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Old 07-17-2023, 04:06 PM   #727 (permalink)
Phase
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Quote:
Originally Posted by aerohead View Post
A water table would allow qualitative flow investigations in 2D flow.
For 3D flow you need a water tunnel, since our cars are 'completely-submerged' bodies on the tropospheric ocean floor.
Long ago, Myth-Busters created a sort of water tunnel from a shallow pool with an inside partition, and used a battery-powered trawling motor to circulate the water, in a continuous stream.
Very small Tygon tubing can be arranged within the model, to inject food coloring into the stream for flow imaging. We used this at Texas Tech for both the water table, water tunnel, and underwater tow-tank.
When the water gets murky, a shot of bleach instantly clears it up.
With SCUBA goggles you could observe your model while you inject the 'dye' with a squeeze-bulb.
You'll never be able to 'measure' forces, but you will be able to observe flow at a proper Reynolds number, with just a couple of mile per hour flow velocity.
i did a little test with a tesla model y hot wheels model at the river yesterday and then taped on the cavity fins. the wake behind the model with the fins seemed a little '' sharper/cleaner'' and faster, while the OEM shape seemed slower with more turbulance behind the wake. the wake sizes overall looked about the same
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aerohead (07-20-2023)