Quote:
Originally Posted by freebeard
Among other thoughts that flitted through the cavity referred to as 'my brain' was this:
One way to make copious amount of smoke is with a chemical reaction. I think they're called fuming agents. If you could mount a SCUBA tank at the stagnation point with a telescoping, rotating arm, it could reach any point within a half circular area at the front of the car. Then you could put in sort a suppository with the chemical and get up to 1500psi of dense smoke, and do you own smoke testing in real life. If it created red or blue smoke it might cause less alarm along your route.
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I've had some significant-sized smoke bombs for sometime and Shell Oil makes an ONDINA oil which has been used for wind tunnel smoke generators.
Forced to do my testing on public roads,I've been extremely reluctant to push my luck,igniting chemical smoke,or heating a smoke-producing oil.(my last 'smoke' experience was at China Beach,quite intoxicated,thinking it would be cute to set off a green smoke grenade on the nose of my surfboard.It was only a moment before I was staring down the rocket tubes of a Cobra helicopter who's pilot probably didn't think it was cute at all ) Alcohol,gotta love it!
And it's windy enough on most days that it would be a challenge to end up with longitudinal-only flow.
Since A2 can provide the drag data and have a smoke generator,it's just really practical to take advantage of their resources without freaking anyone out.Guys with badges especially!
We do have some local caliche roads in the area.And when it hasn't rained for some time the road surface turns to a fine white powder which requires little coaxing to get it airborne.Any vehicle which passes over this surface will invariably vacuum the powder up into the wake.United Parcel Service delivery vans produce the most remarkable wake images!"dirt-cheap" flow-imaging (pun intended).
If you had an abandoned airbase which is now an industrial park,as Myth-Busters uses in the Bay Area,you might get the operators to let you operate on the old runways and taxiways,out away from other motorists,where the smoke wouldn't cause any crashes.Just a thought.