View Single Post
Old 11-03-2012, 04:28 PM   #1 (permalink)
aerohead
Master EcoModder
 
aerohead's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Sanger,Texas,U.S.A.
Posts: 16,391
Thanks: 24,469
Thanked 7,409 Times in 4,800 Posts
W.A.Mair's Boat Tail (1969)

I've been referring to this work online for 7-years now and thought that I could save some breath if everyone had the image.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mair's work appeared in the November,1969 issue of AERONAUTICAL QUARTERLY,pgs 307-320.His work is also illustrated in Wolf H.Hucho's textbooks.
Only the tail itself is depicted in the literature but I've gone ahead and drawn out the entire wind tunnel model Mair used in his research according to specifications.
Mair's model is essentially a 16.13% thickness circular fuselage with prolate-ellipsoid nose, with a free-air frontal area drag coefficient of 0.066.
Without the boat tail,the model is essentially a Gavre-type artillery projectile of frontal area-based Cd 0.204,as measured and reported by the U.S.ARMY's Aberdeen Proving Grounds.
Also,Mair's drag curve depicts only the pressure drag component,leaving off the skin friction.
I've constructed a drag table which includes the total profile drag,also superimposing ground proximity,wheel drag.
In lieu of the 'Template',Mair's boat tail could be used for aft-body streamlining.It would not be as strong,lacking the full compound curvature,however,it would be easier to construct once past the curvelinear transition into the constant angular cone.
If you used this architecture for a passenger car you might expect as low as Cd 0.166.
If you 'lost' the straight-walled tubular section,leaving only the nose and tail you might expect Cd 0.12.

__________________
Photobucket album: http://s1271.photobucket.com/albums/jj622/aerohead2/
  Reply With Quote
The Following 5 Users Say Thank You to aerohead For This Useful Post:
BamZipPow (11-03-2012), Cd (11-03-2012), freebeard (11-04-2012), jime57 (11-06-2012), JRMichler (11-07-2012)