Deformable material reduces drag car

Posted on 26-07-2014 at 14:23 by MrBrown – 20 Comments”

It is still science fiction, but we are working on a material that on command I can get. That would be applied to the exterior of a car is the air resistance can greatly reduce.

Have you ever wondered why there are dimples in a golfballetje? That is because the air resistance reduces. The wells ensure that there is a lot of small vortexes are formed which together form a kind of envelope shapes to get the ball back, allowing the other air out more easily along slips.

Exactly the same principle wants an American team of researchers are now going to apply to cars, planes and buildings. There is only one problem. The pits have only at lower speeds have a positive effect. For a golfballetje not relevant, only for supercars. Therefore, we are working on material that can switch between a pit structure at low speed and a smooth surface when you get harder to drive. The new material is called smorph, an abbreviation of smart morphable surface.

Compare it to raisins that dry in the sun. When the core shrinks, it will form wrinkles on the outside. With the various polymers in which the researchers participated in the testing, this is also done. Only to arise, in this case pitting. When air is pumped, the surface is smooth again. The tricky thing is to make this process so under control that it can be applied to the outside of a car, but it sure is an interesting technique that the future supercar is faster and more economical. I let the hail damage on my roof yet, but just sitting…

How it works? Check it in this video autojunk.nl .