed liner product instead of paint. I have used it before on a truck to protect the lower portion of the doors and it looks great and works great.
I would think that it decrease the aerodynamics. My other thought is that I have seen textures that actually have better aerodynamics than flat surfaces. ie: sharkskin...
Has anyone had any real world trials with this?
Thanks,
Mr. Previa
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A turbulent boundary layer enables airflow to remain better attached in regions of unfavorable pressure gradients as on a downward-sloping roof or inward sloping sides.
A polished automotive paint finish has enough surface roughness to trigger the transition from laminar to turbulent boundary layer at around 20 mph.So your Previa already has the automotive equivalent of golf ball dimples!
If you were going to attempt to get attached flow over a very steep slope,you'd want to look at turbulators/vortex-generators.
And you'd want to calculate the thickness of your boundary layer in the suspect location to properly size them.
It would have to be pure coincidence that the textured paint just happened to have the proper dimension surface roughness.
