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Old 09-29-2012, 01:54 PM   #110 (permalink)
Otto
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Use the dimple cavities as mounting points for the zip ties, Dzus fasteners, sheet metal screws, etc.. Keeps the fasteners from sitting in the slipstream and adding drag. Might save, say, a thimble full of fuel over the life of the car. Borrow an iron shot put ball from the local high school track coach. If fender washers come in concave dish shapes, maybe heat them up to melt/distort the Coro to make the dimples and also as a hard point for mounting.

I still think a corrugated surface might be pretty good, as used on the Ford Trimotor plane in the 1930s, with ridges and valleys aligned with the slipstream. I'll see what my Hoerner aerodynamics book says about such surfaces, which may dampen lateral wake from rough spots. Home Depot and garden supply places sell corrugated (sine wave) sheets of translucent fiberglass in sheets up to 12' as I recall, for cheap.

Back to the point of discussion of the OP: How exactly does a rough and irregular belly (or any other part) of a body moving through a fluid benefit from such shape, vs. a smooth surface? Why is the belly any different to the flow than the flow over a smooth roof vs. convertible top down roof, or flow over smooth windows vs. open windows? Seems to me, flow is flow and the air molecules don't know or care if they're going over, past, or under the car, but definitely like smooth and gradual shapes more than jagged ones. Please explain why the belly would be any different, or where in Nature one finds any example of irregular/rough being any better.
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