I read papers all day today. Woke up around 7am, got in to work at 8:30am and started reading…
Finally 4pm rolled by and I was about to leave when I was suddenly graced with an audience from the pope himself (ie, my supervisor rolled by and tried to do something actually constructive with me). We finally started talking about what I’m going to be doing this summer.
Now, judging by the above, it sounds like I’m sort of unenthused by work. It’s true that I’m annoyed because I feel pretty fucking bored at work and like I’m wasting everyone’s time, while my own time is also being wasted. I still don’t have internet access at work, key-card access to my building or a phone. These are all trivial things to get, and stuff my boss promised me, if only he would actually make the effort to get them. BUT! We finally made some progress, and I think the stuff I’m going to start working on is actually going to be pretty interesting.
<Technical>
Apparently the unsteady state aerodynamics of the underbody of a motor-vehicle is something that hasn’t been very well researched. The readings/data that my boss and his previous intern took last year (of the underbody of a car) is something that has, apparently, never been done before. It seems that my b really wants to publish a paper based on this data. It’s going to be my job to crunch the numbers, do the analysis and come up with an interpretation of what’s going on. So what exactly is the data about? The whole project is an investigation into how well wind-tunnel simulations (of specifically underbody-of-the-car aerodynamics) holds up against real world results, ie when you actually drive the car around on the road.
The two situations are different for a number of important reasons like boundary layer effects, blocking, scaling, turbulence simulation (or lack thereof), rolling road simulation (or lack thereof) and so on. The reason that wind-tunnel testing is still used in the development process of aerodynamic vehicles, even though these differences/problems are known to designers, is because wind-tunnels allow for easily reproducible tests to be made and they usually generate a good approximation of real world conditions.
We’re trying to figure out if underbody testing in the wind tunnel does in fact provide a good approximation of the real world. This has never been done before because most motor vehicle aerodynamicists have been focused on the other parts of the vehicle such as the main body that up to now have had the most potential for improvement (in terms of reducing drag, which is always the goal).
Thus for the aerodynamic research community, if we manage to get a paper out the door, it should be pretty useful stuff!
</Technical>
