It’s even possible that the boat adds basically no additional drag, and it’s even remotely possible that it decreases drag. Mythbusters proved that a flatbed pickup truck actually gets worse mileage when driving with the rear door down instead of up, even though it seems like driving with it up would create a big wall that would constantly smash into the air.
Aerodynamics isn’t nearly as intuitive as people assume.
There’s like a 90% chance you’re right, but aerodynamics gets especially messy with stuff like this that has a more or less flat wall at the back. A significant portion of the drag comes from the turbulence behind the vehicle, rather than cutting (more “plowing” in this case) through the air in front. When you change the geometry of the back, you change that drag.
So, if I were to bet, I would bet that turning the boat around would help. But I wouldn’t bet my life on it. Some wacky interaction with the geometry of the rear could somehow cause it to get worse.
The whole thing is a brick wall… don’t think the boat is making matters much worse.
Jalopy is fun.
It’s even possible that the boat adds basically no additional drag, and it’s even remotely possible that it decreases drag. Mythbusters proved that a flatbed pickup truck actually gets worse mileage when driving with the rear door down instead of up, even though it seems like driving with it up would create a big wall that would constantly smash into the air.
Aerodynamics isn’t nearly as intuitive as people assume.
I loved Mythbusters. It was a much happier time. Evil was not quite out in the open as it is today.
Okay but there’s no way the flow separates from that roof enough to clear the boat
I would guess the same, but for a wacky shape like that rv it’s pretty hard to say
Okay but if they would just at the very least, turn that boat around 180°, I’m pretty sure the aerodynamics would improve.
There’s like a 90% chance you’re right, but aerodynamics gets especially messy with stuff like this that has a more or less flat wall at the back. A significant portion of the drag comes from the turbulence behind the vehicle, rather than cutting (more “plowing” in this case) through the air in front. When you change the geometry of the back, you change that drag.
So, if I were to bet, I would bet that turning the boat around would help. But I wouldn’t bet my life on it. Some wacky interaction with the geometry of the rear could somehow cause it to get worse.
You’re going to make me learn OpenFOAM aren’t you
Do it! It’s great fun to play around with!
Ive worked with Ansys Fluent in university but really fucking love CFD and could probably use the practice regardless.
Ah…right…old laptop and AI-driven component shortages… Someday I’ll have a shitload of compute, just you all wait!
I watched that episode and they didn’t prove shit. Those tests were terrible. That shit was about as scientific as The Big Bang Theory.
It was 100% correct.
Here’s the white paper using CFD. big words.
Relevant XKCD