The Gen III's Lower Drag: Could be better?

[F8L]

Originally Posted by SageBrush

There is a Canadian company that has been working on windmill blades with fenestrated edges -- a bit of biomimicry from the hunchback whale if I remember right. I expect to see 'unusual' bumpers and grills on cars in hte future as aerodynamics becomes even more important. For now, smoothing out hte underside of the car seems like low hanging fruit

EEK! It's humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae). Humpback. Show the poor things some respect.

They should look towards fin whales, bluefin tuna, sailfish and dolphins for great streamlining! The Prius wouldn't have to worry about cavitation effects like the dolphin does.

[SageBrush]

lol. Thanks for the correction

[donee]

Originally Posted by SageBrush

There is a Canadian company that has been working on windmill blades with fenestrated edges -- a bit of biomimicry from the hunchback whale if I remember right. I expect to see 'unusual' bumpers and grills on cars in hte future as aerodynamics becomes even more important. For now, smoothing out hte underside of the car seems like low hanging fruit

Hi Sage..,

The apparent effect of the leading edge bumps on hump-back whale flukes is to cause the flow to swirl in the lengthwise direction as it proceeds in the widthwise. This results in attachment of the flow over the widthwise direction, where it would otherwise seperate just after the thickest part of the fluke.

This seems to be the purpose for the shapes on the under-body panels in the picture FireEngineer posted. The shapes might be intended to cause the flow to swirl, and thus stay attached.