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Will Your Next Car Be Covered In Morphing Dimples?
cartechboy writes Golfing and cars, not much in common there. But that's about to change thanks to a new technology from a research lab at MIT called Smorphs. The idea is simple: put a set of dynamic dimples on the exterior of a car to improve its surface aerodynamics and make it slipperier, and therefore faster. Pedro Reis is the mechanical engineering and research spearheading this project. A while ago Mythbusters proved the validity of the dimpled car form in a much more low-tech way. The concept uses a hollow core surrounded by a thick, deformable layer, and a smoother outer skin. When vacuum is applied, the outer layers suck in to form the dimples. The technology is only in its very earliest stages, but we could see this applied to future vehicles in an effort to make them faster and more fuel efficient.
My wife's car just had $10k worth of hail damage repaired via insurance. You're telling me that on her future vehicle we will be expected to pay extra for the "animated hail dimples" option?
It is a lot. Why car industry does not make cars like this?
Your next supercar will be ugly as hitting your father with a sweaty sock, but really efficient because, as we all know, people buy supercars for their efficiency.
but screw the mpg if i'm riding around with a vacuum attached to the outside of my car.
PlanetVulkan.com
As a /. reader, car washing is way down my list of priorities.
From the Simpsons
Car salesman: "These are speed holes, they make the car go faster"
Krusty: "Oh yeah, speed holes"
http://www.mercedescla.org/for...
The concept reminds me of a reverse-Vac-Man, where the dimples go in, instead of out.
It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
Seems like an awfully complicated way to get aerodynamic dimples on a large surface when there's not much of a compelling reason for them not to be there permanently, Which would be orders of magnitude cheaper to do with long-existing technology.
j'ai découvert une démonstration vraiment admirable (de ce théorème général) que cette si
Dimples on a car? Like a golf ball car?
/ The Arrow
"How lovely you are. So lovely in my straightjacket..." - Nny
Just leave the car out in a Hail storm to get Dimples. Then use the bicycle.
Nope. What else would you like to know about my next car purchase?
But they are definitely still lacking in fuel efficiency and even more importantly safety. What really needs to be focused on is a method to stop them dead in their tracks whenever they are in striking distance of slower moving objects such as pedestrians and bicyclists.
Time is what keeps everything from happening all at once.
After so many "Your next car" posts on Slashdot presenting anti-features like MS Windows, brain control or remote disabling systems, finally here's a story with a feature that might actually benefit being added to a car.
Well done.
"Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
So, did Mythbusters beat them to it? ;-)
Good to see the article acknowledges that episode.
--- To save space, would readers please insert their own witty comment -here-
No.
Nor will the following:
Boeing 777x
Airbus 330neo
Bombardier C Series
Tesla Model 3
Any Ferrari
Any Jaguar
Any BMW
Any Mercedes
Dimples on a car it will be teased by all the other vehicles. Think of the counselling it will need :-)
There are tons of complex technologies to reduce drag. Boundary layer suction for example. Drill small holes all along the skin of the aircraft or the car. Create channels below, connect to a pump and suck air. This controls the growth of boundary layer and it could delay the "separation" way beyond what a dimpled surface can. Typically smooth ball flow separates two or three degrees past the poles, and dimpling can delay it by another 10 degrees. Boundary layer suction can delay it way past 45 degrees. NASA experimental aircraft with boundary layer suction showed drag reduction by a factor of 2 or 3, can't remember. Remember the airliner makers are fighting in the third significant digit of the drag coefficient. Do you see any boundary layer sucking aircraft around?
Moral of the story, there are tons and tons of complex technology that can do wonderful things. Most will not get beyond a couple of papers in Journal of Thingamajigger, a tenure track position for a post-doc, and may be, if it is really interesting and really unusual, a 2 inch side bar in Popular Mechanics. (BTW does it still exist? Popular Mechanics, I mean).
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
Great! Now if I have an accident I can claim I was improving your car by making it more aerodynamic.
Damn hailstorm!
Any insufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology.
Why aren't aircraft covered in them? 10% is a big difference in the aviation industry.
