use the air we drive through

[Ryland]

You can't get enough air flow to produce a noticeable amount of power, if you use "math" (fully of theories, so not everyone believes in it) you will find that you will get 18 watts per square foot, I would say you would need a "fan" the size of the entire front of the vehicle.
Wind Turbine Power Calculator

[cfg83]

Ryland -

Thanks for the perspective and the URL. I wonder what the effective wind speed is behind the radiator.

CarloSW2

[talldudenumber5]

Well I am 6 foot 6 so yes

[winkosmosis]

This makes no sense. Let's say you have a grill that's 2 square feet. So you put a turbine in, and because of the restriction and energy sapped away by the wind generator, it's now effectively 1 square foot.

You'd be better off making a fairing to restrict the hole to 1 square foot aerodynamically.

You can't get something for nothing.

[cfg83]

talldudenumber5 -

Originally Posted by talldudenumber5

Well I am 6 foot 6 so yes

Woo hoo!

Here are other threads that have asked this question :

http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...air-12453.html
http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...ator-6196.html
http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...tor-12076.html ... that points to ... Wind Generators

CarloSW2

[2003protege]

This sounds like an idea I would conjure up some random late night my freshman year in college studying engineering, when the world is full of unexplored possibilities and blah blah...

1. this idea probably will be a net loss in time and money.

2. Aerodynamic losses are incurred when you use your vehicle to move air (or heat up air, but that's negligible for cars).

Say the vorteces you leave behind you have an average velocity of Xmph, when your car passes, you've just taken all the stationary air and accelerated it to Xmph.

the logical extreme would be a car that takes all the air it hits to the same speed the vehicle is traveling. So this free air that you're going to slow down via turbines: think of it as using your proposed turbine-generators to accelerate the amount of air they "use" in the direction your car is traveling at a less than 100% efficiency.

[2003protege]

But if I'm wrong and this idea does work, I'd love to compare the payback period on it to the aerocivic's bodywork...

[Ryland]

Originally Posted by 2003protege

But if I'm wrong and this idea does work, I'd love to compare the payback period on it to the aerocivic's bodywork...

Where is the math that says it might work? if you were in an airplane and traveling at 100+mph then yes, you would have enough air flow to make it work, but you don't have the air flow nor the area to make it work, 18 watts per square foot is enough to power your radio, but your ECU and fuel pump draw closer to 80 watts.

[2003protege]

Originally Posted by Ryland

Where is the math that says it might work?

Let me take a step back for a second: This idea can't work, I was just saying, look at what low-hanging fruit aerodynamic improvements are. The aerocivic has paid for itself many times over.

Originally Posted by Ryland

...if you were in an airplane and traveling at 100+mph then yes, you would have enough air flow to make it work...

I would submit not even this would work. Any increase in drag (WHICH IS HOW IT'S POWERED) created by the wind turbine would need to be overcome by the propulsion system on said vehicle... ...And I don't think anything out there runs on a carnot cycle...........

[Frank Lee]

http://www.basicaircraft.com/turbo-a...tor-bpe-14.asp

Wind generator for a Piper Cub