This is one of the car accessories that hard to be forgotten by the car fans. From F1 cars to passenger cars, the usage of car spoiler is very popular. For those who had installed the spoiler on your car, do you know what is the purpose of the car spoiler? Or do you install the spoiler just want to make your car look better and follow the trend? So, I will reveal the function of the car spoiler and can be the reference for those who interested to install spoiler on your car.
For high performance car, the usage of spoiler is essential especially when the car going fast. The car must stick to the road when going fast to make sure the car do not fly or lose grip with the road. To increase the grip between the car and the road, basically the increasing of the weight of the car is needed. But for high performance car, the increasing of the weight will cause the car going slower. Also, increasing of weight means more inertia to overcome and cause the turning performance for the car poor. So, the spoiler was designed to solve this problem.
Spoiler is used to spoil the unfavorable air movement across a vehicle in motion. It will disrupt or diffuse the airflow passing over and around a moving vehicle as it passes around the spoiler. The increasing of the amount of turbulence flowing over the shape will spoil the laminar flow and providing a cushion for the laminar boundary layer.
When the car going at high speed, the air flowing across the roof tumbles over this edge and cause air flow separation. The flow of air becomes turbulent and a low pressure zone is created that will increase the drag and instability. Drag is the force on the car in opposite direction of the motion of the car that will slower the car. With the spoiler, the air will flow longer and gentler slope from the roof to the spoiler that will help delay the flow separation. This decreases drag, increases fuel economy and helps keep the rear window clean.
Got an idea on how the spoiler works? Check my source:
1. http://www.physlink.com/education/askexperts/ae496.cfm
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spoiler_(automotive)
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