Howdy, all... just thought I would share this nifty FREE wind tunnel simulator that I sumbled across with y'all. This is not an ad, I am not affiliated with them in any way... it is just a cool tool for playing with aerodynamics.
Warning: it is VERY simple, 2-D and any results that it gives should be considered "
rough estimates".
That being said, here is is:
Flow Illustrator
Flow Illustrator home page
Be sure to read the "Home" and "More Info" pages before diving in. There are some limitations to the movies that are not documented. It appears to die if you create a movie that is greater than 2mb. The best combination I have found is to use black-and-white BMP silhouettes that are 256x128 and the default settings with the exception of the time, which I cannot get to go longer than 25 seconds. YMMV.
Anywho, to see what I am talking about, here are some frame grabs I got from a simulation I did for my Ford Festiva, investigating different spoiler designs:
Stock Car:
Attached Spoiler:
Detached Spoiler:
Again, the program itself kicks out movies, and the above are just frame grabs from said movies. Note that for the simulations that I did, it took 10-15 seconds for the simulation to "settle down" and for stable patterns to appear. So keep your BMPs small to allow for maximum run times.
Everything I know about this program I got from their website, or I have noted above. Please don't ask me any hard questions, as I promise I won't know the answers!!
