How Golf May Revolutionize The Auto Industry
February 17th, 2010
If you golf, and even if you’ve just held a golf ball you must have wondered at some point why golf balls have all those little dimples on them. Without getting into the science of it all (I’d be ripping it all off Wikipedia anyway), the dimples reduce turbulence which reduces drag allowing the ball to fly both further and higher.
So if adding dimples on the golf ball allowed it to slip through the air easily, why hasn’t this design been applied to planes? missiles? or automobiles? Well, thats exactly what a company by the name of SkinzWraps is attempting to do. In their media images, they have wrapped a Scion xB with their dimpled car skin and claim that it can improve the mpg numbers.
Their claims seem a little bit far fetched though, with numbers as high as 18-20% improvement. What is even more surprising is that this is accomplished by simply applying a wrap to a vehicle. The wrap would have to be pretty thick to create deep enough dimples on a vehicle so I’m skeptical this would work, especially if we’re talking the 18-20% numbers quoted by SkinzWraps. With America trying to reduce its dependence on foreign oil, any technology that claims to save gas is worth a look.
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Just saw this on autoblog as well.
Doesn’t the dimples have to do with the perfect sphere that the golf ball is? I’m really skeptical to say the least.
“the dimples reduce turbulence which reduces drag allowing the ball the fly both further.”
Beautiful butchering of the english language right there.
Anyway, that is definitely BS. I can see 5% maybe…
Thats pretty sweet… if it works. Pre-order? ha ha
I read somewhere that the only reason that a golf ball uses dimples vs other aerodynamic techniques is because its so small, and that turbulant friction (or omsething to that extent) from the air around it makes it wobble and stray from the original path, so the dimples smooth out the airflow around it.. and because its so small, the tradeoff in having greater surface area and the loss of speed is worth having the ball travel more accurately..
And having dimples on a large object like a car is probably a bad idea, and it might smooth the airflow over the car, but increasing the surface area like that would make so much drag, not to mention the moment the car is dirty, the whole point of having the car dimpled is ruined cause the dimples are all filled :P
You’d think that adding the wrap would do nothing more than add WEIGHT. Which spoils virtually all aspects of the ride, from acceleration, deceleration, handling, etc to making it even LESS fuel efficient.
I call BS on this product.
I failed high school physics, so correct me if I am off the mark here, but don’t the dimples work on a golf ball because it is flying through the air and rotating while doing so? The pockets of air created by the dimples help to “lift” the ball, ensuring it travels further than something with a smooth exterior surface.
A car, despite cruising along from point A to point B, remains in a fairly fixed state the entire time while only the wheels are reciprocating. The surface of the car is smooth and is ultimately as aerodynamic as it could be. The car doesn’t need any lift to keep it cruising.
This product is a joke until tested by someone credible.
This is interesting, but could it work??? I am just not to sure if I would lie to drive around in a car that has bumps all over it, that looks like hail damage.
http://www.autoblog.com/2009/10/22/mythbusters-golf-ball-like-dimpling-mpg/
Mythbusters did a show on this and it did increase the MPG.
Check out this youtube link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nufXpDBELdQ
About 2:20 in the segment.
I am a golf instructor in Arizona and I hold a PhD in Aerodynamics and Flight Dynamics and this would not work to extent the company suggests for the following reasons:
The dimples on a golf ball - whether circular or hexagonal - are symmetrically placed to create a thin layer of air around the ball to reduce the drag of the ball. The dimples are not there to “lift” the ball as many people suggest, rather the size (avg. 0.010 inch depth), shape, location, size variations, etc. can all be changed to create increased or decreased drag, spin, lift, etc.
Think about it this way. When a smooth ball is traveling through the air, it is moving in such a way that the air making contact with the front of the ball is creating a high-pressure zone and is forced to move above, below and to both sides of the ball in order for the ball to move forward. Because the ball is moving at such a high speed, a low-pressure zone is created behind the ball as air hasn’t had quite enough time to fill in this area as it normally would. This dissemination of the high-pressure zone at the front of the ball creates a tail or drag on the backside of the ball.
Now, what dimples do are create a thin turbulent boundary layer of air (a.k.a. a thin layer of air) which reduces the contrast of high-pressure and low-pressure zones between the front and rear of the ball. While the dimples do add drag to the ball, they do it in such a way, utilizing the air flow around the ball as it moves, to travel further - approximately 50% further - than a smooth ball.
Now for why this wouldn’t work on a car.
Well first off, cars are designed that the majority (over 95%) of the air making contact with the front of a car is forced to enter through the cars front end (for cooling and “boost” purposes) and over the top of the car. The reason why most of the air is supposed to go above the car is to force the car downward, keeping the tires on the ground. If dimples were to be added over the exterior of the car (assuming they don’t cover the bottom components or belly pan) they would likely create drag on the top of the car, slowing the speed and further pushing the car towards the ground which would: a) substantially increase your MPG rating, and b) create increased friction on your cars tires, causing you to wear through them much faster.
In addition, think about the depth of the dimples on a golf ball (~0.010 inches in depth) as a percentage to the total size of a golf ball (diameter not less that 1.680 inches - According to the R&A, USGA, & RGCA - which is about 0.595% of its diameter as a dimple depth. If you were to proportionally add dimples to a car they would necessarily need to be approximately 0.3 inches per dimple.
Considering to calculate the total drag on a car per square foot is calculated by multiplying the surface area by the vehicle drag coefficient (which is 0.35 for the average compact sedan), adding the dimples would increase the surface area by approx 20%, resulting in a much stronger drag on the car, which would worsen the MPG.
yes, I am agree with D911, a golf ball uses dimples vs other aerodynamic techniques is because its so small, and that turbulant friction