Heresy! Smooth Wheel Covers- Myth Busted!!!

[COcyclist]

ACEL, Thank you for taking the time to do your testing and post your results. Congratulations on coming up with a good looking wheel cover design. It looks like they could be factory.

As always, when we see wheel covers on this site we would love to see how you have attached them securely and avoid damaging the alloy wheels underneath. Also, from your post I assume that the finished wheel covers were tested on a different day. If you find the time, it would be interesting to see A-B-A testing on the same day and if you see your tank mpg averages going forward.

Thanks again for your efforts.

[ACEL]

Some ecomodders may inquire about the choice of the wheel cover mock-ups that were trialed. After reading a number of scientific articles, I decided to test the "open center - thick perimeter" wheel studied by Vdovin in 2013 and the "open perimeter" reported by Julian Edgar in his book and some ecomodder that fabricated some for his Tesla.





Vdovin, Alexei, in 2013 also commented on the results experienced in a wind tunnel with these types of wheels :



It is not fun to read an engineering thesis but Tesla came to the same results that were well summarized by Vdovin. He was supported in his research and working with engineers and aerodynamicists of Volvo. The people of this company sometimes come up with great ideas and innovations.

Cheers ecomodders!

[Cash68]

Originally Posted by freebeard

Making something light and robust enough might benefit from solid, force-multiplying hinges:

Dude that video was amazzzzinnngggggggggg

[ptjones]

Originally Posted by ACEL

Some ecomodders may inquire about the choice of the wheel cover mock-ups that were trialed. After reading a number of scientific articles, I decided to test the "open center - thick perimeter" wheel studied by Vdovin in 2013 and the "open perimeter" reported by Julian Edgar in his book and some ecomodder that fabricated some for his Tesla.

Attachment 28723

Attachment 28724

Vdovin, Alexei, in 2013 also commented on the results experienced in a wind tunnel with these types of wheels :

Attachment 28725

It is not fun to read an engineering thesis but Tesla came to the same results that were well summarized by Vdovin. He was supported in his research and working with engineers and aerodynamicists of Volvo. The people of this company sometimes come up with great ideas and innovations.

Cheers ecomodders!

I use flat wheel covers on CMAX Hybrid which improve my FE by 2 mpg and you don't have to worry about brakes getting hot.

Paul

[JSH]

Originally Posted by JulianEdgar

I really don't understand why people have apparently such invested emotional capital in this.

I couldn't care less whether full wheel discs or slightly open wheels are best for low drag.

I am simply reporting what the current technical evidence shows for road cars.
And that is that full wheel coverage is not always best for low drag.

Your book looks interesting. Any plans to add a Kindle edition? (I don't buy paper books, magazines, or newspapers anymore)

[JulianEdgar]

Originally Posted by JSH

Your book looks interesting. Any plans to add a Kindle edition? (I don't buy paper books, magazines, or newspapers anymore)

You'd have to ask the publisher - Veloce

[IsaacCarlson]

Yeah, tires make a big difference. We had worn out lightweight tires on the rav4, and we were getting 26-28 mpg. We got new cooper at3's and it went down to 22-24mpg, but they are good tires and that's what we need. We use it for everything and mileage has to take a back seat to traction and performance.

[ptjones]

It's safe to say the Coopers weren't LRR tires.

Paul

[Stubby79]

My (new to me) Insight's wheels are smooth and flat, except for small vents right around the rim...I can only assume they knew what they were doing, whether it was going for the best aero or as close as they could get while maintaining other factors (brake cooling, expelling rain, whatever else needs to be covered for liability reasons).

[GreenTDI]

Sometimes it's obvious when progress is made - almost everything is better than an open star spoke design.

In my case it's now closed on the inside with a cap, as on the outside because of the smooth transition of a bigger sidewall and rim edge.