Quote:
Originally Posted by aerohead
* So, at the end of the day, after we've accumulated all our pressures, how does that inform how we proceed to modifications, if any?
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I must admit my mouth just fell open when I read that.
That's just like saying,
sure you've got a dyno but how does that help us in our modifications?
Or,
sure you're using a stopwatch but how does that help us in our modifications?
In short, measuring pressures actually allows us to see what panels are causing lift, what panels are causing drag and what panels are causing thrust. It then allows us to
measure how our modifications are changing any of the pressures causing those four forces.
No guesswork, no blindly following rules of thumb, no pretending that modifications that don't achieve anything are actually doing a huge amount.
Here is a list of modifications I have developed on my Insight
in the last 12 months using pressure testing to give best results:
- Front external air curtains
- Rear separation edges
- Longitudinal, curved strakes on the undertray
- Rear spoiler
- Rear fins
...so in fact every single aero modification I have done in that period!
I've been measuring aero pressures on my road cars since
2004 (then I used it in siting bonnet vents, developing a front air dam, developing a front undertray, improving intercooler flow), so I have real difficulty in getting my head around the idea that someone can't immediately see the worth of testing aero pressures. (It's like the old nightmare of trying to tune air/fuel ratios before wideband air/fuel ratio meters were available.)
Along with tuft testing, pressure testing is the most useful tool available to amateur aerodynamic modifiers.