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Laminar airflow: smooth
Turbulent airflow: imagine the rapids in a river
They're called vortex generators, and they induce turbulent airflow. Basically, without some serious engineering, laminar airflow can only cling to surfaces when the angle changes are ~15 degrees or less. Any more than that and you get flow separation, which isn't good from an aero standpoint. However, turbulent airflow can cling to angle changes much greater than 15 degrees, so by inducing turbulent airflow before a big angle change, you can keep the airflow attached to the car. Right now, all they really do is help clear my rear window when it rains, but they'll be able to provide "clean" air to a rear spoiler when I get one. Of course, I'm kind of going to go all-out with aero on the stang (front splitter, full belly pan, rear diffuser, tunnel-tested spoiler, etc), so it just kind of fits that I have them.
Turbulent airflow: imagine the rapids in a river
They're called vortex generators, and they induce turbulent airflow. Basically, without some serious engineering, laminar airflow can only cling to surfaces when the angle changes are ~15 degrees or less. Any more than that and you get flow separation, which isn't good from an aero standpoint. However, turbulent airflow can cling to angle changes much greater than 15 degrees, so by inducing turbulent airflow before a big angle change, you can keep the airflow attached to the car. Right now, all they really do is help clear my rear window when it rains, but they'll be able to provide "clean" air to a rear spoiler when I get one. Of course, I'm kind of going to go all-out with aero on the stang (front splitter, full belly pan, rear diffuser, tunnel-tested spoiler, etc), so it just kind of fits that I have them.
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