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Old 03-22-2012, 12:13 PM   #17 (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)
Thanks: 52
Thanked 73 Times in 36 Posts
After a short hiatus (because surfing on my iphone sucks) I've racked up 40 hours of CFD time in less than three days.

As always, the first 27 N came off pretty easily (it only took a single test) and the last 6 N came painstakingly (11 tests).

I raked the spoiler at 45°:

2.5" vertical height
Cd 0.303
Fz 205 N

1.5" vertical height
Cd 0.303
Fz 242 N

Again, 2" height seems to be the best compromise - and I don't expect a "magic" number that significantly improves on that.

My last test, I radiused the edges to 3".

Cd 0.300
Fz 188 N

I reduced the Cd by a full 27 counts over baseline This is an 8% reduction, which should reduce fuel consumption by 4%. It also reduced lift by 56 lb - 57%. I can't predict the drag and lift improvements for the real car.

I don't know if it's significant, but the spoiler width is almost 61.8% the car's width (golden ratio).

Until I buy a faster, multicore computer, which will allow me to improve the resolution of my results, this is where I'm stopping, as far as the spoiler.
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