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Old 02-06-2012, 11:17 PM   #6 (permalink)
ERTW
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Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Toronto
Posts: 130

Bu - '08 Chevrolet Malibu LS
90 day: 32.29 mpg (US)
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"wind tunndel" testing

I made a rough 'wind tunnel' with some plasticine, a cutting board, and running water. I just printed out a malibu side profile, cut it out, set it on 1/4" thick plasticine, and carved it out. Running the water was a little tricky. I tried to keep it far enough up stream and straight ahead of the model.

I got a baseline, in which flow detaches from the roof. It's several inches ahead of the rear windshield, which is what I expected.

I followed up with a 'vortex generator' in clean 'air'. I was elated to see that the flow then followed the back window and stayed attached until the trailing edge of the trunk lid

Of course I have to do tuft testing to properly locate airtabs (or some such junk) and this is very promising. Ideally I would take my car to a full sized wind tunnel to confirm.
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