Donte Alistair Anderson Roberts - hi son!
Karma: Chameleon
If this car technology comes to fruition, the initial cost will likely place it in the realm of BMW and Mercedes owners for at least the first 5 years. net gains from it may only be realized 25 years down the road, and its ability to reduce carbon emissions or fossil fuel consumption at whatever scale its adopted will be dwarfed in comparisson to easier, more readily available technologies like light-rail, bicycles, and busses.
Im geneally cynical about efficiency in automobiles mostly due to empirical reasons. Americans have far more pervasive culprits in fuel consumption and carbon emissions than just aerodynamics. Excessive speed, where we consistently drive 15 or more miles per hour over the speed limit on highways, needlessly wastes gas and endangers drivers. Long commutes and low fuel economy standards for our most popular vehicles, trucks and the universally-scorned SUV, also hurt our contribution to fighting climate change. small engines like lawnmowers and weed-eaters that have no emissions system, and motorcycles that have had their original exhaust and catalytic converter/oxygen sensors removed are another side of the issue. Our emergency vehicles and construction equipment largely operates with zero emissions control or fuel economy standard. Finally, a general culture of wastefulness contributes to long idles in parking lots and gas stations as we exploit our transportation as a personal entertainment/climate controlled cocoon in which we emerge merely to take advantage of this weeks savings at WalMart.
Good people go to bed earlier.
This is a big WTF? ... a TV show known for its precise experimental process?
The principles involved are well known and explored unto death to the point that they are high school science project fodder.
The inspiration/precedent for this particular exercise came from
More effective and practical methods of implementing the principles have been in existence for a while, see 'boundary layer control'.
Did this become a story because its amazing science and engineering?
Or because it is a slow week for MIT's marketing department?
"Consensus" in science is _always_ a political construct.
I don't drive you insensitive clods
Now the whole car will be covered.
Incidentally, Richard Petty had a vinyl top in '68 and NASCAR outlawed it after everyone else complained of the extra advantage.
Because it hadn't been researched, yet.
Why not just press dimples into the plastic/fibreglas/metal panels of the car? No expensive technology needed, and "good enough" dimples can just be made part of the parts molds/presses.
On a second topic, I would be investigating this if I owned a racing team because anything that decreases the fuel consumption of my car improves overall race performance. Skipping a single refueling stop is a big deal. Since the teams are already making custom cars, the cost of adding dimples should be negligible compared to the overall cost of the vehicle. Not quite something for nothing, but close.
I mean, what is the advantage of a complex vacuum system and the flexible (ie fail-able) skin?
Just put dimples on the cars. In a single generation, it would go from "looking weird" to normal.
-Styopa
Is the Elio -- 84MPG with no hybrid nonsense!
http://www.eliomotors.com/
If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
Since my next car is likely to be a mid-2000s sedan, probably not.
Dark Reflection
"Will Your Next Car Be Covered In Morphing Dimples?"..."The technology is only in its very earliest stages"
I suggest trying dimpled airplanes. They go much faster and hence they experience much more drag. It's fairly easy to try this out, all you need is a hammer. Start hammering!
If you have the vacuum pump(s) already, why make dimples to form vortices? Just use the pumps to pump air through small holes like an air hockey table. Less aesthetically displeasing with the same effect.
... adding just how much more to the (unaffordable for many) cost of the car, and how is that road maintenance going, or are they still raiding the general fund to prop up the freeways? Heh! Freeways. In the meantime, how is that declining supergiant oilfield infill drilling programme working out? There certainly is no 'age of austerity' as reported by the oil majors, that's for sure. Heh heh. I now return you to your regularly scheduled technocornucopianism. Sleep tight!
morphine dimples
So Mythbusters does it first but MIT will get the patent?
"No, but understanding is not required, only obedience."
Contains a hammer.
Air resistance is negligible at low speeds. The problem with cars is their efficiency at low speeds not high speeds. That is why mpg numbers are far worse for city than highway driving and why electric cars are attractive. The USA and Europe are highly urbanized (and China is rapidly becoming so) therefore the real issue is the mpg in low speed city driving.
Duh - no.