Random Aerodynamic Oddity of the Day Thread

[beate]

Originally Posted by freebeard

Hard to rate without a cross-section. A bellmouth might help.

I think it had been developed by trial and error. Northern Germany where thes bikes have been made has enough opportunity (i,e. cold and foggy days) for doing this, and i simply can confirm that it works. Just opening the front hole has a noticeable (bad) effect, and even worse when i open the hole in the damaged wind screen of my bike. Although it is relatively small, it affects the air flow within the bike massively. Which clearly shows to me that there must have been real development. You find that one in the two successor models as well (as an option, especially the Evo-R has been a pure racing machine).

BTW: here the two sucessors of the GoOne 3 - the larger one is its direct descendent:

[Bicycle Bob]

It looks as if it creates an effective air curtain against the plastic. Kudos.

[kach22i]

Originally Posted by beate

(i,e. cold and foggy days)

Thank you for helping bring this aspect to light, I've found an old article that goes into some detail below.

The velomobile: neither bicycle nor car
https://www.velomobiles.co.uk/tag/go-one3/

Fully enclosed velomobiles give the best protection against bad weather, of course, but they do carry a few disadvantages. The main problem has to do with ventilation. Even in cold weather, the driver may “overheat”. A body that delivers 200 watts, produces around 1000 watts of waste heat, which mostly escapes via the head. In a fully enclosed velomobile hearing and sight are also affected. The windshield can steam up or it can become opaque because of rain or snow (windscreen wipers are not an option on any velomobile, probably because of the extra weight that would be added by motor and battery).

A fully enclosed velomobile thus needs an efficient natural ventilation system (which can happen via air intake in the nose of the vehicle). Some manufacturers have come up with a compromise...........

.................................................. ......................................


Electric Velomobiles: as Fast and Comfortable as Automobiles, but 80 times more Efficient
https://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2012...lomobiles.html

If all 300 million Americans replace their car with an electric velomobile, they need only 25 % of the electricity produced by existing American wind turbines

[Bicycle Bob]

That old saw about the body losing most of its heat from the head is a warning about uneven insulation in the cold - if you neglect your head, it can be your main point of loss but still not feel cold due to circulatory priorities.
On a bicycle, wearing sweat-through clothing, you will lose most of your heat through your body. In a velomobile, your body may be sheltered while your head gets the full air blast, making it the much more significant in cooling, but that is just due to air flow patterns. However, in that case, you can have your body absolutely drenched in sweat, but as long as your head is cool, you feel little discomfort.

[freebeard]

An air-cooled seat might be nice. Maybe 3D printed with a gyroid infill and a parasitic blower. The faster you pedal, the harder it blows.

[Bicycle Bob]

Originally Posted by freebeard

An air-cooled seat might be nice. Maybe 3D printed with a gyroid infill and a parasitic blower. The faster you pedal, the harder it blows.

That would sure help avoid arriving as a "wetback." My friend Steve had a helmet liner made from thin, soft tubing (NASA surplus) that he would circulate ice water through. I had a windbreaker with a blower connection on a pocket.
I also have sketches of velomobiles with fabric sides that can be furled or deployed on the go. When riding uphill or with the wind, maximum ventilation is needed. Sometimes, solar gain is a big problem, and one side should stay reflective. A big "greenhouse" can be a major liability.
Other possibilities include water misters in the air intakes. To allow time for evaporation, they should be very high pressure, and aimed into the stream. Or, the intake diffuser could be a few separators that can be kept wet.
Sometimes, it takes less energy to run the wheels than the fans needed. Winter is when things get easy. Closing intakes more than makes up for the drag of denser air. I ride in a t-shirt, and keep a ski jacket handy to wear when I exit.

[freebeard]

I am familiar with air-cooled vs water-cooled debates.

[freebeard]

A Random Aerodynamic Oddity.... an aerodynamic gas station. Those were the days.


https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/202...ons-would.html

[beate]

Mhmm, this is just the architectural style of Germany in the late 50s/early 60s. You can see it also from the cars: an Opel Kapitän, a VW Kharman Ghia, and a Beetle.

And yes, modern architecture is cold and sterile in comparison.

[freebeard]

At first I thought it was a tiny '55 Chevy.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streamline_Moderne

At that time we had Googie Style gas stations in this location:


[/farm4.staticflickr.com/3304/3342347837_ed2c1c5b97_z.jpg?zz=1]

Googie architecture (/ˈɡuːɡi/ GOO-ghee[1]) is a type of futurist architecture influenced by car culture, jets, the Space Age, and the Atomic Age.[2] It originated in Southern California with the Streamline Moderne architecture of the 1930s, and was popular nationwide from roughly 1945 to the early 1970s.

Porcelain enamel gas stations:

https://www.ohiohistory.org › visit › exhibits › ohio-history-center-exhibits › 1950s-building-the-american-dream › lustron-about › help-for-lustrons › meet-the-lustrons › meet-history
As well as a Brief History of Porcelain Enamel It was the use of this material, rather than the material itself, that was innovative. The process of enameling metal sheets had been developed in German and Austria in the mid-1800s.

ustron house - Wikipedia
Search domain en.wikipedia.orghttps://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Lustron_house
Led by Chicago industrialist and inventor Carl Strandlund, who had worked with constructing prefabricated gas stations, Lustron offered a home that would "defy weather, wear, and time." Strandlund's Lustron Corporation, a division of the Chicago Vitreous Enamel Corporation, set out to construct 15,000 homes in 1947 and 30,000 in 1948.