Quote:
Originally Posted by Ardent
Looks like it's actually propylene glycol or mineral oil: Smoke Generator - Aerolab
Does the hood bulge add to the airflow encountered by the side mirrors? |
Yes,it is propylene glycol.'must keep away from those bowls of stupid in the morning.
I can't give a definitive answer to the effect of the hood blister.
Without it,tufts and rain streaks indicate that the air is traveling transveresly at the bottom of the A-pillars.So the mirrors would be getting a nice blast of accelerated air there without the blister.The serpentine airflow near the mirrors/doors I've seen on other cars without such a hood architecture.
To allow visibility,the top of the blister is narrow in comparison to the hood,and the sides,you'd think,would tend to channel air transversely as well,especially when it hits the Plexiglass diverters (which allow the Registration and Inspection stickers to be viewed).
It is possible that this entire region is encountering Prandtl's lines of discontinuity anyway,as far as streamline displacement,and may not make that much of a difference.
The air does push water uphill on the blister,so it is imparting a vertical flow component which might alleviate some of the transverse intensity at the A-pillars.
And the ram pressure at the cowl is reduced,indicating higher velocity/lower pressure.
In the smoke video,the air climbs the blister,jumps the gap at the cowl,then hustles up the screen.
Here is an earlier tuft study.The blister is in place,and it appears not to have too much significance for downstream flow.
If I make it back to Darko,it would be a relatively easy thing to remove the blister and do A-B comparisons of overall drag effects.The blister is one of very few mods which can actually be removed without major surgery.
'hope this long rambling helped.
