3.

0 Methodology
3.1 Theory
For this experiment there is two important factors or paramters to consider is the Reynolds
Number and also The Drag Force. The Reynolds Number has an equation and
Drag Force has an equation of . If at all the velocity v! were to
increase the value of Drag Force Fd! were also to increase as the two variables are directly
proportional. The velocity v! denoted in both the equation are the velocity of the fan"blower
while the density #! is the density of air. Fd or the drag force is the Force value calculated
from the $oo%e&s law equation F'()!. *rea used is the cross+sectional area of the model car
with the spoiler attached. The value of ,oefficient of Drag ,d! is what is needed to be found
every time the angle of the car spoiler changes.
3.2 Wind Tunnel
For this pro-ect. a wind tunnel had to be built with cross+section area of /.0102 for the
larger chamber. * wind tunnel is used to simulate air flow over the car model or spoiler
section so it can be studied. The model can be instrumented to measure the lift and drag and
other parameters for study. The wind tunnel can produce air flow at the desired speed and
condition. For the wind tunnel built in this experiment. a rectangular stand also using sheet
metal material is fabricated. This stand should provide enough runway for the model car to
move about. The dimensions and a graphical view of the built wind tunnel is shown below3
Figure 4.2
The material used to build the wind tunnel was 5heet 6etal. The advantage of this material is
that it is completely ductile and that means that they can be used recreated to another ob-ect
almost very easily. $ence it can be cut and bent into a variety of shapes. The wind tunnel was
first designed in a 4+D form first using the programme *utocad Inventor. For the wind tunnel
built in this experiment. a rectangular stand also using sheet metal material is fabricated. This
stand should provide enough runway for the model car to move about.
Figure 4.0
Figure 4.4
3.3 Model Car
The model car 7roton Inspira! was purchased as it is being used in this experiment. The scale
si8e of the car is 2340 .This is the most suitable car for this experiment as it is a sedan car
without a spoiler. The main ob-ective of this experiment is to test the aerodynamics of the car
by changing the angle of the built spoiler.
Figure 4.9
3.4 Spoiler
$ence we had to build our own spoiler also using sheet metal as the material. The spoiler was
built so that it&s -ust enough to fit in at the bac% of the car.
Figure 4.:
The experiment will be tested using different angles of the spoiler. *ngles of 2:;. 0/;. 0:;
and 4/; will be used with regards to the hori8ontal as shown in Figure 4.<
Figure 4.<
3.5 Fan
The heart of the wind tunnel is a large tube axial fan. The fan which has to be used in this
experiment has capability of producing variable speed. The volume of air translates to wind
speed according to the cross sectional area of the chamber into which the car is contained. It
is clear that even with a large fan that the winds speeds possible are limited as the cross
sectional area increases significantly. *s such it would be impractical to increase the si8e of
the chamber much past the current design. The wind speeds that are possible are sufficient to
allow an adequate testing of various wind energy capture devices. although these devices
must be limited in si8e to fit within the limited si8e of the chamber
3.6 Spring
* spring with a low spring constant will be used. To measure the spring constant value of (.
we will do a simple $oo%e&s law experiment. The spring will be attached at the bac% of the
car using 5tic%y+Tac% while the other end of the spring will be attached to the end of the wind
tunnel. * spring with a low ( value is suitable for this experiment so that car model used so
that the deflection of the spring will be easily observed and the necessary calculation can be
done. The deflection of spring will represent the amount of force which is being applied on
the car. =e can do this by using the formula F ' ()
Setup and Procedure
The overall summary of the steps to be ta%en in order to conduct the experiment are>
2. The spoiler is set to /;.
0. The initial deflection of the spring is recorded.
4. The fan is switched on at v2 speed.
9. The final deflection of the spring is recorded.
:. The fan is switched off.
<. The spoiler is ta%en off the scale.
1. 5teps 2+< are repeated for angles of 2:;. 0/;. 0:;. and 4/;
4.0 Disussion
=e could not conduct the experiment mainly due to the fact that we did not have a fan or a
blower which could produce strong wind speed to be able to push the model car. =e tried
using three different fan"blowers. The first was a table fan and the second was a standing fan
both with variable speed. The third was a blower which was available at our fluid lab. *fter
various testing we found that none of the fan"blowers as mentioned above was able to even
push the car bac%wards. Despite removing the pull+bac% motor and the spring system in the
model car to reduce its weight. it had no effect in the car&s movement.
