|
NoVortex
One
of the other areas where over the years many teams
tried different solutions is the relation between
the spats, wheels, tyres, and their interaction with
the road. This is certainly one of the main problems of solar
cars; instead of the air going gently around the
obstacle, the tyre pushes it abruptly down and to
the sides, creating many vortexes.
It’s
impossible to avoid that completely, but we tried
something different, and we believe it is possible
to decrease drag.
We will use a basic diagram of a conventional
fairing with a slightly adapted airfoil to make the
explanation easier.
click
the images to see them in high-resolution
(dimensions
are exaggerated)
"Conventional"
fairing
In
a conventional wheel the distance between the
fairing and the road is around 10/15cm (although this
varies greatly from team to team). But there must be
always some space to allow the vertical movement of
the wheel, and avoid the contact of the spat with
the ground and some obstacles
“Ideal”
fairing
The
ideal spat, with a big budget and years of work and
research, could have sensors and automated
mechanisms to allow the movable part to ascend when
needed (when a rock appear in the road, for instance),
and ideally this hypothetical system could also be
integrated in the suspension, maximizing even
further the performance. But of course, this is a
utopia, and therefore at least for now, probably impossible to make.
We believe in 10 to 15 years this can be done in an
effective way (or maybe not).
What can be done is a manual or semi-automatic system to descend the
movable fairing only in high speeds, but the danger
of having this enabled at 100Km/h and colliding with
a small object in the road is very high. Definitely,
not advisable. The impact would almost inevitably
damage not only the movable structure, but also
probably the entire car.
Next:
NoVortex in detail
1
2
|