FastSkinz Dimpled Skin Offers Better Aerodynamics
February 17, 2009 by admin
Uneven surfaces cut wind resistance, allowing objects to move through the air faster. This is converse to the accepted notion that a smooth surface will be faster, which is true up to a point, usually the point where the air is leaving the surface of the travelling object. This is why golf balls are dimpled. Such flow separation causes a large increase in the pressure drag, but it is advantageous to deliberately trip the boundary layer into turbulence at a point prior to the location of laminar separation. Although the skin friction is increased, overall drag is decreased.
Similar technology has more recently been applied to athletic garments like the oufits worn by Olympic swimmers and cyclists. Could the same principles also apply to automobiles? At least according to a new venture called FastSkinz, the answer is yes.
SkinzWraps, a firm that specializes in vinyl wraps for automotive advertising, and is claiming an 18-20 percent improvement in fuel economy from its new plastic wrap. Although this sounds a bit unreal, it could be part of an overall eco improvements would depend on many factors. But such a simple trick could boost efficiency by such large percentages.
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