Scientists Use Bubbles To Make Cars Go Faster

Scientists use a kind of soap bubble in wind tunnels to make cars more efficient.

Manufacturers are constantly looking for the best way to make their cars functional whilst being aerodynamic.

A big car has room for the passengers but has a lot of drag whereas an aerodynamic design might be extremely efficient but lack room for the golf clubs.

In the old days people would spend hours in the wind tunnels blowing smoke over cars to reduce the aerodynamic coefficient. Now scientists are beginning to use different methods to measure the air flow.

Soap bubbles filled with helium are the next big thing used by engineers at automotive research consultants Mira in Nuneaton, UK.

The helium gives then neutral buoyancy so they will neither rise nor fall in the air, therefore any up or down movement can be attributed to air flow around the car.

"There aren't any tools in use today that can give such insight into what's going on in the fluid around a vehicle," aerodynamics specialist Angus Lock, who is leading development of the system, told New Scientist magazine.

Originally smoke would show you how they air reacted to different shapes of vehicle but it provided no information why. Now you can track the movement and speed of the bubbles providing much better analysis.

Cars, such as, the Vauxhall Insignia have spent hundreds of hours in the wind tunnel giving it the lowest drag coefficient in its class and is part of the reason behind its shape.

This new technology could lead manufacturers to find new ways of reducing drag and therefore dictate the future shape of our vehicles.

E. Dooley

07/09/2009