Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 7
Aerodynamics of Vehicles and Airplanes,
and Hydrodynamics of Ships
The aerodynamics of vehicles and airplanes, and the common hydro- and
aerodynamics of ships determine all events which influence the flow around
vehicles, airplanes, and ships. Resistance causes draught which results from the
shape of the means of transportation designed by manufacturers and is decisive for
the aerodynamics of road vehicles and airplanes, and the common aero- and
hydrodynamic properties of ships.
The resistance factors are called the c
R
and c
W
values and can be optimized
through the body design and by streamlining.
7.1 Aerodynamics of Vehicles
The value of resistance factors are presented in Table
7.1
[
1
].
Individual measures like spoilers or sub-floor design do not make sense since
the basic resistance depends on the aerodynamics of the vehicle body. Modern
vehicle design contains aerodynamic components in an optimized form. Further
improvements in the c
R
value are only small and the additional parts have pri-
marily visual and less technical effects.
7.1.1 Air Resistance
There are still considerable potentials for improvement in road vehicle technology.
In this sector, the improvement of the c
R
value by several technological measures
leads to a valuable decrease in average fuel consumption from about 1 to 2% at
40 km h
-1
(24.9 mi h
-1
) and from 4 to 8% at 120 km h
-1
(74.6 mi h
-1
);
see Fig.
7.1
.
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