Quote:
Originally Posted by calry
To paraphrase Brad Richards, Exterior Design Manager for the new Ford F-150 in this USA Today video on the new aerodynamic Ford F-150, at the 40 second mark, that they angled it much more thinking it was going to get better aerodynamics, but it did not. Instead, they gave it a harder edge which worked better.
This proves once again prove that I know less than I thought I did about aerodynamics. His discovery makes me think that those flat air dams on the front of semi tractors might not be as bad as they look.
In everyone's wanderings around and musings on aerodynamics, are there any good aerodynamics cheat sheets? Yes, I know people get Ph.D.s and spend decades of their lives studying these phenomenon, so I am possibly asking for the impossible. After all, aerodynamics, is a subfield of fluid dynamics which in turn is a subfield of fluid mechanics. That is lots of material to cover. But I have had a lot of college and graduate science and I have found short intense summaries can sometimes be a quicker way to occasional insight.
Yes, I could pick up an aerodynamics text book. Its just, just that....they are so heavy. |
Bear in mind,that in the forebody,the boundary layer is in the most favorable pressure gradient,and is essentially held against the body as long as it is 'attacking' the flow field.
And as Ford aerodynamicists essentially said decades ago,"there is no magic radius",just enough softening and you've got full attachment.
This isn't so for the aft-body which is the major source of drag with road vehicles.Back there you've got to be especially careful with your contours or the whole thing goes to the worms.Control of aft-body separation is the premise for aerodynamic streamlining.