Quote:
Originally Posted by gramicci101
That looks great, Eric. Are vanes 1 and 8 spaced further apart than 2-6 for aero reasons? What would happen if the vanes were angled at all? It would probably increase drag a bit, but could it help direct airflow?
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Those were moved outward more than the others because they covered the mounting hole if they were kept at the same spacing.
The whole premise behind our idea was to speed up airflow. By speeding up airflow, you create a low pressure zone (pressure and velocity are inversely proportionate). Low pressure equals downforce. Paul came up with this specific airfoil design to keep drag to a minimum while promoting high velocities.
So, to answer your question, we did not angle them in the tests. It went against our thought process as angling them would slow down the air. This would direct the airflow though, possibly reducing drag, but also probably reducing down force. This would also have added another multitude of tests, each of which take a lot of time (over a day to run, then analyse, then change, then run again).
Aerodynamics takes quite a bit of intuition or you can sit their for weeks scratching your head asking what you are doing wrong (been there, done that
lol). Their will always be room for improvement, but at some point they become diminishing returns for the days and hours put into it.