$owever a predicted outcome in terms of results of this experiment can be done. It was
thought that the drag increased as the angle increased up to a certain angle. The value of the
particular certain angle can only be determined through experiment as it varies depending on
many factors
The drag increases more rapidly after a particular angle for fan speed of v2. This means that
this will be the critical angle for drag. There is another critical angle for drag also. it&s the one
after which it decreases. ?y tabulating the results of the experiment a graph of Drag Force
N! against angle ;! can be plotted. From evaluating the @raph plotted. the angle of the
highest achieved drag force can be determined. Therefore. the cross area that intervenes with
the air is the highest than at any other angle. ABC
For this experiment we do not calculate the effect of downforce. It was predicted that the
downforce increases up to some angle and then it decreases. The main purpose of a spoiler
was to decrease and eliminate the uplift by creating a force downwards. This idea was based
on ?ernoulli&s principle. ?ernoulli&s principle states that where the velocity of a fluid is high.
the pressure is low. and where the velocity is low. the pressure is high.
5.0 Conlusion
5ince the experiment could not be conducted due to the lac% of availability of the fan"blower.
a general conclusion can be made based on drag force theory. It&s concluded that spoiler has
its critical angle in causing the downforce. The other hypothesis was that the drag increases
as the angle increases. It was found out that it is true.
For the class to be able to conduct the experiment. we did require a proper fan which could
produce enough speed in order to be able to cause some amount of deflection to the spring.
$ence. the fan used could be a lot bigger. This would mean that the airflow would be faster
and would cause a higher deflection of the spring. $igher velocity of airflow would also
decrease the turbulence. *ccording to the first Newton&s law. the airflow would have inertia
and would continue in a similar path and cause less turbulence
* source of errors was the tilting mechanism. It&s unli%ely that the spoiler stayed at the same
angle when it was under high airflow. Therefore. the forces measured might have been caused
at a different angle than the spoiler was set to. The method of tilting the spoiler should be
more accurate than the one in this experiment. The mechanism of tilting the spoiler should be
more stationary and rigid. so that there wouldn&t be any chance of the spoiler to tilt to a
different angle under heavy airflow.
There should be more data ta%en. This would lead to possibly more accurate values. In this
experiment only 2/ angles were measured. the more the angles would be ta%en the better
relationship of drag and downforce could be established. It would also be the %ey in
determining the critical angles of the spoiler.
It would be useful to find out how the angle changes with different speeds of airflow.
Dxperiment with different speeds of airflow could investigate and see whether the critical
angle changes in a certain pattern or whether it&s in the vicinity of some particular angle.
5ince there was only one spoiler used in this experiment. it would be interesting to see how
different spoilers behave. It&s li%ely that all the spoilers would have the similar behaviour. as
in there would be a critical angle for downforce and drag.
!e"erene
2. http3""www.sciencebuddies.org"science+fair+pro-ects"wind+tunnel+toc.shtml
0. http3""science.howstuffwor%s.com"wind+tunnel.htm
4. http3""www.grc.nasa.gov"==="%+20"airplane"tunnel2.html
9. http3""www.nasa.gov"audience"forstudents"%+9"stories"what+are+wind+tunnels+
%9.htmlE.F0GfN7m58HH
:. http3""www.nasa.gov"centers"langley"news"factsheets"=indTunnel.html
<. http3""www.a%a.fi"Tiedostot"Tiedostot"Ii%su"@vidasJ0/(iseliovasJ0/ty
J,4J?<.pdf
1. http3""www.auto8ine.org"technicalKschool"aero"techKaero.htm
B. Dxperiment conducted by @vidas (iseliovas. 5chool3 Lulun Myseon Mu%io
Date3 04rd November 0//<
Relationship of Created
Drag and
Downforce at Altering
Angles of Spoiler
Name 3 @irish a"l Iiswanathan
5tudent I.D 3 5,6 /2<4/<
Name 3 (o% Hia 5ean
5tudent I.D 3 5,6 /29:<<