biotect
Designer
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However, these vehicles are so futuristic-looking that they will attract attention for that reason alone. And furthermore, when it comes to aerodynamics, what happens at the back of a vehicle is actually more important than what happens at the front. One of the primary goals in aerodynamic land vehicle design is to reduce the “wake” or "slipstream" of the vehicle to as small a volume as possible, and to try to keep the flow of air over and around the vehicle as “laminar” as possible – see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laminar_flow and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slipstream . In concrete terms, this means that the air-flow should stick to the vehicle as long as possible, before it becomes turbulent wake in the rear. Overall “wake structure” is also important. This is the basic idea behind the "teardrop trailer" shapes developed by Don Bur, already discussed briefly in post #xxxx at 332322. Given the desirability of an overall "tear-drop" shape, then, the front of the TerraLiner does not need to have a pointy snout, but rather, merely needs to be somewhat rounded. Instead, it's tapering at the back of a vehicle that "pointiness" is most desired, although in the real world of automotive design the tapered tail that might provide a perfect "laminar" flow is almost always much too long to be practical:
So instead, automotive designers will settle for truncated tapers, tapers that at least reduce the volume of the wake or slipstream.
Given that the front of a teardrop shape can be more rounded and yet still prove highly aerodynamic, in less radical recent concept truck designs such as those produced by Iveco, Isuzu, Renault, and Scania, the focus is on creating a rounded front that more closely approximates the curvature of a sphere, either mostly along the vertical axis, or along both the horizontal and vertical axes in the case of Scania.
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However, these vehicles are so futuristic-looking that they will attract attention for that reason alone. And furthermore, when it comes to aerodynamics, what happens at the back of a vehicle is actually more important than what happens at the front. One of the primary goals in aerodynamic land vehicle design is to reduce the “wake” or "slipstream" of the vehicle to as small a volume as possible, and to try to keep the flow of air over and around the vehicle as “laminar” as possible – see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laminar_flow and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slipstream . In concrete terms, this means that the air-flow should stick to the vehicle as long as possible, before it becomes turbulent wake in the rear. Overall “wake structure” is also important. This is the basic idea behind the "teardrop trailer" shapes developed by Don Bur, already discussed briefly in post #xxxx at 332322. Given the desirability of an overall "tear-drop" shape, then, the front of the TerraLiner does not need to have a pointy snout, but rather, merely needs to be somewhat rounded. Instead, it's tapering at the back of a vehicle that "pointiness" is most desired, although in the real world of automotive design the tapered tail that might provide a perfect "laminar" flow is almost always much too long to be practical:
So instead, automotive designers will settle for truncated tapers, tapers that at least reduce the volume of the wake or slipstream.
Given that the front of a teardrop shape can be more rounded and yet still prove highly aerodynamic, in less radical recent concept truck designs such as those produced by Iveco, Isuzu, Renault, and Scania, the focus is on creating a rounded front that more closely approximates the curvature of a sphere, either mostly along the vertical axis, or along both the horizontal and vertical axes in the case of Scania.
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