Uh... An aerodynamic wth for all auto manufacturers. - Fuelly Forums

Click here to see important news regarding the aCar App

Go Back   Fuelly Forums > Fuel Talk > General Fuel Topics
Today's Posts Search Click Here to Login
Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
 
Old 09-15-2006, 07:11 PM   #1
Registered Member
 
omgwtfbyobbq's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2006
Posts: 1,516
Country: United States
Uh... An aerodynamic wth for all auto manufacturers.

Would just about every car have better aero backwards? The front ends of most cars in the past couple decades seem to have the gradual taper associated with most streamlined designs I've seen, while the rears have much more abrupt leading edge seen. Kinda like the top and bottom of a teardrop, except for cars it's backwards. Especially for hatches.

I mean, Flipping most cars around puts them closer to this than they are now.
__________________

__________________
Quote:
Originally Posted by FormulaTwo
I think if i could get that type of FE i would have no problem driving a dildo shaped car.
omgwtfbyobbq is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-15-2006, 07:19 PM   #2
Registered Member
 
MetroMPG's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2005
Posts: 4,223
Country: United States
It's funny 'cause it's true.
__________________

MetroMPG is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-15-2006, 09:32 PM   #3
Registered Member
 
tomauto's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2006
Posts: 292
Country: United States
Send a message via AIM to tomauto Send a message via MSN to tomauto Send a message via Yahoo to tomauto
everybody in hatchbacks....start driving backwards!
__________________
Current Stable
GasSaver: 2000 Honda Insight Silverstone w/AC 65+mpg
Track Terror: 2002 Honda S2000 Gran Prix White- lots of mods - 28mpg
Beater: 1988 Honda Civic DX Hatback - Stripped - 30mpg

RIP: 1996 Honda Civic LX 42mpg - you will be missed

https://tomauto.smugmug.com/Cars
tomauto is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-16-2006, 05:05 AM   #4
Tuggin at the surly bonds
 
Silveredwings's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2006
Posts: 839
Country: United States
Quote:
Originally Posted by tomauto
everybody in hatchbacks....start driving backwards!
Wagons too!
__________________
Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one. - Albert Einstein
Silveredwings is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-16-2006, 07:07 AM   #5
Registered Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 541
Country: United States
It would be interesting to see what it looked like in a wind tunnel with smoke streams.
Wunder if anyone has done it ?
onegammyleg is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-16-2006, 09:50 AM   #6
Registered Member
 
tomauto's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2006
Posts: 292
Country: United States
Send a message via AIM to tomauto Send a message via MSN to tomauto Send a message via Yahoo to tomauto
I think the frontal area would be a little much. If you look at the topside of a Insight, it does resemble a teardrop.
__________________
Current Stable
GasSaver: 2000 Honda Insight Silverstone w/AC 65+mpg
Track Terror: 2002 Honda S2000 Gran Prix White- lots of mods - 28mpg
Beater: 1988 Honda Civic DX Hatback - Stripped - 30mpg

RIP: 1996 Honda Civic LX 42mpg - you will be missed

https://tomauto.smugmug.com/Cars
tomauto is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-16-2006, 09:59 AM   #7
Registered Member
 
omgwtfbyobbq's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2006
Posts: 1,516
Country: United States
I think the frontal area is the same in both directions since the same area's perpendicular to the direction of motion forward or backward. Although I could be wrong....
Quote:
Originally Posted by wikipedia
The reference area A is related to, but not exactly equal to, the area of the projection of the object on a plane perpendicular to the direction of motion (ie cross-sectional area). Sometimes different reference areas are given for the same object in which case a drag coefficient corresponding to each of these different areas must be given. The reference for a wing would be the plane area rather than the frontal area.
It seems like A is matched to Cd just a bit, so there could be small variations in A backwards?
__________________
Quote:
Originally Posted by FormulaTwo
I think if i could get that type of FE i would have no problem driving a dildo shaped car.
omgwtfbyobbq is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-16-2006, 10:14 AM   #8
Registered Member
 
tomauto's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2006
Posts: 292
Country: United States
Send a message via AIM to tomauto Send a message via MSN to tomauto Send a message via Yahoo to tomauto
Well, you want to minimize the impact of air on the car, so wedge shape makes more sense.
__________________
Current Stable
GasSaver: 2000 Honda Insight Silverstone w/AC 65+mpg
Track Terror: 2002 Honda S2000 Gran Prix White- lots of mods - 28mpg
Beater: 1988 Honda Civic DX Hatback - Stripped - 30mpg

RIP: 1996 Honda Civic LX 42mpg - you will be missed

https://tomauto.smugmug.com/Cars
tomauto is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-16-2006, 07:19 PM   #9
Registered Member
 
AlexK's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 42
Country: United States
You are absolutely right about cars not being aerodynamic. People buy cars because they look good. Just look at a 747. It is pretty blunt in the front and gradually tapered in the rear, like your streamlined shape example. Airlines don't care what a plane looks like, they want efficiency.

I'm not an aerodynamics expert but I did take a graduate level aerodynamics class while in college. The idea of streamlining is to accelerate the air around the body, and slow it back down again at the rear. When the air is slowed, its pressure increases. High pressure at the rear of the vehicle is a good thing. You don't want flow separation because when the flow separates from the object, you don't get pressure recovery beyond that point and are left with a large low pressure zone. The low pressure zone "sucks" the vehicle backward (drag). Keeping flow attached at the front is easy. That's because the flow is accelerating from a higher pressure area to lower pressure area. Keeping flow attached at the rear is tricky and pretty much impossible to keep fully attached. That's because the flow is moving from low pressure to a higher pressure (kind of like water flowing uphill... it will do it but not gracefully). If the surface is too steeply angled or changes direction too quickly, the flow will separate. The energy of the boundary layer will be shed in large vorticies and dissipated as heat instead of pressure on the rear of the vehicle.

No matter how streamlined a shape is, separation is going to happen somewhere before the trailing edge. So if the shape is cut off at that point, aerodynamics won't be affected. Many cars probably separate flow at the rear window, so what the body looks like after that won't matter too much. If the car is well designed and can keep flow attached further rearward, the shape of the trunk area will be important.
__________________
AlexK is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-16-2006, 08:27 PM   #10
Registered Member
 
omgwtfbyobbq's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2006
Posts: 1,516
Country: United States
What's a wedged shape? Google image returns this...

Could we conclude that the designers couldn't keep flow attached past the point where they cut it off, or just cut it off at that point because having a boattail would look too weird?
__________________

__________________
Quote:
Originally Posted by FormulaTwo
I think if i could get that type of FE i would have no problem driving a dildo shaped car.
omgwtfbyobbq is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply


Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are Off
Pingbacks are Off
Refbacks are Off


Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Why doesnt my car show up under 'browse vehicles'? frederic73 Fuelly Web Support and Community News 4 06-17-2011 04:00 AM
Tire sizing odometer modifier? BDC Fuelly Web Support and Community News 10 07-25-2009 09:59 PM

» Fuelly Android Apps
No Threads to Display.
Powered by vBadvanced CMPS v3.2.3


All times are GMT -8. The time now is 12:54 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.8 Beta 1
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.