The most appropriate in solar automobile engineering may be listened on the wind.
At the German-Dutch Wind Tunnels in the Netherlands, an access in to this year's World Solar Challenge is being put to its last tests - and the results are both manifest and audible.
The bi-annual competition is a tiresome race true opposite Australia, casing more than 3,000km between Darwin and Adelaide.
More than 40 teams from 22 countries have practical is to 2011 race in October. The teams are usually authorised to journey between 8am and 5pm, and contingency follow Australian thoroughfare regulations and share the thoroughfare with established cars.
The Nuon Solar Team from the University of Delft has won 4 of the last 5 Challenges, and their ultimate bid - dubbed Nuna 6 - is the lightest yet, weighing in at just 145kg.
But getting the weight down is just segment of the battle, mentioned Pier von Zonneveld, the project's group leader.
"Aerodynamics is a really critical segment of the pattern process," he told BBC News.
"There's a order of ride that states that about 70% of the attrition that the automobile needs to defeat comes from aerodynamics. Of march you tested in breeze tunnels in our pattern phase, but right away we've obviously built the automobile you wish to assessment and see if these measurements are still accurate."
A storm of wind, entirely silent, whips by the tunnel, simulating the conditions of journey at 100km/h.
The automobile is strapped to the tunnel's floor, and high-precision beam portion the how ample lift the automobile is experiencing. But for all the technology finding information from the scales, two low-tech approaches are segment of the tests.
What the group wants to know is either there is "laminar flow" around the automobile - smooth, undeviating sheets of air.
If the correct figure of the car's surfaces and edges aren't perfect, the upsurge may be violent - swirling and chaotic, and formulating a great treat of draw towards that squanders energy.
The group uses a microphone and amplifier to considerably simply attend to the air - laminar upsurge is silent, since violent upsurge creates a noise.
And a badge on the finish of a hang can uncover where the upsurge is violent upsurge is too; as it is brought shut to the car's surfaces, the badge whips around extravagantly where the upsurge is turbulent, and hugs the figure of the automobile where it is laminar.
Mike Hoogstraten, the team's technical executive mentioned that scheming is to race would inhere far more than fine-tuning the car's aerodynamics.
"The pattern is a segment of the treat - you have to make a great car. But once you obtain to Australia there's other segment - strategy," he said.
"To win the race you have to make lots of calculations and predictions. You have to use the appetite as well as possible, by knowing how ample appetite you're going to get, and how ample you're going to give away."
Those calculations even add continue modelling, a major aspect of a race that runs interjection usually to the Sun.
The race's organisers tie the regulations on the cars every year; the entries have turn so elegant that the competition simply needs to be done tougher.
This year, teams will have to use silicon solar cells - the sort ordinarily found on roofs and used to power wiring - rsther than than the higher-efficiency gallium arsenide cells used previously.
The kind of engineering that is being worked out now, for nothing more than the greatness of winning the race, will pay dividends in the growth of solar-powered newcomer cars.
"Our group doesn't think that this kind of automobile is the blurb automobile - you can see by the size it'd be tough to obtain your groceries from a place to another," Mr Hoogstraten said.
"But we're enhancing those technologies and using them and display the world these cars are really great - they can go exceedingly swift with really small energy. It's just an motivation to future technology."
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