Quote:
Originally Posted by Cycle
I've been reading up on this, and supposedly they've achieved drag reductions of up to 93% at supersonic speeds, but only about 10% at subsonic speeds. Still, a 10% reduction in drag is pretty good, especially at only 20 watts total power expended (at 38,500 volts), as I saw in one subsonic study.
My thinking is to inject a high voltage plasma out front of the vehicle, with the opposing electrode at the rear of the vehicle. That'd do two things... it'd force the stalled air further forward, essentially creating a low-pressure void into which the vehicle moves, and it'll help to reattach the air flow near the rear of the vehicle as the charged air seeks the opposite polarity electrode. That leaves a smaller wake, thus you get drag reduction.
Has anyone tried this?
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According to NASA,the sub-sonic base drag of a supersonic aircraft can be 80% of it's overall aerodynamic drag,with 20% surface friction drag.Ionizing the air would be targeting this 20% of drag.
Using conventional streamlining techniques,this 80% of drag can be eliminated on an automobile,leaving 7-12% surface friction drag.
Ionizing this 7-12% might yield only a 3 1/2-6% loss due to air friction,yielding a 1 3/4-3% mpg increase using gross reasoning.
1950's ionizing research was abandoned owing to inefficiencies in ionizing power requirements.Sounds like they've made a breakthrough in electronics.
