Due to the lack of adequate supplies of refined hydrocarbon fuels relative to increasing global demand and high usage of hydrocarbon fuels, the cost of gasoline for the powering of typical road cars and trucks has escalated. Higher fuel costs are driven by foreign nations that control the global rates of oil production. In addition, domestic oil refineries have been limited in their production capacity by damage to these facilities inflicted hurricane. Also, politically driven global markets are often controlled by constrained foreign oil supplies so that higher costs of hydrocarbon fuels can be derived. Consequently, road and air travel in the USA is largely being self-curtailed to special needs and shortened trips so that the costs of travel can be constrained. By limiting normal mileage usage, drivers and fliers are striving to realize savings in their fuel costs. Accordingly, significant reductions in merchant sales and lesser profits are being imposed upon our roadside businesses. Further, added transportation expenses due to higher fuel costs necessary for rapid interstate trucking transportation as well as shorter road deliveries of their goods are causing many small businesses to hesitate in their plans to avail new job opportunities to our national work force. This disruption in car and aircraft usage is being felt across our nation and these factors act to weaken the growth of our national economy.
The rate of fuel consumption used by a standard car, truck or aircraft can be alleviated by introducing unique air injection approaches to vehicle afterbody designs.
In particular, a typical prior art notch-backed car suffers high base drag contributions in two local regions; namely, its separated afterbody base flow regions (see
Methods of and devices for providing naturally driven (unpowered) routing of air bleed flow from higher pressure air sources (the undercarriage region of a car) into lower base pressure regions of separated base flow (thereby reducing its base drag) are conceived herein.
FIG. 1—High base drag on a typical road vehicle due to afterbody flow separation. Unsteady vortex shedding formations are shown.
FIG. 2—Base drag reduction for road vehicles can be achieved due to injection of air bleed that is distributed into separated afterbody flow regions.
FIG. 3—A typical side-mounted rearview mirror for a car is depicted.
FIG. 4—Base drag reduction technique using air bleed injection on a side-mounted flow through rearview mirror of a car is shown.
FIG. 5—Sketch of a new design concept for achieving base drag reduction of a road vehicle's rearview mirror is shown.
FIG. 6—Sketch of a C-130 cargo delivery aircraft is shown with its typical load of heavy tanks, trucks and manned paratroops that can be launched in flight by ‘airdrop’ techniques from the open rear door of the aircraft.
FIG. 7—With its rear door open during the ‘airdrop’ launching of heavy equipment and men from the C-130 aircraft, its separated base flow causes very high base drag to the aircraft as well as invokes precarious launching conditions due to its shedding of unsteady vortices. By allowing airflow entry through the upper aft fuselage region of the aircraft, air bleed is feed into the lower pressure of its base flow region. Accordingly, this influx of air reduces the vehicle's base drag and alleviates its vortex shedding.
FIG. 8—With its rear door closed during normal flight of the C-130 aircraft, boundary layer flow along the lower rear door separates due to its too large turning angle and this condition invokes high base drag to the vehicle. By fitting the aircraft with a pump-driven inflatable airbag that is shaped as a slender afterbody tail cone, the lower boundary layer flow remains attached and the vehicle's base drag is largely reduced.
The use of self-injection techniques that deliver low energy air bleed into the separated base flow of a traveling car's blunt afterbody (
This self-injection air bleed technique raises the base pressure of these regions and thereby achieves significant base drag reduction to a traveling car's blunt afterbody (
A flow through method (see
The air bleed into the mirror's base region is naturally driven from the external stream (
This flow through technique can effect significant base drag reduction to the blunt side view mirror's housing on a traveling road vehicle. This channeling approach provides self-injection, low energy air bleed that penetrates through perforated slits of mirrored glass (retaining the display of rearview scenes to the driver; see
Military and Rescue Missions Performed by Cargo ‘Airdrop’ Aircraft
In times of war as well as good will, the C-130 aircraft (see
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