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Old 02-11-2012, 03:18 PM   #39 (permalink)
aerohead
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convexity

Quote:
Originally Posted by winkosmosis View Post
That statement can't possibly be true 100% of the time, because a teardrop shape can be more aerodynamic than a cylinder with the same frontal area.... Like I said, if the Cd improvement is bigger than the frontal area increase, drag goes down.
Hucho's Cd curve for roof camber shows the drag reduction asymptotic when the elevation of the 'bump' is around 0.11 X car height,yielding a drag reduction of 5%.
If the 'bump' adds no more than 5% to frontal area,then aerodynamically it's a wash.The drag saving is canceled by the increased frontal area.CdA remains constant.
The challenge is to get the optimum roof camber with 5% Cd reduction while adding less than 5% frontal area.
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