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Old 09-04-2008, 04:23 PM   #6 (permalink)
co_driver
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Join Date: May 2008
Location: Vancouver, BC
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G-metro - '95 Geo Metro
90 day: 54.43 mpg (US)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by wyatt View Post
Is there a simple way to get the viscous drag component? I have seen where people get the rolling resistance by warming up their car and stopping in a level area (parking lot), and then either push or pull the car with a scale to see what the resulting rolling resistance would be. Would a person be able to get the rolling resistance this way, and then calculate the viscous drag from the equation above? It should work. Is there a more simple way? Does viscous drag account for much, or is it able to hide in the cDA component ealily?
As one is bound to find (from all of the discussions in this forum), there are no simple solutions. But there are rules of thumb.

In a spreadsheet that I have developed (its a beast!), I do include the viscous component - and guestimated it to be ~1 for a 2-wheel drive vehicle (where F(viscous) = cV*v (v in [m/s]). It could be ignored, but will have an influence on the standard pair of coast-down tests (high speed and low speed). Hint: (greater than) 3-speed coast down tests will show this minor factor (did this in uni many years ago w/ driveshaft torque measurement and data logger).

This is notably small when compared to the other two inputs:
eg. '90 Firefly:
@ 25 m/s:
F(friction) = 81.3N (cF = 0.010, m = 830kg)
F(viscous) = 25.0N
F(aero) = 236.3N (cD = 0.36, A = 1.75m^2)

[Disclaimer: YMMV, above numbers may or may not simulate real life, ...]
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