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Has wind tunnel designs ever been tried on cars. It would work like windmills but would use wind generated by driving to power battery to increase mpg. A couple tunnels on the roof or built into the design of the car would do.
That wouldn't work. The energy that would turn the turbines would be taken directly from the car itself. If it was possible you could build a perpetual motion car.
No....the biggest enemy to a car besides weight is air/wind. That is why some car companies try very hard to design their car in a wind tunnel to make them as slippery as possible with a low drag. Great examples are the Lexus LS, Toyota Prius and Mercedes E class coupe in Europe, all around .25.
Has wind tunnel designs ever been tried on cars. It would work like windmills but would use wind generated by driving to power battery to increase mpg. A couple tunnels on the roof or built into the design of the car would do.
The only way this would work was if the windmill was used to slow the car down such as during braking or going down hill and they already have tech for that. If it was active all the time you'd be creating drag which would increase the amount of gasoline you need to push the car forward. You will lose energy through friction from things like the bearings on the windmill, gears etc. It would be more efficient to directly drive the generator with the engine.
I wasnt thinking windmill on a car. More so a tunnel or group of tunnels on roof with little spinning things in it say 2 or 3 per tunnel. The air would flow thru and out the back of tunnel and the spinners would power a battery.
I wasnt thinking windmill on a car. More so a tunnel or group of tunnels on roof with little spinning things in it say 2 or 3 per tunnel. The air would flow thru and out the back of tunnel and the spinners would power a battery.
A "spinning thing" is a wind mill. It's the same thing, you're creating drag.
Is it possible for a vehicle to develop a static charge while moving through the air and if so, is it possible to tap into that charge for further battery charging?
Anything that disrupts the air flow is going to create drag and/or require more energy to push the car forward, coincidentally someone just brought up an older similar topic here:
why not cover the freeways, turn them into tunnels. on the outside, have solar panels, and on the inside, some sort of fan to turn a generator(from the passing cars)
In this case you'll have greatly increased pressure in front of the car as it pushes the air through the tunnel. Same problem occurs, more energy required to push the car forward.
Along the same lines there was another topic involving putting little generators on the wheels of shopping carts, the shopping cart is just harder to push...........
You're not going to get something for free, the only reason generating electric during braking or going down hill works is because that energy has already been expended. If you're driving on a lot of flat highways where your speed is constant and your foot is always on the gas this type of car is going to be detrimental since you have all that extra weight. This works really well for trains because there is practically no friction between the wheels and the rails and it is very long so there isn't much air to push out of the way. They have to brake grades that are not that steep.
Last edited by thecoalman; 06-03-2011 at 11:27 PM..
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