A Magic To Improve Aerodynamics : TOYOTA PATENT
 

Hello from Japan!
I am not sure whether following has been discussed here in EcoModder, but...

Toyota had a strange experience that the air flow between a clay model and a real vehicle are very different.

Toyota found plastic parts and glass parts are positively charged by static electricity as vehicle goes in the air.
The positive charge disturbs an air flow on outer surface of a vehicle body.
http://ecomodder.com/forum/attachmen...1&d=1474481475
The Toyota Patent method is to improve the air flow by installing aluminium tape to discharge the positive static electricity.
http://ecomodder.com/forum/attachmen...1&d=1474481995

http://ecomodder.com/forum/attachmen...1&d=1474482134

The aluminium parts are already installed on some Toyota production vehicles and the Toyota genuine parts information can be found following page.
https://www.monotaro.com/g/01577980/

Some articles written in Japanese language...
アルミテープã�§èµ°ã‚Šã�®å‘³ã�Œå¤‰ã‚�ã‚‹!?　 トヨタã�Œæ–°æŠ€è¡“を公表「ã�¿ã‚“ã�ªã�§è©¦ã� —ã�¦ã€� | レスãƒ�ンス（Response.jp）
’r“c’¼“n�u�TŠ§ƒ‚�[ƒ^�[ƒWƒƒ�[ƒiƒ‹�v�Fƒgƒˆƒ^‚Ì�gƒIƒJƒ‹ƒg�hƒ`ƒ…�[ƒjƒ“ƒO (1/4) - ITmedia ƒrƒWƒlƒXƒIƒ“ƒ‰ƒCƒ“

Some of Japanese aero-enthusiast already tried to install the aluminium tapes and found positive results.

Please try this if you are an aero-enthusiast. :)

Enjoy!
Yoshi@Japan

More articles written in Japanese language...
トヨタ考案アルミテープ貼るå*´æ‰€ã‚’ä¼ �授ã�„ã�Ÿã�™ï¼�（18日） | 自動車評論家 国沢光å®�

http://ecomodder.com/forum/attachmen...1&d=1474485380

http://ecomodder.com/forum/attachmen...1&d=1474485380

http://ecomodder.com/forum/attachmen...1&d=1474485463

http://ecomodder.com/forum/attachmen...1&d=1474485463

Enjoy!
Yoshi@Japan

'Powered' aerodynamic plasma actuators


Dramatic visual demo and improvement! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arG3g_xaKvU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVJjn1pt08g

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HAa-bI6170

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1cNaHu8AvE0

When we can charge electric cars from static charge of passing airflow, then that will be magic.

Interesting topic, I'm ecstatic about it. :cool:

welcome [back] to Ecomodder. Bit of a dry spell since 2008?

Those little bits of tape in the corners of the windows; are those sufficient to have an effect? The one cut into a comb shape: Any advantage?

Glass and plastic bumpers? No effect on painted metal?

I don't know about the foil tape strips and the effects of basically "capacitance" on the aero effects of panels. But I have seen these foil stickers on autos, and airplanes over the years. Though I'm not educated in the field enough to know any science behind them. I've also seen them on large yachts. But I believe they are on boats for a different purpose.

I see a bunch of internet searching in my future to figure this one out!

Do the strips really have to be grounded? And if so, could the vehicle body be used as a ground? I'm sure some people on here wouldn't mind riveting them to the bodies of their Geos.

As for the generated 'static-charge' electrical field, it should have been already observed and measured in aerodynamic wind tunnel tests over steel/polypropylene/polyurethane/PET/PVC/PE/PS/POM/PC/polymide/fiberglass/aluminum/carbonfiber etc. surfaces and shapes

That's why I said 'powered' plasma actuators, they actually work.

...or maybe those 'speed stickers' really did make ricers go faster.

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com...25c9808602.jpg

I like the idea of these 'Powered' aerodynamic plasma actuators.
They seem to be fairly simple and could be a great aero improvement.
Thinking that maybe adding one across the back of the roof line of my car to
pull down the airflow to the boot lid (trunk lid) then maybe one more across
the rear edge of the boot lid to pull the air flow down again like a boat tail idea.

Cheers Jamie

You might look at http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...ion-33671.html

Permalink#3 has a list of thread to follow up, and Permalink #6 is someone who is actually doing it, although they haven't posted since April.

There's a pretty good PDF that quantifies things (volts, freq, etc.) but I can't seem to lay my hands on it right now. It said ganged electrodes are more effective than single ones.

I just saw this mentioned on Reddit. Crazy cool. Bring on the 3M Aluminum Tape?

Subscribed.

Has nothing to do with the tape being aluminium or what not... IMHO, is just how aerodynamic works... look at this link that I bookmarked 4-6 years ago:
Nimbus 4D improvement

If you put zigzag tape at the plane where the air hit the surface, it will help break the turbulence...

I think that the zigzag tape and the aluminium tape work to do the same thing two different ways. The zigzag tape is a vortex generator (IIRC) used to provide laminar flow and the aluminium tape is a static electricity dissipator used to improve laminar flow. Perhaps, a narrow strip of aluminum tape zigzaged along one edge with pinking shears. I have thought of using pinking shears to zigzag some Gorilla tape and stick it at the leading edge of the roof of my 3500 crew cab. Perhaps, some day.

I call bull**** unless they make their aluminum tapes FLUSH with the body + SEAMLESS and the aero effect remains, THEN I would say their "static electricity dissipator or whatever" actually works... otherwise as far as I can see it, their tape act exactly as any tape you put on the body that breaks the air.

Edit: You know, putting ugly zigzag tape is not gonna help sell cars... but mixing it with some bull**** and shinny might help sell cars. Obviously normal consumer wouldn't want a brunch of zigzag tapes on their car.

The normal consumer certainly wouldn't, but I might give the tape a try... The worst thing to happen would be some wallet-scale weight reduction, lol

It wasn't obvious until you pointed it out. Thanks!

I'm just trying to understand what's going on here. OP starts the thread after not posting since 11-11-2008, 11:06 PM in Instrumentation. Your last previous post was on 07-07-2011, 01:17 PM in General Efficiency.

Currently Active Users: 870 (4 members and 866 guests).
Threads: 30,960, Posts: 510,786, Members: 29,658, Active Members: 512

That's a lot of lurkers! On-topic: Not a bunch of hill-billys, these are Toyota engineers. You may have noticed the Japanese carry refinement to an highly elevated level. Or, not...

Well this thread came up on Aerodynamic first page, I recently bought a Mirage and planning to do aero mods to it, so I start looking at this site again for ideas. :P

I'm aware of some static dischargers fitted to aircraft, but they're usually either shaped like antennae or like randomly loose wires.