As I recall for research I did 20 years ago, as you scale down the model you have to increase the wind speed to get the same drag effects. Using a model that is smaller than 1/4 scale results in wind speeds that are impractical. I don't remember the exact details but it has something to do with the "Reynolds number"
As I recall you can partially offset this effect by using a more viscous fluid, so for really small models you might be able to use a 'water tunnel' instead. Anyway, around that time (20 years ago) it became practical to do the aerodynamic modeling using a computer and get very accurate results, so I lost interest in using wind tunnels. July 12, 2020 4:11 PM, "Lee Hart via EV" <ev@lists.evdl.org> wrote: > From: Peri Hartman via EV <ev@lists.evdl.org> > >> Using a small scale wind tunnel just triggered an idea. How hard would >> it be to make a 3D printed model of your car ? (Pretty hard when you >> have to consider that it's every tiny bump that makes a difference in >> wind, but doable.) > > How about if he finds a plastic model of his car? They should be pretty > darned close to the real > thing. Put that in a wind tunnel. > > Then as you say, you could experiment with various aero mods and trailers. > > Lee Hart > > -- > Excellence does not require perfection. -- Henry James > -- > Lee A. Hart http://www.sunrise-ev.com > _______________________________________________ > UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub > ARCHIVE: http://www.evdl.org/archive/index.html > INFO: http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org > Please discuss EV drag racing at NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA) _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub ARCHIVE: http://www.evdl.org/archive/index.html INFO: http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org Please discuss EV drag racing at NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA)
