so this maybe is an old trick or something BUT...

what do you all think about putting a honeycomb in the mouth of the car to keep air flowing INTO the IC/radiator?

I envison a 3-4" long (thick?) layer with 3/4-1.5" cells mounted against the IC in the front of the car.

Also perhaps a thinner version between the IC and radiator (touching both) to keep the flow from escaping out the sides/top/bottom.



Now the real question... where do you find this stuff? I bet you could get it from hexcel or something.... I think McMaster sells aluminum version but I'd rather have a plastic for resilience.


Gimme about 6 square feet to play with. I bet it helps TONS.

Matt

 

I bet it would help the flow compared to nothing but if your intercooler and radiator are inline with each other just form some ducting around it from the mouth of bumber. I see it work well for Vmounts so it should help?

 

bell engineering makes a plate to cover the top of the radiator and the frame so that air doesn't pass through the ic then rise to the hood instead of going through the radiator.

 

well even with the shrouds around the side, you get flow perpendicular to the plane of the rad/ic. there's not much room for flow anywhere but through the tube with the honeycomb.

 

Would the shape of the cells matter? could you use cylinders instead or a hex shape?

Reminds me of the mythbusters using drinking straws at the front of a mini wind tunnel they created.

 

you sugesting to glue a buch of plastic tubes and mounting that to the front? lol it could be a way to try it cheap...

 

I suggest nothing, just drawing a parallel. And maybe if the theory was the same, maybe using tubing would be cheaper and easier than something else exotic.

 

I'm sure it'd be easier and cheaper... but i'm idealizing. I mean you'd have little between-circle segments that might not flow so well...

so why not hex....

 

Thats true. I had not thought of that. I bet it would cut down on the turbulance inbetween the two. (My setup is AC/IC/RAD sandwiched, but there's a little space)

Yes, hex much better. They actually fit together.

Personally, I like the idea in the nose of the car. Directed airflow.

 

Um im not totally sure I understand what you are trying to do here. Are you saying that you would have a shroud in front with tubes coming off of that shroud directed to the intercooler? If so, why not just make a shroud around the whole thing?

 

a big shround is an improvement over no shroud but this thing is an improvement over that (I think--hence my post)

It's AKA an "Air straightener" or "flow straightener"

http://www.fi.edu/flights/first/tunn..._settling.html

directs the turbulent air into and through the cores instead of anywhere else.

 

ah, thats pretty neat.

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/honeycomb-alumin...QQcmdZViewItem

 

A turbulent flow will be more efficient at heat transfer than a laminar flow.

 

I happen to be home this weekend, and asked my dad (lifelong mech. engineer and racer) what he thought of this. To paraphrase, he said that the outlet side is much more important. Remove any restriction from the backside of the radiator (he is speaking generally, but on a miata there's not much to remove) and box up the front side so air cannot escape around it. Any restriction in front of the radiator - even if it's intended to straighten flow - wouldn't be worth the weight or cost. Much more effective to ensure that the backside of the radiator is lower pressure than the front side.

Anyway, that's his opinion. I tend to think he's a pretty smart guy, but I'm biased.

 

turbulent flow is more efficient if you're talking about along a smooth surface where the air can mix and remove heat, but I'm talking about entering the radiator. it will still be turbulent once it gets to the IC/rad fins.

koto, thanks for the dad input--I actually got this idea from my dad a while back. he used to race cars

I'm thinking the obstruction in front of the IC would be virtually zero since the honeycombs are thin wall and large cell. about as restrictive as chicken wire, maybe less.

and yeah, can't do much about the back side. the fans pretty much are going to stay.

 

so keeping both fans running would be the best bet?

 

that's all well and good for temps below say 230F...

 

From what I've been told you will end up losing a significant percentage of flow. Take a look at how chickenwire or a screen door reacts on a windy day, now imagine if the wind was moving at 60+ mph... might as well be a a solid wall. I've been in three hurricanes and a tornado and I've seen chainlink fences blown flat.

 

how does chicken wire in front of a picket fence fare? remember it's in front of a radiator.