aerodynamic question

[billyblocko]

i had read in one of my magazines that they are starting to tilt the radiators and intercoolers to produce downforce but it said it would have to be the right number of degrees for it to work i wanted to know what formulas are involved to get the degrees to work for me

[ucfz31s13]

Do you realize what kind of speeds are involved in gaining downforce from the tilt of a radiator or intercooler? And even then, I would think the results would be negligible...

There are 175403293287 other things that would be more beneficial to the handling of your car than worrying about your radiator and intercooler...

lataz

z

[89240sx]

I cant see how a radiator or intercooler could put downforce when air moves through them quite easily ... I image if you are doing 150mph it "might" do something but I think this is probably just a waste of time.

[pball]

It is a waste of time, there's no way for an intercooler or radiator to generate downforce; tilting them is actually going to increase drag and slow the airflow through the fins, decreasing their effectiveness (in other words, your engine is going to run hotter and pull in hotter air).

[DAEDALUS]

http://moon.pr.erau.edu/~gally...3.pdf

A wonderful site that boils down a lot aero info into the most useful equations, assuming you know how to use them. The ones needed (laminar and turbulent flow) are pretty complex. Fluid dynamics is often a weed-out course for aero and mechanical engineers. Plus, you need to have drag data for a dimensionally similar model to what you would like to solve for. Beyond that, I agree with pball. It's counterproductive to do with a stock cooler. Maybe the ones you read about have some special setup with variable-pitch cooling vanes or something. Probably better to have a separate cooler and wing. Easier to analyze and cheaper to fab.

[billyblocko]

well thanx i was just asking it seemed kinda interesting reading about it in the mag but i guess your right thanx anyways