Quote:
Originally Posted by instarx
If aerodynamics has been fully understood since 1800 why all the discussion of dimples, air tabs, ziggy tape, etc in ecomodder? For decades aircraft designers "knew" that there was nothing better than a teardrop shape for a fuselage, but then in the 1980's it was discovered that constricting the fuselage in the wing area was a much more efficient shape. Even the effect of dimples on golf balls wasn't discovered until 1850ish. Winglets on the end of wings to improve economy are a recent discovery. The danger of wingtip vorteces from landing aircraft wan't fully realized until the 70's or 80's. So it seems kind of silly to claim that aerodynamics has been fully understood since 1800.
Why all the resistance to a few new novel ideas being applied to aero in cars. Doesn't every little bit help? Maybe everyone got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning?
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instarx,your questions are good ones.My short answer,at least for the United States (and this is an observation and not meant to be a mean-spirited comment),is that there is no public education with respect to the physics of automobiles.( That's why we are attempting to do it here ).------------------
With respect to my comment about 1800,I should have qualified the comment,and limited it to aerodynamics as applied to automobiles,which did not yet exist at the time.------------------------
Your remark about contraction of the fuselage is in the realm of aerospace engineering,and derives from Dr.Whitcombs research in supersonic flight."Whitcomb-waisting" or "Coke-Bottleing" is found to provide for "high sectional- density",with a constant cross-section along the longitudinal axis of the aircraft, where the wings interface with the fuselage, providing for more uniform pressure distributions along that axis.This is not something which really concerns us as aero-modders.------------------------------
The dimpling phenomena does not affect our investigations either,do to Reynolds Number effects,although does solve D'Alemberts Paradox,as at the time of his fluid dynamics research,the concept of viscosity and shear did not exist.That would have to wait for Prandtl.--------------------------
Wing-tip vortices also have no bearing on ground vehicle aerodynamics,and today,as no doubt tip-vortices are addressed for economy among aircraft,their primary function is to compress landing intervals between arriving planes.--------------------------------
So,in order to keep the pot stirring,I'm going to hold to my claim that the year 1800 probably signaled the date for a general understanding of fluids as applied to automobiles,and todays University' 7,000-mpg vehicles,are direct descendents of Sir George Cayley's trout.----------------------
Any corporate spokesperson who genuinely believes that aerodynamics is a "black art" has never looked at the sky or seen things swimming below the water.