Efforts are still in full swing to reduce fuel consumption of vehicles in just about any way possible – and now a team of researchers has designed a new rear spoiler for vehicles such as minivans and SUVs that can reduce drag and lift significantly.
A paper published in the International Journal of Vehicle Design, reveals that the aerodynamic drag and lift on a minivan moving at 67mph is reduced by five per cent and more than 100 per cent respectively thanks to the new spoiler.
It is estimated that around 65 per cent of the power required to travel on a motorway at 70mph is consumed by aerodynamic drag and so these reductions could vastly improve a car’s economy rating.
So how does it work?
Well, conventional spoilers are much like an inverted plane wing and work by increasing the downward force on the back of the vehicle while improving the flow of air across the bluff rear. However, the new spoiler more closely resembles a wave than a wing.
As a result the rear spoiler is able to act as a diffuser when attached to the roof end of a vehicle so pressure on the back of a vehicle with a spoiler is greater than one without it. It is designed in such a way that drag on the spoiler itself is much smaller than the total drag and the lift on the spoiler is in the direction of the ground.
The rear spoiler can be applied to minivans, SUVs and buses.
