Sunpower now makes some very nice flexible panels. You could get an airifoil effect from them, and they are very efficient.
However, I don't think it is a useful exercise trying to get lift or ground effect from solar panels. You don't want lift as it would be less stable and a poorer road handling machine, you will never go fast enough to get a ground effect that matters. On Sun, Mar 8, 2015 at 7:52 PM, EVDL Administrator via EV <[email protected] > wrote: > On 8 Mar 2015 at 16:21, Lawrence Rhodes via EV wrote: > > > I have questions about how a solar panel acts like a wing on the top of > > a vehicle. Can it be made into an advantage. > > PV panels are flat, aren't they? I don't see why one would act like a wing > unless it were shaped like a wing. > > That said, I'm sure it would affect the vehicle's aerodynamics somehow. I > just don't know how, or what you'd do to try to compensate for it. > > If it could be made to act as a wing, I don't see how that would help you, > unless you plan to fly. If you get lift from it, you risk losing control; > if the opposite, you increase effective mass and thus rolling friction. > Maybe I'm missing something. > > Assuming you're more of an engineer than I am (calculus was a LONG time ago > for me, and I haven't really used it in over 40 years), you might try > contacting some of the students who've worked on entries in Australia's > World Solar Challenge. Maybe they'd let you look at some of their > engineering work. > > I haven't followed it much in recent years. However, I seem to recall that > in the 1990s most of them at least partly furled their PV panels to reduce > aero disruption when under way, expecting to capture most of their photons > when stopped. But I might be remembering that incorrectly. > > David Roden - Akron, Ohio, USA > EVDL Administrator > > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = > EVDL Information: http://www.evdl.org/help/ > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = > Note: mail sent to "evpost" and "etpost" addresses will not > reach me. To send a private message, please obtain my > email address from the webpage http://www.evdl.org/help/ . > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = > > > _______________________________________________ > UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub > http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org > For EV drag racing discussion, please use NEDRA ( > http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA) > > -- To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk. Thomas A. Edison <http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/t/thomasaed125362.html> A public-opinion poll is no substitute for thought. *Warren Buffet* Michael E. Ross (919) 585-6737 Land (919) 576-0824 <https://www.google.com/voice/b/0?pli=1#phones> Google Phone (919) 631-1451 Cell [email protected] <[email protected]> -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://lists.evdl.org/private.cgi/ev-evdl.org/attachments/20150308/6099364c/attachment.htm> _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org For EV drag racing discussion, please use NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA)
