Date:         Tue, 25 May 2004 13:09:59 -0600
Reply-To:     Martin Jagersand <jag@CS.UALBERTA.CA>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Martin Jagersand <jag@CS.UALBERTA.CA>
Subject:      Re: vanagon tech data request for CFD (pretty nerdy)
Comments: To: damoncampbellvw@YAHOO.COM

> Basically, i grabbed my work computer for the long canadian weekend
> and am supposed to be learning a CFD (computational fluid dynamics)
> software, and figured what better thing to analyze than how the wind
> passes over the van and how heat is swept away...

Good idea. It would be especially interesting to in detail investigate
the known bad design of the westy luggage rack and figure out if
say adding just a smoothly curved "lid" could bring the westy air drag
down to that of the regular van.

> Anyway, what i need for now is two things:

>  1) Body dimensions -
> overalls are necessary, but i would also like to include the geometry
> of the radiator, with the duct behind that, and also the
> engine/transmission compartment area.

After June 12 I can probably supply a triangulated model (or a 3D point
cloud) of the van. (I'm in France now and away from the lab). Can your
program read std ascii point data? Or Catia format?

> 2) Relative heat dissipation (best guess) of the engine and radiator.

Around (or more) than 90% of total heat dissipation would be from
the radiator. For total absolute heat dissipation at 100kmh cruise expect
about 80kW for a gas engine and 60kW for a Diesel.

/Martin